Spain's mental health crisis: one in three now affected

One in three Spaniards now reports a mental health condition

33% of Spaniards consider their mental health to be poor, up from 26% in 2023 and 31% in 2025. This is the fourth-highest figure in Europe, behind only the UK, Ireland and Turkey, according to the 6th Axa World Mental Health Report presented this Tuesday. The figure coexists with an uncomfortable paradox: Spain scores 62.3 out of 100 for psychological well-being, above the global average (61.8). The country is not at the bottom of the world. It is at the top of Europe. And that, in a continent that is ageing and growing poorer, consoles no one.

The study, conducted by Ipsos with 19,000 participants from 18 countries, classifies mental health into four levels: flourishing, getting by, languishing and struggling. The percentage of the population potentially affected by depression, anxiety or stress at severe or extreme levels remains at 28%, slightly above the European average (27%). But the figure jumps to 42% among young people aged 18 to 24 and 44% among those aged 25 to 34. The generational gap is not a nuance: it is the crux of the problem.

What factors are cited as causes of the deterioration

The three factors with the greatest impact, according to the report, are uncertainty about the future in a rapidly changing world (52%), financial instability and job insecurity (51%) and social and political unrest (45%). None are clinical. All three are economic and political. There lies the first uncomfortable finding: the conversation about mental health in Spain has become, de facto, a conversation about wages, housing and institutional stability.

Add to that screen use: 4.9 hours of daily average excluding work. Spain is among the European countries that use them most, though far below the Philippines or Thailand (6.4) and Brazil (6). The report does not establish a correlation between screen hours and psychological distress, but the figure creeps into every conversation on the subject.

The diagnosis people make of themselves

In the realm of analysis, the discussion splits in two. One school holds that the distress is largely a material consequence: wages that do not cover a life project, precarious jobs, unaffordable housing and a diffuse sense that effort no longer guarantees anything. From that reading, the third who declare themselves affected are not exaggerating: they are translating a real economic degradation into clinical language.

The other school points to a cultural and emotional management component. It is argued that part of the increase reflects a greater willingness to acknowledge the problem — what was once kept quiet is now spoken — and a consumption of psychotropic drugs that, it is claimed, has become normalised without meaning people are worse off. Some go further and assert that long-term psychiatric medication generates tolerance and dependence, and that what is needed are life changes, not prescriptions. This is a contested claim, unsupported by the material, and should be treated as what it is: an opinion.

The age gap and the gender gap

The figure that should most concern us is not the overall 33%, but the 42% and 44% among young people. A generation entering the labour market with worse contracts than their parents, with housing out of reach and with the feeling that the social elevator has stopped. The report does not say it in those words, but the numbers hint at it.

At the same time, in the realm of psychotropic drug use, a gender difference is noted: it is argued that a significant proportion of women turn to antidepressants, and it is debated whether this reflects real distress or a greater ease in seeking help at the doctor's. The alternative reading is that men, out of shame or lack of habit, do not go to the doctor to say they are unwell. Both hypotheses circulate and neither is closed.

The background noise: politics, social media and distrust

Part of the analysis connects psychological distress with the political and media climate. Corruption, polarisation, the feeling that institutions do not respond and a constant flow of negative news create an environment that, according to this reading, erodes collective mental health. It is not a proven thesis, but the report touches on it when it places social and political unrest as the third factor (45%).

The use of social media appears in the conversation as an amplifier, not as a sole cause. Constant comparison, gratuitous conflict and exposure to alarming content are cited as ingredients of a cocktail that affects the youngest most of all. Again, correlation without proven causality.

What is proposed and what is debated

The proposals circulating range from the individual — change your life, move away from the city, reduce screen time — to the structural — improve wages, housing and job stability. No one disputes that the problem exists. What is disputed is the diagnosis and, above all, who pays the bill. Because if the distress has economic roots, the answer does not fit in a doctor's office. And if it has cultural roots, it does not fit in an employment plan either.

The report leaves Spain with 62.3 points out of 100, above the global average but with a third of the population declaring themselves affected. The contradiction is not resolved. It is merely noted. And meanwhile, the figure for young people remains there, waiting for someone to decide what to do with it.