National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2020-22
Released by the ABS on Thursday, 5 October 2023
The National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2020-22 provides information about:
- Prevalence of mental disorders
- Use of services for mental health
- Lived experience of suicide and self-harm
In July 2022, the first data from this study was released (National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2020-21), which was collected during the period of December 2020 to July 2021. The current release combines these data with additional data collected during the period December 2021 to October 2022. The combined 2020-22 data provides an update to the last time this survey was conducted in 2007.
A total sample of 15,893 people were surveyed over 2020-22, with results then converted to estimates for the total Australian population aged 16-85 years.
‘Mental disorders’ used in the survey are defined by the diagnostic criteria of the World Health Organisation International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). Responses from participants are assessed to determine whether a person’s symptoms meet diagnostic criteria for having a mental disorder in their lifetime and in the 12 months prior to the study interview.
Please note when viewing the data:
- When data was being collected during 2020-22, a number of measures were in place to stop the spread of COVID-19. These included border closures for some states and territories, stay at home orders, remote learning, shutting down non-essential services, limits on gatherings and social distancing rules. A number of supports were also in place such as JobSeeker and JobKeeper payments, Crisis Payments, Medicare funded telehealth consultations with general practitioners and additional Medicare funded psychological service sessions. These measures and supports may have impacted individuals or groups in the community in different ways in regard to their mental health and service use, therefore, care should be taken when comparing the updated data with previous data.
- The criteria for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder have changed since 2007, which are classified as anxiety disorders as part of this survey. Due to this, data for anxiety disorders and mental disorders are not directly comparable between 2020-21 and 2007. However, the 2007 data is presented in the summary below for reference.
A summary of key insights in the 2020-22 data is provided below.
Prevalence of mental disorders
The survey provides an estimate of the total number and proportion of people aged 16-85 years who have experienced a mental disorder in their lifetime and in the past 12 months:
- Over two in five Australians aged 16-85 years (42.9% or 8.5 million people) had experienced a mental disorder at some time in their life. In 2007 45% (7.3 million people) reported a mental disorder in their lifetime.
- One in five (21.5% or 4.3 million people) had experienced symptoms of a mental disorder in the past 12 months. In 2007, 20% (3.2 million people) reported a mental disorder in the past 12 months.
- Anxiety was the most common mental disorder experienced (17.2% or 3.4 million people). Anxiety was also the most common mental disorder reported in 2007 (14.4% or 2.3 million people).
When looking at age groups and differences between males and females:
- In 2020-22, almost two in five people (38.8%) aged 16-24 years had experienced the symptoms of a mental disorder in the past 12 months. Just over a quarter of 16-24 year olds (26.4%) reported a mental disorder in 2007.
- In the past 12 months, 24.6% of females experienced a mental disorder, compared with 18.3% of males surveyed during 2020-22. In 2007, the proportion of females experiencing a mental disorder in the past 12 months was 22% and 18% for males.
- In 2020-22, females were more likely than males to have experienced an anxiety disorder in the past 12 months (21.1% of females compared to 13.3% of males), while males were more than twice as likely as females to have had a substance use disorder (4.4% of males compared to 2.1% of females).
Population groups
Please note that this release does not include information on the prevalence of mental disorders among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. However, a separate and dedicated First Nations Mental Health Prevalence Study has received Government funding and is currently in planning phases. It will be developed in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Particular population groups had higher prevalence of mental disorders in the past 12 months than the general population aged 16-85 years. These included:
- Young females and males aged 16-24 years (45.5% and 32.4% respectively).
- People who are Gay or Lesbian, Bisexual or who used a different term such as Asexual, Pansexual or Queer (58.7%).
- Transgender people (33.1%).
- People living in a one parent family with dependent children (32.6%).
- People who had ever been without a permanent place to live (39.1%).
- People aged 16-64 years who were currently unemployed (36.1%).
- People who had never been married (33.2%).
- People who had ever been incarcerated (27.5%).
States and territories
The National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing sample was designed to provide reliable estimates at a national level. Estimates are available for each state and territory, however, care should be taken when making comparisons.
The graph below includes the estimated percentage of people who experienced symptoms of a mental health disorder in the past 12 months for each state, as well as the Margin of Error. The Margin of Error helps to describe the accuracy of each estimate; The larger the margin of error is, the more likely the survey estimate will be further away from the true number in the population.
Use of services
In 2020-22, 17.4% of Australians aged 16-85 years had seen a health professional for mental health concerns in the past 12 months.
- More females (21.6%) than males (12.9%) saw a health professional for mental health concerns.
- Younger people were more likely to seek support from services, with 22.9% of people aged 16-34 years, 17.4% of people aged 35-64 years, and 8.1% of people aged 65–85 years seeing a health professional for mental health concerns.
- 12.4% of people saw a general practitioner and 7.8% saw a psychologist.
There were 4.3 million Australians aged 16-85 years who experienced symptoms of a mental disorder in the past 12 months. In 2020-22, 45.1% of these people (1.9 million) had seen a health professional for mental health concerns. Of the people with a mental disorder in the past 12 months:
- Females (51.1%) were more likely than males (36.4%) to have seen a health professional for mental health concerns.
- People aged 16–34 years (46.2%) were more likely than those aged 65–85 years (35.1%) to have seen a health professional for mental health concerns.
- 35.5% saw a general practitioner for mental health concerns, and 21.3% saw a psychologist.
In addition to seeking support from a health professional, people also accessed other services for mental health concerns using phone, internet or other digital technology. These services include crisis support or counselling services, online treatment programs and tools to improve mental health, and mental health support groups and forums.
Almost 945,000 Australians (4.8%) aged 16-85 years accessed other services for their mental health using phone, internet or digital technology.
Of the 4.3 million Australians aged 16–85 years with a 12-month mental disorder, 607,700 (14.3%) accessed other services for their mental health by phone, internet, or another digital technology. Of those who experienced symptoms of a mental disorder in the past 12 months:
- Females (15.9%) were more likely than males (12.4%) to have accessed these services.
- People aged 16-34 years (18.2%) were more likely to have accessed these services compared to those aged 35–64 years (12.0%).
Lived experience of suicide and self-harm
When interpreting or using suicide data it is important to remember that behind the numbers are people, families and communities impacted by suicide in Australia.
The reasons people take their own life are complex and often there is no single reason why a person attempts or dies by suicide.
Suicide
The National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2020-22 explored several aspects of lived experience of suicide. This included whether a person had experienced suicidal thoughts or behaviours, both in their lifetime and in the past 12 months. A person must have experienced suicidal thoughts to be asked if they had planned or attempted suicide.
In 2020-22, one in six Australians (16.7%) aged 16–85 years had experienced any suicidal thoughts in their lifetime.
- 7.4% of people had made a plan to take their own life.
- 4.9% of people had had attempted to take their own life.
- Females were more likely to experience suicidal thoughts (18.3%), plan to take their own life (8.1%) or attempt to take their own life (5.7%), compared to males (15.0%, 6.7% and 4.1%, respectively).
In the past 12 months, 3.3% of Australians had experienced suicidal thoughts. This includes those who had:
- Made a plan to take their own life (1.2%).
- Attempted to take their own life (0.3%).
For those who had experienced suicidal thoughts in the past 12 months, 74.9% had also experienced a mental health disorder during that period.
Of those who ever had thoughts or planned to take their own life, approximately half (50.3%) had confided in another person and 44.9% had used a health service because of their thoughts or plans.
The study explored whether a person had been close to someone who had experienced suicidal distress or taken their own life:
- Over 1 in 3 people (36.2%) aged 16–85 years had ever been close to someone who had taken or attempted to take their own life.
- 4.7% had been close to someone who had taken or attempted to take their own life in the past 12 months.
- Approximately three-quarters (75.3%) of people close to someone who had taken or attempted to take their own life had used services.
Self-harm
Self-harm is when a person intentionally harms themselves without intending to take their life. There are many reasons a person might self-harm, such as expressing or coping with thoughts and feelings. Self-harm and suicide are different acts however, some people who self-harm are at an increased risk of suicide.
In 2020-22, 1.7 million Australians aged 16–85 years (8.7%) had self-harmed in their lifetime and 342,100 (1.7%) had self-harmed in the past 12 months:
- Females had higher rates of self-harm than males in the past 12 months (2.2% compared with 1.2%) and across their lifetime (10.4% compared with 6.8%).
- Over one in four females (27.9%) aged 16–24 years had self-harmed in their lifetime, compared to over one in ten (13.6%) males from the same age group.
- 8.7% of females aged 16–24 years had self-harmed in the past 12 months, compared with 3.3% of males from the same age group.
For support and advice on safely communicating about these findings please refer to the Mindframe guidelines. The Our words matter Glossary of terms contains terms that are currently in use as well as terms that are emerging as preferred language, with common definitions, alternative terms and some guidance on how to use them in context.
For the full report, please refer to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) website for other topics including further breakdown of mental disorders and association with social and health characteristics, as well as aspects of disordered eating, psychological distress, and strategies used for mental health.
