Mental Health Is the Top Health Concern Among Americans

A 2023 Ipsos survey has found that mental health is now the chief health concern among U.S. adults, surpassing the coronavirus, obesity and cancer.

As the following chart shows, 53 percent of U.S. respondents said that they thought mental health was the biggest health problem facing people in their country as of August this year, up from 51 percent in 2022. Where the coronavirus had been considered the biggest health problem by roughly two thirds of U.S. respondents through the pandemic, perceptions of the danger of the virus have now curtailed to just 15 percent of respondents considering it the most serious health issue - lower than the rates for obesity (30 percent), cancer (29 percent) and even stress (18 percent).

According to the survey data, this trend is not unique to the U.S. Across the 31 countries polled by Ipsos as part of the Global Health Service Monitor, an average of 44 percent of people said that mental health was the top health concern facing their country. This was followed by cancer (40 percent), stress (30 percent), obesity (25 percent) and drug abuse (22 percent).

Sweden and Chile stood out for reporting particularly high levels of concern around mental health in 2023 (at 67 percent and 66 percent, respectively). Meanwhile, cancer was the most cited health concern in India (59 percent), obesity in Mexico (62 percent) and stress in South Korea (44 percent).