GNV News September 6, 2025

On September 2, 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that more than 1 billion people worldwide are living with mental health conditions such as anxiety disorders and depression. Mental health conditions affect every country and community, age group, gender, and income level. The Years Lived with Disability (YLDs) concept used by WHO refers to the number of years lived in less than full health; globally, in 2021, mental health conditions accounted for 1/6 of these YLDs. Among young people aged 15 to 26, depression is the leading contributor to YLDs. Also, globally in 2021, approximately 1 person in 100 died by suicide.

Mental health conditions are not only an individual issue; they also have a significant impact on society. According to the same report, they lead each year to the loss of 1.2 billion productive workdays and an associated economic loss of about 1 trillion US dollars. However, studies of the costs of illness tend to focus on the individual and on productivity, and often overlook the burdens on families and informal caregivers as well as the individual’s loss of social opportunities, raising concerns that the true losses are even greater.

Despite the seriousness of the issue, support remains severely lacking: worldwide, only 9% of people with depression receive minimally adequate treatment. According to the WHO report, although about 82% of countries currently have public health insurance schemes for mental health, only 45% have legal frameworks aligned with global health standards, and since 2017 governments have devoted on average only 2% of their health budgets to mental health. Furthermore, about half of those mental health budgets are spent on running psychiatric hospitals; only 11% of countries are advancing a shift to community-based models of care, and psychosocial interventions in primary care remain at 10%. These challenges tend to be particularly severe in low- and middle-income countries.

Learn more about the relationship between mental health and various social factors → “Mental health: What is the global reality?”

A society that stands with people facing mental health challenges is needed (Photo: Tiger Lily / Pexels [Pexels License])