The Growing Global Reliance on Antidepressants

According to the latest OECD data, Iceland continues to have one of the highest levels of antidepressant use in the world - with an average consumption of 157 daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants in 2022. Several other countries in the higher latitudes were also among the biggest consumers, with Canada (134; not shown on the chart), the United Kingdom (138; 2021 data) and Sweden (115; 2022 data) similarly reporting a ratio of over 110 daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants. Data for the United States is absent from the OECD report.

Antidepressant use has become more widespread in recent years. As the following chart shows, consumption rose in each of the 15 countries included in this chart between 2015 and 2021/22. The places with the lowest consumption levels of those analyzed were South Korea and Latvia, with a ratio of 31.1 and 24.3 daily doses per 1,000 population. In the latter, antidepressant consumption doubled in that time period.