Facts and figures

In England, 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem of some kind each year (1)
1 in 6 people report experiencing a common mental health problem (like anxiety and depression) each week
In England, in 2014, 1 in 6 adults had a common mental health problem: about 1 in 5 women and one in eight men
From 2000 to 2014, rates of common mental health problems in England steadily increased in women and remained largely stable in men
Around 40% of people in England who have overlapping problems including homelessness, substance misuse and contact with the criminal justice system in any given year also have a mental health problem (this is sometimes called facing ‘multiple disadvantage’) (2)

1 in 5 people have suicidal thoughts and 1 in 15 people attempt suicide (3)
In 2021, there were 5,583 suicides registered in England and Wales, equivalent to a rate of 10.7 deaths per 100,000 people (4)
- Around three-quarters of registered deaths in 2021 were among men (4,129 deaths; 74.0%)
- Females aged 24 years or under have seen the largest increase in the suicide rate since ONS records began in 1981

1 in 14 people self-harm (5)
A study from the University of Manchester found that almost a quarter of 10-19 year olds who identified as having self-harmed at least once were girls. Experts have seen reports of self harm rising in this demographic (6)

LGBTQ+ people are between 2–3 times more likely than heterosexual people to report having a mental health problem in England (7)
In 2018, around 2% of the UK population identified as LGB (8)
1% of the UK population are thought to identify as a Non-Binary gender (9)

People from Minority Ethnic backgrounds are more likely to be living in poverty than white people (10)
People living in poverty are more likely to develop and experience mental health issues (11)

To date, we have taken more than 1.5 million text conversations with 541,000 UK children, young people and adults in distress
Suicide is the main reason people contact Shout (accounting for 35% of all conversations)
59% of people who text Shout did not have anyone else to talk to
43% of people who text Shout have never asked for help elsewhere
63% of Shout texters are under the age of 25

References