This project explores global mental health trends from 1990 to 2019 using a dataset that captures the prevalence of various mental health disorders across countries and continents. The dashboard visualizes disorder prevalence, tracks year-over-year trends, and highlights regional differences. Its goal is to provide stakeholders, such as global health researchers or policy analysts, with a high-level overview of how mental health has evolved worldwide. As a data analyst working on this project, the objective was to extract insights into disorder prevalence, global patterns, and changes over time
Insights and recommendations are provided on the following key areas:
- Category 1: Country-Level Prevalence Trends
- Category 2: Disorder-Type Analysis (Anxiety, Depression, etc.)
- Category 3: Year-over-Year Global Trends
- Category 4: Regional Comparisons by Continent
The Excel workbook used to clean, group, and analyze the data can be found here
The interactive Power BI dashboard used to explore and present insights is available here
The main database structure, as seen below, consists of one table: table1, with a total row count of 30,600 records. A description of the table is as follows:
- Countries
- Continent
- Year
- Disorder
- Share of population
Between 1990 and 2019, mental health disorders increased slightly on a global scale, with anxiety and depression being the most common across all regions. Certain countries consistently recorded higher-than-average prevalence, suggesting possible policy, social, or healthcare access gaps.
- Anxiety and depression make up over 70% of reported cases globally.
- Countries like Portugal and New Zealand show persistently high prevalence, suggesting national-level mental health strain.
- The mental health burden has been rising slowly but steadily, with regional disparities pointing to localized causes.
- Portugal consistently had one of the highest prevalence rates (~2.8%), particularly in the early 2000s, suggesting national factors such as stress, economic hardship, or healthcare access might contribute.
- New Zealand remained in the top 5 most affected countries across multiple years, with mental health prevalence averaging over 2.6% — highlighting strong awareness/reporting or potential societal stressors.
- Palestine and Australia also showed elevated levels. In Palestine’s case, conflict-related trauma may be a major contributing factor.
- Many African and South Asian nations show lower prevalence, which may reflect underreporting or cultural stigma, rather than genuinely lower rates.
- Anxiety and depression account for over 70% of all mental health disorders reported, dominating every continent.
- Eating disorders and bipolar disorder remained under 0.3% of the population globally, but showed small regional spikes in North America and Europe.
- Schizophrenia remained relatively constant over time, with <0.5% of prevalence in nearly all regions.
- While Western countries report higher anxiety, depression appears more evenly distributed globally, suggesting environmental vs. diagnostic trends.
- The global mental health burden gradually increased from 1990 to 2019, especially after 2000.
- The early 2000s saw a noticeable cyclical dip and recovery, potentially tied to global economic or geopolitical shifts.
- By 2015–2019, prevalence plateaued around 1.7% globally, suggesting improved intervention or diagnostic stability.
- Some countries, such as the UK and the USA, saw sharper increases during the 2008–2012 window, possibly due to the global financial crisis.
- Europe consistently had the highest average mental health prevalence, particularly driven by Western Europe.
- Asia and Africa had the lowest reported rates, but are also regions with data quality or stigma-driven underreporting issues.
- Oceania (including Australia and New Zealand) stood out with notably high rates, possibly reflecting more transparent reporting systems.
- North America showed steady increases from 1995 onwards, aligning with growing societal focus on mental health.
- Policy Prioritization: Countries with high prevalence should allocate more resources to mental health programs.
- Resource Allocation: Countries like Portugal, New Zealand, and Australia should consider boosting mental health funding and access.
- Targeted Campaigns: Anxiety and depression should be the focus of public health campaigns, given their dominance.
- Better Reporting Infrastructure: Encourage consistent data collection in underrepresented regions like Africa and South Asia.
- Time-Series Monitoring: Continue year-over-year tracking to evaluate the impact of policy and cultural shifts on mental health.
- Further Analysis: Country-level healthcare policies and funding data could be merged to understand root causes.
- Data for some countries and years was incomplete and excluded.
- Disorders were grouped into five categories for clarity.
- Prevalence is self-reported or clinically diagnosed — cultural stigma may impact reporting accuracy.