Mental Health: key points

Two aspects of mental health are considered on these pages: mental wellbeing (positive mental health) and mental health problems.
In 2021, on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) that measures mental wellbeing among adults and teenagers, the mean score for Scottish adults aged 16+ was 48.6. This is the lowest recorded in the time series. The WEMWBS scale runs from 14 (the lowest level of wellbeing) to 70 (the highest).
Twenty two percent of those aged 16+ years in Scotland in 2021 reported having a General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) score of 4 or more, an indicator of potential mental health problems. This is an increase on the measure in 2019.
In 2021, 11% of adults had two or more symptoms of depression, and 6% reported having previously attempted suicide. These both represent slight declines from the measures in 2018/19.
In 2021, prevalence of depression (11%), anxiety (14%) and ever attempted suicide (6%) were at similar levels to 2018/19 combined. Prevalence of ever having self-harmed increased over this period from 7% in 2018/19 to 10% in 2021.
Adult mental health (mental wellbeing and mental health problems) outcomes are distributed unevenly across the Scottish adult population, with inequalities evident for age, gender, deprivation and socioeconomic status.

Some of the data presented in the following Mental Health pages were collected through the Scottish Health Survey. In 2020, Scottish Health Survey data were gathered via telephone interview for the first time, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, the results are not directly comparable with the survey results from previous or current years, so we have omitted figures from the 2020 Scottish Health Survey across the following Mental Health pages.

Section updates:

The last major update of this section was completed in March 2023.
The next major update is due to be carried out by end of March 2024.