Depression Statistics By Age
- Adolescents aged 12 to 17 years old had the highest rate of major depressive episodes followed by young adults 18 to 25 years old .
- Older adults aged 50 and older had the lowest rate of major depressive episodes .
- 11.5 million adults had a major depressive episode with severe impairment in the past year as of 2018.
- Severe depression among college students rose from 9.4% to 21.1% from 2013 to 2018.
- The rate of moderate to severe depression rose from 23.2% to 41.1% from 2007 to 2018.
What Are The Treatments For Depression
Many helpful treatments for depression are available. Treatment for depression can help reduce symptoms and shorten how long the depression lasts. Treatment can include getting therapy and/or taking medications. Your doctor or a qualified mental health professional can help you determine what treatment is best for you.
- Therapy. Many people benefit from psychotherapyalso called therapy or counseling.7,8 Most therapy lasts for a short time and focuses on thoughts feelings and issues that are happening in your life now. In some cases understanding your past can help but finding ways to address what is happening in your life now can help you cope and prepare you for challenges in the future.With therapy, youll work with your therapist to learn skills to help you cope with life, change behaviors that are causing problems and find solutions. Do not feel shy or embarrassed about talking openly and honestly about your feelings and concerns. This is an important part of getting better.Some common goals of therapy include:
- Getting healthier
- Making sense of past painful events
- Identifying things that worsen your depression
- Having better relationships with family and friends
- Understanding why something bothers you and creating a plan to deal with it
Depression In Young Adults
For every other age group, including the individual ages between 18 and 25, depression rates increased. Depression in young adults is a significant problem in the United States. Adults between ages 18 and 25 have a higher percentage, 13.1 percent, of having a major depressive episode than any other age group. The age that depression affects most is 20. Of Americans who are 20 years old, 15.8 percent experienced a major depressive episode within the year before taking the survey.
Explanations as to why young adults experience depression include:
- Societal pressures
- Stress-related to difficulty finding full-time employment
- Challenges in social life
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If Left Untreated Severe Depression Can Lead To Developing Serious Health Conditions
Many people around the world tend to overlook the disorder. It is worth noting that, if left untreated or undertreated, it can bring about other conditions. That said, according to the World Health Organization, one could look into a number of treatmentsmedication, diet, therapy, exercisingto find the ones that work for them and decrease the risk of developing other conditions.
How Can I Help Someone With Depression
Helping someone with depression might not look a single way. However, things that you can do to help include encouraging treatment, listening with compassion, helping the person suffering with daily tasks, be vigilant for signs of suicidal behavior, and to make sure you are caring for yourself, too.
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The Facts On Social Media And Depression
- Social media has never been more popular, with more than half of the world’s population active on these networking sites that roll out nonstop news, much of it negative.
- A Lancet study publbished in 2018 found that people who check Facebook late at night were more likely to feel depressed and unhappy.
- Another 2018 study found that the less time people spend on social media, the less symptoms of depression and loneliness they felt.
- A 2015 study found that Facebook users who felt envy while on the networking site were more likely to develop symptoms of depression.
There’s No One Reason For Depression
Lots of things influence whether a person gets depressed. Some of it is biology things like our genes, brain chemistry, and hormones. Some is environment, including daylight and seasons, or social and family situations we face. And some is personality, like how we react to life events or the support systems we create for ourselves. All these things can help shape whether or not a person becomes depressed.
Genes
Research shows that depression runs in families. Some people inherit genes that contribute to depression. But not everyone who has a family member with depression will develop it too. And many people with no family history of depression still get depressed. So genes are one factor, but they aren’t the only reason for depression.
Brain Chemistry
Chemicals called neurotransmitters help send messages between nerve cells in the brain. Some neurotransmitters regulate mood. When a person is depressed, these neurotransmitters might be in low supply or not effective enough.
Genes and brain chemistry can be connected: Having the genes for depression may make a person more likely to have the neurotransmitter problem that is part of depression.
Stress, Health, and Hormones
Things like stress, using alcohol or drugs, and hormone changes also affect the brain’s delicate chemistry and mood.
Getting enough sleep and regular exercise often has a positive effect on neurotransmitter activity and mood.
Daylight and Seasons
Life Events
Family and Social Environment
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How Many People Have Depression
It is estimated that every single one of us will be affectedby depression our own or someone else’s at some time in our life .
Depression and anxiety are now considered to be the mostcommon psychological difficulties in the United States , andin the United Kingdom , with children as young asthree exhibiting what are considered to be clear signs of depression .
Every tenth American over the age of 12 now regularly takesprescription medication for depression .
Depression statistics in Australia are comparable to thoseof the United States .
The World Health Organisation has forecast that by 2020 depression will be thesecond largest killer, after heart disease.
These statistics for how many people have depression are all recent statistics.
Why Young People Are At Risk
Prior to social media and the internet, children only had to worry about bullying on school grounds, for the most part. But social media has given bullies a new way to torment their victims.
With just one click, bullies can circulate a video of their target being ridiculed, beaten up, or otherwise humiliated. People can swarm a peers social media page, leaving negative comments or spreading misinformation. In some cases, victims of bullying have committed suicide.
While many schools have anti-bullying policies and rules about online student conduct, it can still be difficult for educators and parents to monitor abusive behavior on social media.
Worsening matters is that the victims of bullies often fear that the bullying will increase if they speak to a parent, teacher, or administrator about their mistreatment. This can make a child feel even more isolated and go without the emotional support they need to handle a toxic and potentially volatile situation.
If you or someone you care about is having suicidal thoughts, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 for support and assistance from a trained counselor. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.
For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database.
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How Common Is Depression
Major depression is one of the most common mental illnesses in the country. An estimated 17.3 million adults in the US reported having at least one major depressive episode over the course of a year, a 2017 report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration shows.
Thats 7.1% of all adults ages 18 and older. Women have a higher prevalence of experiencing a major depressive episode than men .
Depression is especially crushing for the workforce: Its the number one leading cause of disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. The total economic burden of MDD is estimated to be $210.5 billion per year in the United States alonea figure that reflects costs associated with missed days, reduced productivity, treatment for depression, and suicide.
In The Past Year As Many As 11 Million Us Adults Had An Episode That Led To Severe Impairment
Statistics about depression remark that an impressive number of Americans had episodes that resulted in impairments. Generally, a depressive episode is characterized by at least two weeks of low mood and lost interest in almost everything, significantly affecting ones quality of life. Namely, a person can have problems with eating, energy, sleep, concentration, or self-worth.
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Who Is At High Risk For Depression
Those most at risk for developing depression include women, the elderly, those with a personal or family history of depression, chronic stressors, those with other concurrent mental and physical health conditions, low socioeconomic status, and those taking medications that may cause depression, like birth control or some anxiety medications.
Depression By Education Level & Employment Status
The statistics presented in the entry above focus on aggregate estimates of prevalence across total populations. In the chart we present data on depression prevalence across a number of OECD countries, disaggregated by education level and employment status.44 This data is based on self-reported prevalence of depression as requested by surveys. There are multiple reasons why this data may differ from IHME statistics presented above: it is based only on adults aged 25-64 years old, and focuses on self-reported depression only. The lack of differentiation in these surveys between mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety disorders, and bipolar disorder mean that self-reported depression data may include individuals with these other disorders.
Categories in the chart have been coloured based on education level, with further categorisation based on whether groups are employed, actively seeking employment, and the total of employed, active and unemployed. Across most countries we tend to see the lowest prevalence in depression amongst those with tertiary education and highest prevalence in those who did not reach upper secondary education.
It is also notable that the large differences in education level close or disappear when we look only at the sub-group of those employed. Overall, the prevalence of depression appears to be lower in individuals in employment relative to those actively seeking employment, or the total population which also includes the unemployed.
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Depression Statistics Everyone Should Know
Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Depression affects people from all walks of life, no matter their background. It can affect people of all ages as well. Unfortunately, theres still a stigma that surrounds mental health issues, and some people view disorders like depression as a weakness. But, similar to the way anyone can develop certain physical health issues, mental health issues arent always preventable.
Understanding the latest depression statistics could increase awareness about mental health, and recognizing how widespread it is could also help reduce the stigmawhich might encourage more people to seek treatment.
Government Of Canada’s Role
The Government of Canada works to help Canadians maintain and improve their mental health, including coping with depression. Within its jurisdiction, the Government of Canada works to:
- Support research and its dissemination
- Strengthen the capacity of the primary health care, home care and acute care sectors to effectively deliver mental health programs and services
- Raise awareness through social marketing campaigns
- Conduct surveillance on mental health trends in the population.
In 2007, the federal government provided funding to establish and support the Mental Health Commission of Canada to lead the development of a national mental health strategy, create a knowledge exchange centre and reduce the stigma about mental illness.
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Life Satisfaction And Mental Health
Is the prevalence of mental health disorders reflected in self-reported life satisfaction or happiness? Overall, evidence suggests that there is a negative correlation between prevalence of particular mental health disorders and self-reported life satisfaction. This suggests that life satisfaction and happiness tends to be lower in individuals experiencing particular mental health disorders.
We discuss the link and evidence for this relationship in our entry on Happiness and Life Satisfaction.
They Might Frequently Turn Down Activities They Used To Love Or Would Otherwise Enjoy
Unless other explanations could equally be possible, an uncharacteristic lack of interest in activities over an extended period of time could be a sign that someone has depression. As mentioned above, depression is just as physically draining as it is mentally draining, which makes enjoying all the things you usually do difficult.
Previously-loved activities can even lose their appeal in general, because depression also commonly makes it difficult to enjoy or feel fulfilled by much at all. If you have no other way of explaining their decreasing interest, it could be a symptom of clinical depression.
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Depression Rates Tripled And Symptoms Intensified During First Year Of Covid
People with lower incomes, and who experienced multiple COVID-related stressors, were more likely to feel the toll of the pandemic as the socioeconomic inequities in mental health continue to widen.
Depression among US adults persistedand worsenedthroughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study by the School of Public Health.
Published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health Americas, the first-of-its-kind study found that 32.8 percent of US adults experienced elevated depressive symptoms in 2021, compared to 27.8 percent of adults in the early months of the pandemic in 2020, and 8.5 percent before the pandemic.
The most significant predictors of depressive symptoms during the pandemic were low household income, not being married, and the experience of multiple pandemic-related stressors. The findings underscore the inextricable link between the pandemic and its short and long-term impact on population mental health.
The sustained high prevalence of depression does not follow patterns after previous traumatic events such as Hurricane Ike and the Ebola outbreak, says study senior author Sandro Galea, dean and Robert A. Knox Professor. Typically, we would expect depression to peak following the traumatic event and then lower over time. Instead, we found that 12 months into the pandemic, levels of depression remained high.
Who Is Affected By Depression
- Major depressive disorder affects approximately 17.3 million American adults, or about 7.1% of the U.S. population age 18 and older, in a given year.
- Major depressive disorder is more prevalent in women than in men. : 3095-105)
- 1.9 million children, 3 17, have diagnosed depression.
- Adults with a depressive disorder or symptoms have a 64 percent greater risk of developing coronary artery disease.
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Data Availability On Mental Health
The majority of data presented in this entry is based on estimates from the IHMEs Global Burden of Disease . This is currently one of the only sources which produces global level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of mental health and substance use disorders.
Nonetheless, the GBD acknowledges the clear data gaps which exist on mental health prevalence across the world. Despite being the 5th largest disease burden at a global level , detailed data is often lacking. This is particularly true of lower-income countries. The Global Burden of Disease note that the range of epidemiological studies they draw upon for global and national estimates are unequally distributed across disorders, age groups, countries and epidemiological parameters.46 Using these studies to provide full coverage of these disorders is challenging.
To overcome these methodological challenges the authors note:
% Of Cancer Patients Experience Depression
According to depression statistics, worldwide, the disorder accompanies quite a number of medical conditions. The National Institute of Mental Health reveals that 25% of cancer patients, 10%27% of all post-stroke patients, and 33% of heart attack survivors experience depression. People living with chronic pain are also likely to be depressed.
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Schizophrenia And Other Psychoses
Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder, affecting 20 million people worldwide1. Psychoses, including schizophrenia, are characterized by distortions in thinking, perception, emotions, language, sense of self and behaviour. Common psychotic experiences include hallucinations and delusions . The disorder can make it difficult for people affected to work or study normally.
Stigma and discrimination can result in a lack of access to health and social services. Furthermore, people with psychosis are at high risk of exposure to human rights violations, such as long-term confinement in institutions.
Schizophrenia typically begins in late adolescence or early adulthood. Treatment with medicines and psychosocial support is effective. With appropriate treatment and social support, affected people can lead a productive life and be integrated in society. Facilitation of assisted living, supported housing and supported employment can act as a base from which people with severe mental disorders, including schizophrenia, can achieve numerous recovery goals as they often face difficulty in obtaining or retaining a place to live and normal employment.
Lockdown Depression Became The New Normal
Not only did the global pandemic have a massive impact on the worlds economy, but it also had a big effect on peoples mental health. While stress, lockdowns, social distancing, and uncertainty of the future can be the main trigger for developing some type of depression for the first time, at the same time, the aforementioned situations can also worsen the symptoms of depression.
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