Wellcome Trust · Adults Who Have Been Too Anxious or Depressed to Carry On
Experience of anxiety or depression by country
What share of people say they have been too anxious or depressed to carry on with daily life?
Of the 112 countries compared in 2020, Peru had the highest reading, 49.350%, and Taiwan had the lowest reading, 2.934%. In the middle country the figure was 20.053%.
Share
Part ofHealth & Wellbeing
Experience of anxiety or depression · 2020
Context statistic
Highest of 112Peru
49.350%012020 · values only
The highest and the lowest
The three countries with the highest values of 112 compared, the three with the lowest, and the highest on each continent. This statistic has no better end, so no country is shown as leading.
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02Every measured country
Experience of anxiety or depression on a map
Each country is shaded by its value, in five groups holding the same number of countries. Hover a country for its value, or select it to open its profile. Below the map, each continent’s middle country.
Darker is a higher value. This statistic has no better end, so the shades describe size, not success.
- 2.934–15.003%
- 15.031–18.342%
- 18.549–23.109%
- 23.509–29.957%
- 30.247–49.350%
- No reading in 2020
- Americas
35.317%
the middle country, of 17 measured · 48 members
Peru49.350%
United States21.262%Highest and lowest reading in Americas.
- Africa
21.849%
the middle country, of 24 measured · 55 members
Zambia40.395%
Algeria7.659%Highest and lowest reading in Africa.
- Asia
18.250%
the middle country, of 32 measured · 52 members
Georgia32.573%
Taiwan2.934%Highest and lowest reading in Asia.
- Europe
17.622%
the middle country, of 37 measured · 49 members
Greece33.814%
Montenegro7.461%Highest and lowest reading in Europe.
- Oceania
2 of 21 measured — too few for a middle: Australia, New Zealand.
Australia27.258%
New Zealand17.366%Highest and lowest reading in Oceania.
- Every region
19 sub-regions, highest middle country first
- South America
36.301%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 12 members
Peru49.350%
Uruguay22.862%Highest and lowest reading in South America.
- Eastern Africa
26.953%
the middle country, of 7 measured · 19 members
Zambia40.395%
Uganda11.270%Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Africa.
- Western Asia
25.250%
the middle country, of 10 measured · 19 members
Georgia32.573%
Israel6.229%Highest and lowest reading in Western Asia.
- Southern Asia
20.328%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 9 members
Iran25.960%
Nepal15.064%Highest and lowest reading in Southern Asia.
- Western Africa
18.734%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 16 members
Côte d’Ivoire33.267%
Benin15.003%Highest and lowest reading in Western Africa.
- Eastern Europe
18.653%
the middle country, of 9 measured · 10 members
Bulgaria28.833%
Hungary13.478%Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Europe.
- Northern Europe
18.549%
the middle country, of 9 measured · 13 members
United Kingdom26.439%
Lithuania7.795%Highest and lowest reading in Northern Europe.
- Western Europe
17.838%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 9 members
France26.823%
Austria15.339%Highest and lowest reading in Western Europe.
- Southern Europe
15.210%
the middle country, of 13 measured · 17 members
Greece33.814%Montenegro7.461%Highest and lowest reading in Southern Europe.
- South-eastern Asia
14.578%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 11 members
Vietnam31.155%
Cambodia6.922%Highest and lowest reading in South-eastern Asia.
- Eastern Asia
10.007%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 8 members
Mongolia18.171%Taiwan2.934%Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Asia.
- Australia and New Zealand
2 of 2 measured — too few for a middle: Australia, New Zealand.
Australia27.258%New Zealand17.366%Highest and lowest reading in Australia and New Zealand.
- Caribbean
1 of 24 measured — too few for a middle: Dominican Republic.
Dominican Republic38.434%Highest and lowest reading in Caribbean.
- Central America
4 of 8 measured — too few for a middle: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua.
El Salvador38.135%
Mexico23.651%Highest and lowest reading in Central America.
- Central Asia
3 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan27.363%
Kazakhstan15.052%Highest and lowest reading in Central Asia.
- Middle Africa
3 of 9 measured — too few for a middle: Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of the Congo.
Cameroon36.332%
Gabon24.393%Highest and lowest reading in Middle Africa.
- Northern Africa
4 of 6 measured — too few for a middle: Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia.
Tunisia32.738%Algeria7.659%Highest and lowest reading in Northern Africa.
- Northern America
2 of 4 measured — too few for a middle: Canada, United States.
Canada24.215%United States21.262%Highest and lowest reading in Northern America.
- Southern Africa
2 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Namibia, South Africa.
South Africa18.588%
Namibia8.980%Highest and lowest reading in Southern Africa.
03The whole field at once
The spread
112 countries, one dot each, on one scale — further right is a higher value. Half the countries are above 20.053%; a quarter are above 26.943%, and a quarter below 15.316%. The bar in each row marks that continent’s middle country.
04All 112 ever measured
Every country
In order, highest value first. No rank or position is shown: too many countries share the same value for an order to mean anything. This is what people report about themselves, not a medical diagnosis or a measured rate of illness. Whether people recognise anxiety and depression, and are willing to tell an interviewer about them, differs from country to country, so a low share may mean less distress or more silence. That is why the page treats neither end as better and orders no country. One country in the survey was not asked the question and is left out rather than shown as zero.
Showing 25 of 112 countries
Values for 2020.
05In this edition
Experience of anxiety or depression in records
The extremes of the statistic. A record reached by more than one country names none of them.
Highest reading
49.350%
People aged 15+ who have ever been too anxious or depressed to continue their usual activities for two weeks or more (%)
Lowest reading
2.934%
People aged 15+ who have ever been too anxious or depressed to continue their usual activities for two weeks or more (%)
06The measure
About experience of anxiety or depression
This is the share of adults who say they have, at some point in their lives, been so anxious or depressed that they could not carry on their usual daily activities for two weeks or longer. It comes from the mental-health module of the Wellcome Global Monitor 2020, a survey of about a thousand people in each country carried out by Gallup for the Wellcome Trust.
What the number is: People aged 15+ who have ever been too anxious or depressed to continue their usual activities for two weeks or more (%).
07Where it fits
Connections
Its part in the Country Index, the statistics whose values line up most closely with it across countries, and others on the same subject.
In the Country Index
Context, with no vote
This statistic is published in full under Health & Wellbeing, but does not help decide any Country Index standing.
Moves with
Where experience of anxiety or depression is higher, these tend to be higher too.
- Firms Identifying Electricity as a Major ConstraintWorld Bank Group · 108 countries in commonρ 0.42
Moves against
Where experience of anxiety or depression is higher, these tend to be lower.
No statistic lines up this closely.
Rank correlation (ρ, from −1 to 1) across countries, on each statistic’s newest edition, out of 318 statistics sharing at least 80 countries with this one. Two statistics that move together do not cause each other.
08Keep reading
Explore further
The subject
The data, edition by edition
More from Wellcome Trust
09Questions
Experience of anxiety or depression: questions and answers
Which country has the highest experience of anxiety or depression?
Peru, at 49.350%, among the 112 countries compared in 2020.
Which country has the lowest experience of anxiety or depression?
Taiwan, at 2.934%, among the 112 countries compared in 2020.
How many countries does the Adults Who Have Been Too Anxious or Depressed to Carry On cover?
112 in 2020.
What is the world average experience of anxiety or depression?
This site does not calculate a world average, which would depend on how countries are weighted. In the middle country of the 112 compared in 2020, the figure was 20.053%.
Is this Wellcome Trust’s own ranking?
No ranking is shown. Wellcome Trust publishes values only, and too many countries share the same value for an ordering to mean anything, so none is derived.
How often is the Adults Who Have Been Too Anxious or Depressed to Carry On published?
This site holds one edition, describing 2020.
Where does the data come from, and can I download it?
From Wellcome Trust, under CC BY 4.0. From Wellcome's own crosstab workbook for the 2020 mental-health module: the weighted share answering yes, with people who did not know or refused to answer included in the base. Every edition is on this site’s Datasets pages as a full table, and downloads as a CSV file with every value unrounded.
10Method
Sources, method and citation
Source
Adults Who Have Been Too Anxious or Depressed to Carry On — Wellcome Trust
From Wellcome's own crosstab workbook for the 2020 mental-health module: the weighted share answering yes, with people who did not know or refused to answer included in the base.
Newest edition
Report year 2020Data year 2020
Cite the source as: Wellcome Trust. Wellcome Global Monitor 2020: Mental Health. London: Wellcome, 2021.
Licence: CC BY 4.0, checked 2026-10-03.
How this page reads the numbers
- No rank or position is shown: Wellcome Trust publishes values only, and too many countries share the same value for an ordering to mean anything.
- This statistic has no better end, so the page describes higher and lower values and never calls a country a leader.
- A country is named at an end only when it holds that value alone. Where several share it, the page says how many and names none first.
- Values are stored exactly as published and trimmed only for display. “The middle country” is the median of the countries measured, not a world average.
The file itself, column by column — where it came from, what each column holds, and every edition as a CSV — is on its dataset page.
Cite this page
Nations Inquiry (2026). Experience of anxiety or depression by country: Adults Who Have Been Too Anxious or Depressed to Carry On, data from Wellcome Trust. https://nationsinquiry.com/statistics/anxiety-depression