The "German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Adults" (DEGS1) was conducted from 2008 to 2011 and comprised interviews, examinations and tests. The target population was the resident population of Germany aged 18 to 79 years. A total of 8152 persons participated. Chronic stress was assessed to examine its effects on health and mental wellbeing. The Screening Scale of the Trier Inventory for the Assessment of Chronic Stress was used to assess stress burden among participants up to the age of 64 years (N = 5850). High levels of stress are significantly more often reported by women (13.9%) than by men (8.2%). The prevalence of high stress levels decreases with a higher socioeconomic status (SES); it falls from 17.3% with low SES to 7.6% with high SES. High chronic stress levels are particularly common (26.2%) in persons who report low levels of social support. Depressive symptoms, burnout syndrome and sleep disturbances are more common in people who have high levels of chronic stress than in those without high levels of stress. The results confirm the importance of chronic stress as a health risk and underline the public health relevance of chronic stress. An English full-text version of this article is available at SpringerLink as supplemental.