Mental Health
Mental health is an essential part of people’s lives and society. Poor mental health affects our well-being, our ability to work, and our relationships with friends, family, and community.
Mental health conditions are not uncommon. Hundreds of millions suffer from them yearly, and many more do over their lifetimes. It’s estimated that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men will experience major depression in their lives. Other conditions, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are less common but still have a large impact on people’s lives.
Mental illnesses are treatable, and the impact they have can be reduced. Despite this, treatment is often lacking or poor quality, and many feel uncomfortable sharing their symptoms with healthcare professionals or people they know. This also makes it difficult to estimate the actual prevalence of mental illnesses.
To support them, it’s essential to have good data to understand these conditions – how, when, and why they occur, how many people are affected by them, and how they can be treated effectively and safely.
On this page, we show data on the prevalence of mental illnesses and their burden, and people’s attitudes toward mental health.
Interactive Charts on Mental Health
Burden of disease from each category of mental illness
Mental illnesses prevalence
Share who report lifetime anxiety or depression
Age when first had anxiety or depression
Anorexia or bulimia nervosa estimated cases
Anxiety disorders prevalence
Anxiety disorders prevalence vs. GDP per capita
Anxiety disorders prevalence, by age
Anxiety disorders prevalence, males vs. females
Bipolar disorder prevalence
Bipolar disorder prevalence, by age
Bipolar disorder prevalence, males vs. females
Dealt with anxiety or depression by engaging in religious/spiritual activities
Dealt with anxiety or depression by taking prescribed medication
Dealt with anxiety or depression by talking to friends or family
Depressive disorders prevalence
Depressive disorders prevalence vs. GDP per capita
Depressive disorders prevalence, IHME vs. WHO
Depressive disorders prevalence, by age
Depressive disorders prevalence, males vs. females
Depressive symptoms across the US population
Eating disorders prevalence
Eating disorders prevalence, by age
Eating disorders prevalence, males vs. females
Estimated prevalence vs. burden of mental illnesses
Experienced calmness a lot of the day yesterday, by age
Experienced calmness a lot of the day yesterday, by gender
How do people deal with anxiety or depression around the world?Country comparison
How do people deal with anxiety or depression?World
Mental health and substance use disorders death rate by age groupWHO
Mental health units in general hospitals
Mental illness: estimated casesby country
Number of countries with underlying data on the prevalence of mental illnesses
Perceived comfort speaking about anxiety or depression
Perceived discomfort speaking about anxiety or depression
Perceived discomfort speaking about anxiety or depression, by gender
Perceived importance of government funding for research on anxiety or depression
Perceived importance of national funding for anxiety/depression research vs. GDP per capita
Perceived importance of science in treating anxiety or depression
Perceived importance of science in treating anxiety or depression vs. GDP per capita
Psychiatrists per 100,000 people
Schizophrenia prevalence
Schizophrenia prevalence, by age
Schizophrenia prevalence, males vs. females
Share who know friends or family who have been anxious or depressed
Share who know friends or family who have been anxious or depressed, by gender
Share who say it's extremely important for the national government to fund research on anxiety/depression
Share who say local people would feel very comfortable speaking about anxiety or depression vs. share who know friends or family with anxiety or depression
Share who say local people would feel very comfortable speaking about anxiety or depression vs. share who spoke to friends or family when they had anxiety or depression
Stand-alone policy or plan for mental health
Treatment gap for clinical anxiety
Cite this work
Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. When citing this topic page, please also cite the underlying data sources. This topic page can be cited as:
Saloni Dattani, Lucas Rodés-Guirao, Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2023) - “Mental Health” Published online at OurWorldinData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/mental-health' [Online Resource]BibTeX citation
@article{owid-mental-health,
author = {Saloni Dattani and Lucas Rodés-Guirao and Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser},
title = {Mental Health},
journal = {Our World in Data},
year = {2023},
note = {https://ourworldindata.org/mental-health}
}
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