Over a billion people living with mental health conditions – services require urgent scale-up – PAHO/WHO

Geneva, September 2, 2025 (WHO): More than one billion people live with mental health disorders, according to new data published by the World Health Organization (WHO), with conditions such as anxiety and depression that inflict immense human and economic tolls. While many countries have reinforced their mental health policies and programs, greater investment and action worldwide are needed to expand services to protect and promote people’s mental health.

Mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, are highly frequent in all countries and communities, affecting people of all ages and income levels. They represent the second most important reason for long -term disability, contributing to the loss of healthy life. They promote medical care costs for affected people and families while inflicting substantial economic losses at a global scale.

The new findings published in two reports: World mental health today and Mental health atlas 2024 – Highlights some areas of progress while exposing significant gaps to address mental health conditions worldwide. Reports serve as critical tools to inform national strategies and shape the global dialogue before 2025 United Nations High Level Meeting on Non -Communicable Diseases and Mental Health and Welfare Promotionwhich takes place in New York on September 25, 2025.

«Transforming mental health services is one of the most pressing public health challenges,» said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, general director of the OSM. «Investing in mental health means investing in people, communities and economies: an investment that no country can afford to neglect. Every government and each leader have the responsibility of acting urgently and ensuring that mental health care is not treated as a privilege, but as a basic right for all.»

Key data of World mental health today

The report shows that although the prevalence of mental health disorders can vary according to sex, women are disproportionately affected in general. Anxiety and depressive disorders are the most common types of mental health disorders between men and women.

Suicide remains a devastating result, claiming an estimate of 727,000 lives only in 2021. It is a main cause of death among young people in all socio -economic contexts. Despite global efforts, progress in reducing suicide mortality is too low to meet the sustainable development objective of the United Nations (SDGs) of a third reduction in suicide rates by 2030. In the current trajectory, only a 12% reduction will be achieved by that deadline.

The economic impact of mental health disorders is amazing. While medical care costs are substantial, indirect costs – particularly in the loss of productivity – They are much older. Depression and anxiety alone cost the global economy approximately US $ 1 billion every year.

These findings underline the urgent need for a sustained investment, a stronger prioritization and multisectoral collaboration to expand access to mental health care, reduce stigma and address the root causes of mental health conditions.

Key findings of 2024 mental health atlas

Since 2020, countries have advanced significantly to strengthen their mental health policies and planning. Many have updated their policies, adopted rights -based approaches and improved preparation for mental health and psychosocial support during health emergencies.

However, this impulse has not translated into a legal reform. Less countries have adopted or enforced rights -based mental health legislation, and only 45% of countries evaluated laws in full compliance with international human rights standards.

The report reveals a worrying stagnation in investment in mental health. The medium expenditure of the Government in Mental Health remains in only 2% of total health budgets, without changes since 2017. The disparities between countries are marked; While high -income countries spend up to US $ 65 per person on mental health, low -income countries spend only US $ 0.04. The average global number of mental health workers is 13 per 100,000 people, with extreme scarcity in low and medium income countries.

The reform and development of mental health services is slowly progressing. Less than 10% of countries have completely gone to community -based care models, and most countries are still in the early stages of the transition. Hospital care continues to depend largely on psychiatric hospitals, with almost half of admissions that occur involuntarily and more than 20% last more than a year.

The integration of mental health in primary care advances, with 71% of countries that meet at least three of the five WHO criteria. However, data gaps remain; Only 22 countries provided sufficient data to estimate service coverage for psychosis. In low -income countries, less than 10% of affected persons receive attention, compared to more than 50% in nations of income from adults, highlighting an urgent need to expand access and strengthen the provision of services.

Encouragingly, most countries report having functional initiatives for the promotion of mental health, such as early childhood, mental health programs and suicide prevention based on school. More than 80% of countries now offer mental health and psychosocial support as part of emergency responses, compared to 39% in 2020. Ambulatory mental health services and Telesalud are increasingly available, although access remains unequal.

Global called to expand the action on mental health

While there have been some encouraging developments, the latest data show that countries remain far to achieve the objectives established in Who’s Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan.

WHO asks governments and global partners to urgently intensify efforts towards the systemic transformation of mental health systems worldwide. This includes:

• equitable financing of mental health services;
• Legal and policy reform to defend human rights;
• sustained investment in the mental health workforce; and
• Expansion of community -centered care.

Note for editors

He World mental health today The publication is a timely update of the data chapter of the World Mental Health Report 2022: Transformation of mental health for all. As the transformation of mental health throughout the world is necessary, this last launch brings together the most up -to -date global data on the prevalence, burden and economic cost of mental health conditions.

He Mental Health Atlas The survey evaluates the status of mental health services and systems worldwide. This latest edition compiles findings from 144 countries and provides the most complete representation of the world’s response to the challenge of mental illness through the implementation of mental health policies, legislation, financing, human resources, availability and use of data collection services and systems. This latest edition includes new sections on mental health and mental health and psychosocial support and emergency response, which reflect the changing panorama of mental health and associated data gaps or information needs.