20%
have pulled away from social situations altogether.1
The seats people avoid
Britain's first study of seat anxiety reveals the spaces people stay away from, and the hidden cost of not fitting into a world built for someone else.
What is seat anxiety?
There’s a moment millions of people know well, even if they’ve never named it. The quick scan of a room for the right chair. The pause before booking a flight. The decision to arrive early, or not at all. It rarely gets talked about. For a lot of people, whether they'll fit determines where they go, and whether they go at all.
The Seat Anxiety Index is the first UK study to measure it. Based on a nationally representative survey of 3,000 UK adults, with 1,197 people who are overweight or living with obesity, it captures what happens when bodies and the spaces designed for them no longer match, and what people would do to get that freedom back.
THE SCALE
It starts with avoidance
Based on our survey, half of people with a BMI of 25+ have changed or cancelled plans because of how their size might affect their comfort or confidence in a public space.1 When the world feels built for someone else, the easiest thing to do is stay home.
The things people step back from are the ordinary ones:
41%
avoid the gym
37%
avoid sport
25%
avoid theme parks
24%
avoid social occasions
Nearly one in five have avoided a GP appointment over their size. The one place asking for help should be easiest.1
THE PEOPLE
Who feels it most
42%
of women feel unhappy about their body after uncomfortable seating, versus 23% of men.1
21%
of 18–24s with a BMI 25+ first felt their size affected their confidence before turning 18.1
THE SITUATIONS
Britain’s most dreaded seats
We asked people who are overweight or living with obesity to name the seats they dread most. The results read like a map of modern public life, and one seat stands above the rest.1
Airplane middle seat
34%
Plastic / event seating
22%
Seats with immovable armrests
19%
Bar stools
19%
Airplane window or aisle seat
18%
MOST DREADED SEAT
The airplane middle seat
No armrest to call your own, a stranger on either side, and nowhere to go for hours. More than any other seat in Britain, it’s the one people fear before they’ve even left the house.
34% name it Britain’s worst seat.1
THE COST
The comfort tax
When a space doesn’t fit, people adapt: they arrive early for the right chair, check seat plans in advance, or pay more for room they shouldn’t have to buy. Comfort has become something you budget for.
£154
average spent or considered on upgrades, extra legroom, and space.1
£184
spent or considered by men.¹
£117
spent or considered by women.¹
£1.4 billion a year
Applied across the estimated 26 million UK adults who are overweight or living with obesity, this points to a staggering national “comfort tax” of around £1.4bn annually.¹,⁴
THE EMOTIONAL TOLL
The feeling that lingers after you stand up
For many, the hardest part isn’t the squeeze itself, it’s what it leaves behind. Among those who’ve felt a seat was too small, the most common response is unhappiness with their own body.
34%
felt unhappy about their body
20%
felt embarrassed or self-conscious
20%
felt like “the overweight one”
19%
worry in advance about how they’ll fit
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Expert opinion
“What struck us most is what people say they’ve lost. Booking a flight, choosing a restaurant, going to a friend’s wedding. Things most of us do without a second thought. But for millions, those moments have become something to dread, and over time their world gets smaller because of it. That’s what seat anxiety does.”
Zoe Griffiths, VP of Behavioural Medicine & Registered Dietitian, Numan
SEAT RECLAIMED
What people want back
When we asked what they’d most like to reclaim, no one mentioned anything big. They named the small, everyday freedoms that most of us never think twice about.
29%
want to book a flight without worrying about the seat
26%
want to do what others take for granted, without thinking about it
21%
want to use public transport without anxiety
20%
want to sit anywhere in a restaurant without checking first
20%
want to enjoy a theme park without restrictions
23%
want to pay less simply to sit comfortably
THE SHIFT
What Britain wants to change
The appetite for change is clear, and it isn’t only coming from those directly affected. Across all UK adults, nearly half (48%) think airlines, venues, and restaurants should be upfront about seat sizes before people book, and a similar number (47%) want more spacious seating in public spaces.1
But better-designed chairs are only part of the answer. Four in ten people with a BMI 25+ say they’d feel more comfortable in public seating if they lost weight, and nearly half (48%) say they’re struggling and would welcome support to get on track. A third (36%) simply want to know they aren’t alone.1
Do you have seat anxiety?
Half of people with a BMI of 25+ have changed or avoided plans because of worries about seat sizes.
Here are five questions to find out your seat anxiety score.
Before you go somewhere new, do you think about whether you'll fit the seating?
How often does seating affect where you choose to go?
Have you changed or cancelled plans because of how you'd fit in a seat?
Have you paid, or thought about paying, for more space or comfort?
After a seat has felt too small, what tends to stay with you?
ONE SEAT BACK
Karen, 60
Reclaiming her seat
At her heaviest, Karen Smallwood dreaded flying. Terrified of taking up too much space, she once spent an entire flight sitting at an awkward angle rather than risk encroaching on the passenger beside her, and left the plane in real pain.
Tightly packed seating at events worried her too. After finding support from Numan's programme, that fear has lifted.
"I just feel like a different person. Mentally, physically, emotionally, everything has changed. I've got my life back."
References
1. Seat Anxiety Index (SAI), Numan, 2026. Nationally representative survey of 3,000 UK adults conducted by Censuswide, 16–18 June 2026, with detailed analysis of 1,197 respondents with a BMI of 25+. Censuswide is a member of the Market Research Society and the British Polling Council, and a signatory of the Global Data Quality Pledge. All percentages, the average £154 spend and the £1.4bn comfort-tax estimate derive from this study. numan.com
2. Long-term increase in UK adult waist circumference and overweight/obesity since 1993: Health Survey for England, NHS England Digital. digital.nhs.uk — Health Survey for England
3. Reduction in economy airline seat dimensions (seat width down from roughly 18 to 16 inches since the 1990s): US FAA seat-size rulemaking and aviation industry trend data; see FlyersRights, “The Case of the Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat.” flyersrights.org
4. UK adults living with overweight or obesity (basis for the ~26 million population applied to the comfort-tax estimate; 64.5% of adults in England were overweight or living with obesity in 2023–24): NHS England Digital, Health Survey for England, and House of Commons Library obesity statistics. The 26 million figure is Numan’s applied population estimate. commonslibrary.parliament.uk — Obesity statistics
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