Nearly two thirds of British teenagers are on course to be living with a mental health condition or behavioural disorder by the end of the decade, according to a stark new report that warns of lasting consequences for the country’s workforce and economy.
Research by Zurich Insurance found that having a mental health problem has already become the norm among young people aged 15 to 19, with 51 per cent of those in that age group currently estimated to have a condition such as anxiety, depression or ADHD. If current trends continue, that figure is forecast to reach 64 per cent by 2030.
The findings arrive amid growing concern from politicians across the political spectrum. Health Secretary Wes Streeting has warned that the Government cannot “sit back and ignore the rise in mental health problems in our society,” adding that to do so would “leave a generation of people to suffer alone and leave our economy and society deprived of their talent and potential.” Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is among those who have also raised the prospect of “overdiagnosis” of mental health conditions among young people.
Will Shield, a professor of child psychology at the University of Exeter, acknowledged the tension at the heart of the debate. “There is a risk that we’re over-medicalising normal childhood or teenage experience,” he said. “But I think we have to ask why people are using this language to describe themselves. I think it is because society and things are really hard at the moment. It’s far easier to try to make sense of your experience through that lens of ‘I fit into this box’ or ‘this is why I find things so challenging’.”
Britain’s position is particularly troubling when set against international comparisons. Separate research from the Resolution Foundation found that young people in the UK ranked among the most miserable and anxious in the developed world. Nye Cominetti of the Resolution Foundation said: “The UK, when you compare it to other countries, looks really, really bad on young people’s health,” adding that on depression, “we are worse than any other OECD country.” Zurich’s own findings corroborated this, showing British young people had worse mental health than peers in Germany, Australia and Malaysia.
The report identified a range of contributing factors, including reduced stigma, social media exposure, academic pressure and economic uncertainty. Economists have also pointed to a series of major economic shocks in recent years, alongside stagnant wages and high housing costs, which have pushed milestones such as living independently increasingly out of reach for younger generations.
The scale of the wider mental health challenge is not confined to teenagers. Zurich’s research projects that more than 10.5 million Britons will suffer from anxiety by 2028, up from 8.7 million last year.
The economic implications are already being felt. Only 53 per cent of Britons with a mental health condition are currently in work, compared with 82 per cent of those without — a gap significantly wider than in comparable countries. Nearly one million 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK are already classified as not in education, employment or training.
Peter Hamilton of Zurich said the consequences could be far-reaching. “The rise in youth mental health care needs is the start of a wave that will shape the UK’s workforce for a generation,” he said. “Unless we intervene, mental health risks will become a persistent drag on productivity, economic growth and social mobility.”
