Mental Health

15 December 2022 | Thursday | Analysis | By by Saloni Dattani, Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser This article was first published in April 2018. Last updated in August 2021.


In this entry we present the latest estimates of mental health disorder prevalence and the associated disease burden. Most of the estimates presented in this entry are produced by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and reported in their flagship Global Burden of Disease study.
Image Source : Public Domain

Image Source : Public Domain

For 2017 this study estimates that 792 million people lived with a mental health disorder. This is slightly more than one in ten people globally (10.7%)

Mental health disorders are complex and can take many forms. The underlying sources of the data presented in this entry apply specific definitions (which we describe in each relevant section), typically in accordance with WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). This broad definition incorporates many forms, including depression, anxiety, bipolar, eating disorders and schizophrenia.

Mental health disorders remain widely under-reported — in our section on Data Quality & Definitions we discuss the challenges of dealing with this data. This is true across all countries, but particularly at lower incomes where data is scarcer, and there is less attention and treatment for mental health disorders. Figures presented in this entry should be taken as estimates of mental health disorder prevalence — they do not reflect diagnosis data (which would provide the global perspective on diagnosis, rather than actual prevalence differences), but are imputed from a combination of medical, epidemiological data, surveys and meta-regression modelling where raw data is unavailable. Further information can be found here.

It is also important to keep in mind that the uncertainty of the data on mental health is generally high so we should be cautious about interpreting changes over time and differences between countries.

The data shown in this entry demonstrate that mental health disorders are common everywhere. Improving awareness, recognition, support and treatment for this range of disorders should therefore be an essential focus for global health.

The table here provides a summary of the data which follows on mental health and substance use disorders. Clicking on a given disorder will take you to the relevant section for further data and information.

Related entries:

The Global Burden of Disease study aggregates substance use disorders (alcohol and drug use disorders) with mental health disorders in many statistics. In the discussion of the prevalence we have followed this practice, but we will change it in future updates of this research.

We address substance use disorders (alcohol and drug use disorders) in separate entries on Substance Use and Alcohol Consumption.

Disorder Share of global population with disorder (2017)

[difference across countries]

Number of people with the disorder (2017) Share of males:females with disorder (2017)
Any mental health disorder 10.7% 792 million 9.3% males
11.9% females
Depression 3.4%

[2-6%]

264 million 2.7% males

4.1% females

Anxiety disorders 3.8%

[2.5-7%]

284 million 2.8% males

4.7% females

Bipolar disorder 0.6%

[0.3-1.2%]

46 million 0.55% males

0.65% females

Eating disorders
(clinical anorexia & bulimia)
0.2%

[0.1-1%]

16 million 0.13% males

0.29% females

Schizophrenia 0.3%

[0.2-0.4%]

20 million 0.26% males

0.25% females

Any mental or substance use disorder 13%

[11-18%]

970 million 12.6% males

13.3% females

Alcohol use disorder 1.4%

[0.5-5%]

107 million 2% males

0.8% females

Drug use disorder (excluding alcohol) 0.9%

[0.4-3.5%]

71 million 1.3% males

0.6% females

 

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