2026 research & survey data
Mental Load Statistics 2026
Mental load means the ongoing, often invisible work of anticipating needs, noticing what must happen, planning, remembering, coordinating and monitoring household or caregiving responsibilities. Unlike the physical act of doing a chore, this cognitive and emotional work can continue even when someone else performs the task.
A citation-ready collection of recent mental-load statistics for journalists, publishers, researchers and families. The strongest current data below comes from a July 2026 Canadian Ipsos survey of 1,001 mothers and a September 2026 peer-reviewed PLOS One paper.
92%
of Canadian mothers said they feel responsible for keeping track of most family-related tasks.
Ipsos / GreenShield, Canada, 2026
86%
of Canadian mothers said they feel “always on” when it comes to family responsibilities.
Ipsos / GreenShield, Canada, 2026
75%
said they are primarily responsible for scheduling and planning in their household.
Ipsos / GreenShield, Canada, 2026
74%
said they are primarily responsible for remembering important dates or tasks.
Ipsos / GreenShield, Canada, 2026
68%
said their mental load is higher during back-to-school than at other times of year.
Ipsos / GreenShield, Canada, 2026
65%
reported feeling overwhelmed often or very often.
Ipsos / GreenShield, Canada, 2026
55%
reported experiencing burnout often or very often.
Ipsos / GreenShield, Canada, 2026
1,891
mothers participated in Study 2 of a 2026 PLOS One paper examining mental load and related psychological variables.
Jungmann et al., PLOS One, 2026
Citation-ready summary
What the 2026 Canadian survey found
Ipsos surveyed 1,001 Canadian mothers aged 18–64 with children under 18 in the household from July 2–8, 2026, on behalf of GreenShield. Results were weighted to Census demographics. Ipsos reported a credibility interval of ±3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, for the full sample.
Peer-reviewed research
What the September 2026 PLOS One study adds
Jungmann and colleagues reported two cross-sectional studies. Study 1 included 368 women and found that mothers perceived invisible planning and organizing tasks as more stressful and more unequally distributed than visible tasks. Study 2 included 1,891 mothers. Across the research, higher mental load was associated with more negative affect, anxiety and depressive symptoms. The authors also reported that constantly thinking about tasks and feeling that tasks are never finished were among the most common reasons participants gave for the burden.
These are associations from cross-sectional survey research. They should not be presented as proof that mental load causes anxiety, depression or another clinical condition.
Read the PLOS One paperMethodology and citation notes
Source 1: Ipsos / GreenShield, published August 24, 2026. Online survey conducted July 2–8, 2026, among 1,001 Canadian mothers aged 18–64 living with children under 18, weighted against Census demographics. Ipsos reports a ±3.8-point credibility interval for the full sample. These self-reported percentages are not objective measurements of time or the share of total household tasks.
Source 2: Jungmann, S. M., Garbe Huedo, S. F., Jacobs, K. A. S., & Pothorn, N. K. (2026). Mental load in women and mothers: Causes of distress, personality traits, and psychopathology. PLOS One, 21(9), e0356255. Two cross-sectional online studies (368 women and 1,891 mothers). Associations do not prove cause and effect.
Reviewed October 10, 2026. LevelUpSkillz summarizes independent third-party findings and did not conduct these studies.
Frequently asked questions
What is the mental load in a household?
Mental load is the cognitive and emotional work of noticing, planning, remembering, coordinating and following up on everyday household and care needs, including work that is not visible as a completed chore.
What percentage of Canadian mothers track most family tasks?
In an Ipsos survey for GreenShield released August 24, 2026, 92% of 1,001 Canadian mothers surveyed agreed they feel responsible for keeping track of most family-related tasks. This is a survey response, not a direct measurement of the proportion of tasks completed.
Does mental load cause burnout?
Studies report associations between mental load and distress-related measures, but cross-sectional designs do not establish causation. In the 2026 Ipsos survey, 55% of respondents reported experiencing burnout often or very often.
How should journalists cite these statistics?
Cite Ipsos / GreenShield (August 24, 2026) for the Canadian survey statistics and Jungmann et al. (September 2, 2026; DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0356255) for the peer-reviewed research. Link to original publications and retain the population and methodology.
For journalists, newsletters and publishers
You may cite or link to this page as a secondary summary, but the original Ipsos and PLOS One sources above should remain the primary sources for the underlying figures. For an embeddable reader tool, LevelUpSkillz also provides a free Mental Load Splitter widget.
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