Mental health statistics UK 2025

1 in 4 adults in England will experience a mental health problem each year, and other recent mental health facts and statistics.

On this page: Prevalence Youth Economic and social impact Treatment Around the world Specific disorders

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Our understanding of mental health, and how it affects our lives, is developing all the time. As part of improving your understanding of how many people struggle with mental health issues and specific disorders, it's a good idea to familiarise yourself with some of the latest research, facts, and statistics on the topic.

To help grow your awareness of mental health, we’ve listed some facts and figures from leading organisations in mental health and public health.

Prevalence and demographics

Approximately 1 in 4 adults in England will experience a mental health problem each year. [1]
Women are more likely than men to experience common mental health problems, with 20.7% of women and 13.2% of men affected. [1]
Young women aged 16 to 24 are at the highest risk, with 28.2% experiencing a common mental disorder. [1]
Black or Black British individuals have higher rates of psychotic disorders (3.2%) compared to White individuals (0.3%). [1]
In 2023, there were 6,069 suicides registered in England and Wales, equating to 11.4 deaths per 100,000 people, the highest rate since 1999. [2]

Youth mental health

In 2020, 1 in 6 children aged 5 to 16 were identified as having a probable mental health problem, a significant increase from 1 in 9 in 2017. [3]
Rates of self-harm among young women have tripled since 1993, with 25.7% of women aged 16 to 24 reporting self-harm in their lifetime. [4]

Economic and social impact

The cost of poor mental health is calculated at £300 billion a year in England. [5]
In 2022, the public sector in the UK lost 18.5 million working days due to mental health-related issues, marking an increase of over two million compared to 2020. [6]
In 2024, 7.8% of adults in the UK reported feeling lonely 'always or often'. [5]

Treatment and support

35% of 18-25 year olds reporting an emotional or mental health difficulty do not seek any formal or informal help. [7]
22% of survey respondents into barriers to treatment said a perceived stigma was the most significant barrier to accessing mental health care [8]
Approximately one in eight adults with a mental health problem are currently receiving treatment. [1]

Around the world

In 2019, 970 million people worldwide were living with a mental disorder, with anxiety and depression being the most common. [9]
As of 2020, 171 out of 194 WHO Member States reported having a stand-alone mental health policy or plan, reflecting a global commitment to addressing mental health issues. [10]

Specific mental health disorders

Depression

Approximately 280 million people in the world have depression [11]
Adults aged 16 to 29 years are most likely to experience some form of depression (28%) in Great Britain. [12]
Adults economically inactive due to long-term sickness have a 59% prevalence of moderate to severe depressive symptoms in Great Britain. [12]

Anxiety

In any given week in England, 6 in 100 people are diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder. [1]
In 2023-24, there were 204,526 new referrals of patients aged 17 or under where the primary cause was anxiety. This is more than double the rate before the pandemic began. [13]
Globally, only about 1 in 4 (27.6%) of people with an anxiety disorder receive any treatment yet only 36.9% of those suffering receive treatment. [14]

Stress

In 2018, a survey by the Mental Health Foundation found that 74% of UK adults felt so stressed at some point that they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope. [15]
In 2021, approximately 875,000 workers in Great Britain reported experiencing work-related stress, depression, or anxiety, making it one of the most common causes of work-related ill health. [16]
A 2024 survey revealed that UK adults aged 18 to 24 reported feeling stressed for an average of 11.3 days per month, compared to the UK average of 10.3 days per month. [17]