News avoidance rises to 4 in 10 people
More people are tuning out the news, which can leave them informed by fragments, clips, headlines, and whatever reaches them by accident.
When the news feels too heavy, many people stop looking. But the world does not stop reaching them. It arrives later as a clip, a screenshot, a joke, or a friend saying, 'Did you see this?'
Across Reuters Institute markets, people who sometimes or often avoid news rose from 29% in 2017 to 40% in 2025.
- people feel worn out by constant conflict and bad news
- low trust makes news feel like stress instead of clarity
- social feeds expose people to headlines even when they try to avoid news
- short clips make it easy to know a little without understanding the full story
Avoiding overload can protect your mood, but it can also make you easier to surprise, scare, or mislead when a claim finally breaks through your feed.
Behind the numbersOpen
Observed values come from Reuters Institute Digital News Report findings. YouGov's summary of the 2024 report gives 29% in 2017, 36% in 2023, and 39% in 2024. The 2025 Reuters Institute executive summary reports 40% saying they sometimes or often avoid the news, the joint highest figure recorded. This is a cross-market survey, not a measure for one country only, and online samples can under-represent some offline populations. Projection is an editorial direction call, not a Reuters Institute forecast.