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UK consumers spend 13 billion hours per year worrying about spiralling personal debt, according to research from The Co-operative Bank.

The average person in the UK will spend approximately two years, or 16,848 hours, of their life stressing about spending and borrowing. This is equivalent to 730 sleepless nights, according to The Co-operative Bank. A total of 3,000 UK adults were surveyed by the bank, with 48% claiming to be concerned or deeply concerned about increasing levels of personal debt. A further 80% of people said they were troubled about their lack of savings.

Northern Irish people were least likely to be concerned about debt and savings (69%), compared to 78% of people in the North West who claimed to be stressed or very stressed about their finances.

In terms of age groups, 18 to 30 year olds are the biggest worry warts, according to The Co-operative Bank they spend an average of 46 hours per month worrying about their finances, while the over 55s spend the lest time, with nine out of 10 dedicating an average of 2.5 hours per week.

Scott McPhail, savings product manager at The Co-operative Bank, said: It (Frankfurt: A0MLX5 - news) is worryingly clear from the research that the vast majority of UK adults are deeply concerned about their finances, with rising levels of debt and inadequate saving provisions responsible for countless sleepless nights nationwide.

At The Co-operative Bank we would like to stress to people that its never too late to regain control of your finances taking full advantage of your tax-free savings allowance before April and investing as little as a pound in a cash ISA is one way that you can help to ease the strain.