One in four adults in Wales now has poor mental health, and poverty is driving it, charity says
More than one in four adults in Wales are experiencing poor mental health, around 720,000 people, according to a new report from the Mental Health Foundation.
The charity’s analysis of the Understanding Society survey puts the Welsh figure at 27.3 per cent, 2.7 percentage points above the UK average of 24.6 per cent.
It means 278,000 more people in Wales have poor mental health than in 2009/10, the report says.
Wales has recorded higher levels of poor mental health than the UK as a whole in 13 of the past 15 years.
Between 2009/10 and 2018/19 the Welsh figure moved between 17.7 per cent and 20.6 per cent, before rising sharply after the pandemic.
While the UK average fell back to pre-pandemic levels in 2021/22, the Welsh rate continued to climb, peaking at 28 per cent in 2022/23, 5.2 percentage points above the UK average.
The latest figure is slightly lower, and the foundation says the most recent gap between Wales and the UK is small enough that it could be down to chance, although the longer pattern is consistent.
The report points to poverty as one of the strongest drivers of the difference.
It cites Joseph Rowntree Foundation research showing around 21 per cent of people in Wales have lived in poverty over the past 20 years, with nearly half of those now in what the research calls very deep poverty.
Catherine Razzell, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at the Mental Health Foundation, said:
“The findings of The Foundation Reports show a worrying and consistent pattern emerging in Wales. Whilst figures show the levels of poor mental health in other UK nations have tracked together, Wales has diverged from the rest of the UK – this is deeply concerning.”
“The new Welsh Government have a challenge on their hands to claw back from these depths and also the opportunity to make real and lasting change for this generation and the next. We are very encouraged to hear the announcement that a Welsh Child Payment, Cynnal, will be piloted after their initial 100 days. It’s also refreshing to hear that prevention continues to be on the agenda with a dedicated ministerial role for public and preventative health and also for social care, mental health and women’s health. We are keen to see the full implementation of the cross-government Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Wales (2025-2035) and the commitment to prevention continue as a priority, underpinned by adequate funding and insight from robust data, which has been seriously lacking to date.”
The figures are Wales-wide and the report does not include a breakdown for Flintshire or for the area covered by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
It does link lower wellbeing to the most deprived areas of Wales, typically urban or post-industrial communities, where people report feeling they have less influence over decisions affecting their lives.
The foundation is calling on the Welsh Government to create a dedicated budget category for prevention, explore ways to introduce a Welsh Child Payment, and roll out anti-bullying programmes in all schools.
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