More than one billion people worldwide are living with mental health conditions, according to new data released by the World Health Organization (WHO), underscoring the urgent need for countries to scale up services and investments in mental health.
The findings, published in World Mental Health Today and the 2024 Mental Health Atlas, reveal that anxiety and depression remain the most common disorders globally, driving significant human suffering and economic losses. Mental health conditions are now the second leading cause of long-term disability, with depression and anxiety alone costing the global economy an estimated US$1 trillion annually.
Despite progress in updating policies and integrating mental health into primary care, WHO warns that systemic gaps persist. Median government spending on mental health remains at just 2% of health budgets—unchanged since 2017—while service disparities between high- and low-income countries remain stark.
Suicide continues to claim hundreds of thousands of lives each year, particularly among young people, with current trends falling short of the UN Sustainable Development Goal to reduce global suicide rates by one-third by 2030.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described transforming mental health services as “one of the most pressing public health challenges,” stressing that investing in mental health is an investment in “people, communities, and economies.”
The organization is calling on governments to intensify efforts through equitable financing, rights-based reforms, expansion of community-based care, and strengthened workforce development to meet global mental health targets ahead of the 2025 UN High-Level Meeting on noncommunicable diseases in New York.
