Prevalence of depression before and after COVID-19 in OECD countries 2020

In early 2020, characterized by the outbreak of COVID-19, across select OECD countries there was an increase in the prevalence of depression or symptoms of depression. In the United States, for example, around 23.5 percent of repondents reported suffering from depression or had symptoms of depression in 2020, while only 6.6 percent reported depression or depression symptoms in the year prior. The graph shows the results of different national surveys measuring the prevalence of depression or symptoms of depression in early 2020 and in the year before.

National estimates of the prevalence of depression or symptoms of depression in select OECD countries in early 2020 and in the year prior to 2020

Characteristic	Pre-COVID	2020
Australia	10.4%	27.6%
Austria	7.7%	21%
Belgium	9.5%	20%
Canada	4%	10%
Czech Republic	4%	11.8%
France	10%	19.9%
Greece	4.7%	22.8%
Italy	5.5%	17.3%
Japan	7.9%	17.3%
Korea	-	36.8%
Mexico	3%	27.6%
Spain	-	18.7%
Sweden	10.8%	30%
United Kingdom	9.7%	19.2%
United States	6.6%	23.5%

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Release date

May 2021

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Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

2019-2020

Special properties

To the extent possible, 2020 prevalence estimates were taken from March-April 2020

Supplementary notes

"The survey instruments used to measure depression differ between countries, and therefore are not directly comparable, and some surveys may have small sample sizes or not use nationally representative samples. Differences in the openness of populations to discussing their mental state also hampers cross-country comparability. Where possible, surveys using the PHQ-9 instrument have been selected. 2020 data for Sweden uses a cut-off of ‘11’ for the PHQ-9, while most other studies use a cut off of ≥10."

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