Objective Rates of anxiety have increased during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, partially attributable to the experience of COVID-19 related concerns. It remains pivotal to determine the implications of such concerns on the severity of anxiety as they may represent opportune _targets for public health preventative or therapeutic efforts. The current study evaluated COVID-19 related concerns as predictors of anxiety symptom severity. It also assessed the relative risk associated with sub-types of COVID-19 concerns, the role of age, sex, and minority status as potential moderators; and the unique contribution of COVID-19 concerns beyond sociodemographics, perceived stress, and self-reported general mental health. Methods The data source was obtained from the publicly available "Crowdsourcing: Impacts of COVID-19 on Canadians-Your Mental Health survey" conducted by Statistics Canada. Participants were Canadians aged 15 and older living in ten provinces or three territories. Only participants that completed the self-reported sociodemographics, COVID-19 concerns, and general anxiety symptoms measures were included (n = 44549). Multivariate linear regression was used to evaluate continuous reports of anxiety symptoms, and the relative risk of meeting anxiety cut-off levels was determined using chi-square non-parametric testing. Results Within the sample, 29.1% met cut-off levels of anxiety. Levels of coping and security (R² = 0.205, p < 0.001), distal (R² = 0.043, p < 0.001), and proximal concerns (R² = 0.122, p < 0.001) were found to predict the severity of anxiety experiences, which was determined to be robust to statistical control for sociodemographics, perceived stress and self-reported general mental health (ΔR² = 0.0625, p < 0.001). Minority status and sex were significant moderating variables, although the interaction accounted for less than 0.1% of the observed variance. Family stress from confinement, support during and after the crisis and personal health concerns significantly predicted more than a 200% increase in the risk of meeting anxiety cut-off levels. Conclusion The current study represents a novel examination of COVID-19-related concerns as risk factors for the experience of anxiety amongst a sizeable Canadian cohort. Coping and security-related concerns represented robust predictors of anxiety symptom experiences. Participants who experienced concerns relating to their proximal social groups were two times more at risk for meeting cut-off anxiety levels than individuals without such concerns. Longitudinal and evidence synthesis remains essential for identifying therapeutic _targets and developing pandemic-related public health prevention and care.