Strong on the Outside, Struggling Within: A decline in Mental Health in LAC

August 1, 2025

Once taboo, mental health has become an urgent public health issue in Latin America and the Caribbean. An estimated one in four people in the region will experience a mental health disorder in their lifetime. Depression is already the second leading cause of years lived with disability for women and the third for men, measured as the number of years people are unable to fully live their lives due to a condition that limits their well-being and functioning.

The COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated this crisis. Lockdowns, economic uncertainty, and health-related fears compounded with existing pressures: constant digital connectivity that blurs the line between work life and leisure, while opening the door to cyberbullying and social comparison; social fragmentation that erodes community ties and isolates people; and a changing climate that brings both emotional and economic stress. The rapid spread of smartphones and the normalization of social media use have added to the burden, especially among youth. Excessive screen time has been linked to disrupted sleep patterns and greater vulnerability to mood disorders among adolescents. Together, these trends have made the region’s mental health struggles more common and more urgent.

This #GraphForThought draws on data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study and insights from the upcoming Regional Human Development Report 2025 to explore how mental health impacts development in LAC.1. Given that robust administrative records on mental health are scarce in many countries, the GBD provides valuable estimates using a wide range of sources, including censuses, household surveys, vital statistics, health services data, and disease registries, among others, to track trends over time.

People in LAC are now reporting anxiety at higher levels than ever before, and at higher rates than both developed countries and global averages (Figure 1). In 2021, 7.3% of the region's population had an anxiety disorder, compared to 6.4% in OECD countries and 4.7% globally. Two decades ago, LAC and OECD countries showed similar prevalence (around 5.5%), but the gap has widened over time. Depression has also increased, rising from 3.5% in 2000 to 4.4% in 2021. Although this places the region in line with the global average, it remains slightly below the OECD levels (5.1%).

Mental health struggles are not evenly distributed in LAC, with women disproportionately affected (Figure 2). On average, anxiety and depression are 1.8 times more common in women than in men, with 9% of women dealing with anxiety and 6% with depression, compared to 5% and 3% of men, respectively. Gender-based violence, unequal caregiving responsibilities, and rigid social expectations all contribute to women’s higher vulnerability (Valle, 2025).

While this gender gap also appears in OECD and global data, it is wider in LAC. Social norms around masculinity may suppress the visibility of men’s mental health challenges. The average male suicide rate in LAC remains significantly higher than that of women, suggesting that many men are struggling in silence. The stigma around expressing emotions and seeking help can limit the freedom and well-being of far more people than current data suggests.

Access to care remains one of the biggest barriers to addressing this issue. Mental health services are scarce across the region, and affordability is still a challenge. This scarcity is mirrored in the limited availability of mental health specialists. Across LAC, there are, on average, 3.4 psychiatrists per 100,000 people, significantly below the OECD average of over 18. Rural and underserved communities face even greater limitations. Even when diagnosis is possible, access to treatment isn’t guaranteed. Supply chain disruptions for psychotropic medications often prevent consistent, quality care (Valle, 2025).

Despite the growing burden, most countries in the region allocate less than 3% of their national health budgets to mental health. Increasing investment and integrating mental health care into primary health services is critical, especially for people in rural or underserved areas. Technology can also play a role. Digital platforms for online counseling, peer support networks, and mobile applications can complement traditional treatment. Integrating mental health services into schools and community spaces can reduce stigma and foster a sense of belonging. And at the regional level, better data collection and reporting are essential for effective policymaking, as the lack of quality information limits countries’ ability to assess needs or track progress (Valle, 2025).

Mental health challenges doesn’t always show visible physical symptoms, like a rash or a cough, but its impact is no less real. It shapes development from childhood through adulthood, influencing academic achievement, social skills, and future work opportunities. By limiting people’s ability to participate in society fully, it can reduce productivity, raise healthcare and social protection costs, and reinforce vicious cycles between economic hardship and mental illness. Mental health can also have implications for democratic life: depression, for instance, can distort perceptions of reality, potentially influencing voting behavior and political outcomes. These far-reaching impacts show that supporting mental well-being is not only a matter of care, but central to expanding freedoms and building resilient societies.

1 An in-depth analysis of the region’s mental health landscape will be available in the Interlinkage “The Hidden Epidemic: Mental Health Challenges in LAC” and the background paper “Understanding the Challenge of Resilience and Mental Health in Latin America and the Caribbean” by Valle (2025), both part of the upcoming Regional Human Development Report 2025.