Last updated: October 2026. Every figure below comes from an official Australian source, chiefly the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), with the survey year stated so you can judge how current it is. Sources and links are at the end.
Roughly one in five Australians experiences a mental health condition in any given year, and more than two in five will experience one in their lifetime. Those two numbers have not moved much in a decade, but almost everything around them has: young people’s distress has risen sharply, more people than ever are using Medicare-funded mental health services, spending has passed $14 billion a year, and the workforce is still short of psychologists and mental health nurses. This page gathers the current official statistics in one place for students, workers, educators and journalists who need a reliable, cited figure.
Quick mental health statistics
- 21.5% of Australians aged 16 to 85, about 4.3 million people, had a mental disorder in the previous 12 months (ABS National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2020–2022).
- 42.9% had experienced a mental disorder at some point in their life (ABS 2020–2022).
- 38.8% of 16 to 24 year olds had a mental disorder in the previous 12 months, up from 26% in 2007 (ABS; AIHW Australia’s health 2026).
- Anxiety disorders are the most common group (17.2%), followed by affective disorders such as depression (7.5%) and substance use disorders (3.3%) (ABS 2020–2022).
- 17.4% of Australians aged 16 to 85, about 3.4 million people, saw a health professional for their mental health in the previous 12 months (ABS 2020–2022).
- 2.8 million Australians, 10% of the population, received a Medicare-subsidised mental health service in 2024–25, a total of 13.0 million services (AIHW).
- About one in five Australians (19%) was dispensed a mental health-related prescription in 2024–25 (AIHW).
- $14.5 billion was spent on mental health-related services in 2023–24, or $537 per person (AIHW).
- 3,326 Australians died by suicide in 2024, a rate of 11.8 per 100,000 (ABS Causes of Death 2024, after preliminary revision).
- Mental and substance use disorders account for 15% of Australia’s total disease burden, second only to cancer (AIHW Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024).
The general state of mental health in Australia
The most authoritative measure of prevalence is the ABS National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, last conducted over 2020 to 2022 and published in final form in July 2024. It found that 21.5% of people aged 16 to 85 had experienced a mental disorder in the previous twelve months, equivalent to about 4.3 million people, and that 42.9% had experienced one at some stage of their life. The ABS has not announced a date for the next cycle, so these remain the current national figures in 2026.
The ABS National Health Survey 2022 offers a broader, self-reported measure: 26.1% of Australians reported a mental or behavioural condition, making it the most common group of chronic conditions in the country, ahead of back problems and arthritis. In the same survey 14% of adults recorded high or very high psychological distress on the Kessler scale (17% of women and 12% of men), and 30% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults did so in the 2022–23 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey.
The AIHW’s Australia’s health 2026 report, released in July 2026, confirms the long-run picture and adds the most important trend of the decade: prevalence among 16 to 24 year olds rose from 26% in 2007 to 39% in 2020–22, and among young women from 30% to 46%. The report also notes that about three quarters of mental health conditions first emerge before the age of 25, which is why early intervention and youth services dominate current policy.
Statistics by type of mental illness
Anxiety disorders
Anxiety disorders are the most common group. In 2020–22, 17.2% of Australians aged 16 to 85, around 3.4 million people, had an anxiety disorder in the previous twelve months. This group includes generalised anxiety disorder, social phobia, panic disorder, agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Affective (mood) disorders, including depression and bipolar
Affective disorders, which cover depressive episodes, dysthymia and bipolar affective disorder, affected 7.5% of people aged 16 to 85 in the previous twelve months, about 1.5 million Australians. Depression remains the single most common affective disorder; bipolar disorder is far less common but tends to be more disabling and more often needs specialist care.
Substance use disorders
Substance use disorders, which include harmful use of and dependence on alcohol and drugs, affected 3.3% of people aged 16 to 85, about 647,900 Australians, in the previous twelve months. They frequently occur alongside anxiety or depression, which is why alcohol and other drugs work and mental health work increasingly overlap.
Women
Women consistently report higher rates of common mental disorders. In 2020–22, 24.6% of females aged 16 to 85 had a mental disorder in the previous twelve months, compared with 18.3% of males. Among young women aged 16 to 24 the figure was 45.5%. Women also use services more: the AIHW reports that females aged 25 to 34 increased their use of Medicare mental health services by 26% between 2015–16 and 2024–25 (from 149 to 188 people per 1,000), and that young women use these services at about twice the rate of young men. On the Kessler distress measure 17% of adult women recorded high or very high distress in 2022 compared with 12% of men.
Men
Men report lower rates of diagnosed anxiety and depression (18.3% with any disorder in the previous twelve months in 2020–22; 32.4% among 16 to 24 year olds) and are less likely to seek help, yet they account for three in every four suicide deaths. In 2024, 2,529 males died by suicide, 76.5% of the total, at a rate of 18.3 per 100,000 compared with 5.5 per 100,000 for females. Suicide was the eleventh leading cause of death for men overall. The gap between men’s lower reported distress and their higher rate of suicide is one of the clearest arguments for male-focused outreach and for training more men in community and mental health roles.
Young people
Young Australians are the group where the numbers have changed most. Beyond the ABS trend above, three 2025 surveys point the same way. The headspace National Youth Mental Health Survey 2025 found 49% of 12 to 25 year olds reporting high or very high psychological distress, rising from 31% at ages 12 to 14 to 65% at ages 18 to 25; the rate was 53% for young women, 45% for young men, 59% for First Nations young people and 77% for LGBTIQA+ young people. Mission Australia’s Youth Survey 2025, with 17,155 respondents aged 14 to 19, found 19% with high psychological distress and a further 26.5% with moderate distress, and mental health was the second most-cited national issue after cost of living. In Western Australia, 21% of the 1,569 WA respondents reported high distress and 40% said they had felt stressed about their mental health in the past year. Encouragingly, headspace reported that the share of young people who believe they can achieve their goals rose from 39% in 2022 to 44% in 2025, and several Mission Australia wellbeing indicators improved on 2023 and 2024.
Mental illness and suicide
The ABS Causes of Death release for 2024, published in November 2025 and revised in May 2026, records 3,326 deaths by suicide after preliminary revision (3,307 as first published). That is an age-standardised rate of 11.8 per 100,000, unchanged from 2023 and below the 13.2 recorded in 2019. Suicide was the sixteenth leading cause of death overall, the leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 44, the leading cause of premature death measured by potential years of life lost, and the median age at death was 46. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people died by suicide at a rate of 33.9 per 100,000, about three times the national rate.
In Western Australia there were 418 suicide deaths in 2024, an age-standardised rate of 13.8 per 100,000, down from 14.7 in 2023 but still above the national rate. The WA Mental Health Commission’s 2026–2031 Strategy reports that around one in nine Western Australians aged 16 and over (11.8%) had suicidal thoughts in the previous twelve months.
If you or someone you know needs support, Lifeline is available 24 hours a day on 13 11 14, and 13YARN (13 92 76) offers support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In an emergency call 000.
LGBTIQA+ Australians
National prevalence surveys do not yet report by sexual orientation or gender identity at the detail needed for a clean comparison, but the youth data is stark: 77% of LGBTIQA+ young people aged 12 to 25 reported high or very high psychological distress in the headspace 2025 survey, against 49% for all young people. Mental health workers are increasingly expected to hold specific skills in inclusive practice for this reason.
Services, spending and the workforce
Service use has grown steadily. In 2024–25, 2.8 million people (10% of Australians) received 13.0 million Medicare-subsidised mental health-specific services; about half were delivered by psychologists, 96% were out of hospital, and use was highest among 18 to 34 year olds. Public hospital emergency departments saw about 318,200 mental health-related presentations in 2024–25, 3.5% of all presentations and 116 per 10,000 people, up 15% since 2015–16. In Western Australia, the Mental Health Commission’s 2024–25 annual report records that 2.7% of the population received public clinical mental health care or alcohol and other drug treatment, against a target of at least 3.7%.
Spending on mental health-related services reached $14.5 billion in 2023–24, or $537 per person, up from $466 per person in 2014–15 in real terms. State and territory governments funded 62%, the Australian Government 33% and private health insurers 5%. There were almost 7,080 public specialised mental health hospital beds and about 4,080 private psychiatric beds in 2023–24.
The workforce has grown but remains short. The AIHW counts about 36,900 psychologists (136 per 100,000 people), 28,300 mental health nurses (104 per 100,000) and 4,500 psychiatrists (16 per 100,000) in 2024. The Department of Health’s April 2026 psychology workforce compendium projects the number of psychologists to grow from 43,738 in 2025 to 58,835 by 2038 but still finds a shortfall in 2025, and the 2025 psychiatry study estimates WA alone needs an additional 140 full-time-equivalent psychiatrists to meet unmet demand, rising to about 207 by 2033. Registered Nurse (Mental Health) is rated in shortage in every state and territory on Jobs and Skills Australia’s 2025 Occupation Shortage List. Beyond the clinical professions, the broader community mental health workforce of support workers, peer workers, counsellors and case managers is where most new roles are being created; our page on mental health and community services jobs in Western Australia sets out those numbers.
What it costs the country
The Productivity Commission’s Mental Health Inquiry, reported in 2020, estimated the cost of mental ill-health and suicide to Australia at $200 billion to $220 billion a year in 2019 dollars, roughly $550 million to $600 million a day, of which $40 billion to $70 billion was direct economic cost across health, housing, justice, lost productivity and informal care. The Commission’s 2025 review of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement did not publish an updated total, so the 2020 estimate remains the most-cited figure.
Conclusion
The headline rate of mental illness in Australia is stable at about one in five people a year and two in five over a lifetime, but demand for help is anything but stable. Young people, especially young women and LGBTIQA+ young people, are reporting far more distress than a decade ago; service use, prescriptions and spending are all rising; and the system cannot recruit psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health nurses fast enough. The practical consequence is a sustained need for trained mental health and community services workers at every level, from peer and support workers through to counsellors and case managers.
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Sources
- ABS, National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2020–2022, released 26 July 2024. abs.gov.au/statistics/health/mental-health/national-study-mental-health-and-wellbeing/latest-release
- ABS, National Health Survey 2022, released 15 December 2023; and ABS, Measuring What Matters: Mental health, updated 15 September 2025. abs.gov.au
- ABS, Causes of Death, Australia, 2024, released 14 November 2025 (revised 7 May 2026), and Intentional self-harm (suicide) deaths. abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death
- AIHW, Australia’s health 2026, released 9 July 2026, and Australia’s health: Mental health topic page, updated 13 August 2026. aihw.gov.au
- AIHW, Mental health services in Australia: Medicare-subsidised services (updated July 2026); Emergency departments (May 2026); Expenditure (May 2026); Specialised mental health care facilities (February 2026); Mental health workforce (May 2026); Prevalence and impact of mental illness (August 2026). aihw.gov.au/mental-health
- AIHW, Suicide and self-harm monitoring, updated 20 May 2025. aihw.gov.au/suicide-self-harm-monitoring
- headspace, National Youth Mental Health Survey 2025, media release 9 October 2025. headspace.org.au
- Mission Australia, Youth Survey 2025, national report and Western Australia sub-report. missionaustralia.com.au
- Productivity Commission, Mental Health Inquiry Report, 2020, and Review of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement, final report tabled 11 November 2025. pc.gov.au
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Psychology Supply and Demand Compendium, April 2026, and Psychiatry Supply and Demand Study, June 2025. hwd.health.gov.au
- Jobs and Skills Australia, 2025 Occupation Shortage List, October 2025. jobsandskills.gov.au/data/occupation-shortage
- Western Australian Mental Health Commission, WA Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drugs Strategy 2026–2031. mhc.wa.gov.au
- Western Australian Mental Health Commission, Annual Report 2024–25, Key Effectiveness Indicator 3.4. mhc.wa.gov.au
This article is general information compiled from public sources and is not medical advice. If you are struggling, please speak to your GP or call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
