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We've only just begun - Action to improve young people’s mental health, education and employment
February 2024
Over one-in-three (34 per cent) of young people aged 18-24 reported symptoms that indicated they were experiencing a common mental health disorder (CMD) like depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder – a big increase since 2000 when less one-in-four (24 per cent) reported these problems. As a result, more than half a million 18-24-year-olds were prescribed anti-depressants in 2021-22.
Young people with mental health problems are more likely to be out of work than their healthy peers. Between 2018 and 2022, one-in-five (21 per cent) 18-24-year-olds with mental health problems were workless, compared to 13 per cent of those without mental health problems.
Universities have become hotbeds for mental health problems: the share of young full-time students with a CMD has increased at a far faster rate than that of working or out-of-work young people (up 37 per cent, compared to 15 per cent and 23 per cent respectively).
Non-graduates with mental health problems are particularly disadvantaged in the labour market. One-in-three young non-graduates with a CMD were workless, compared to 19 per cent of non-graduates without mental health problems, and 17 per cent of graduates with a CMD.
A shocking four-in-five (79 per cent) 18-24-year-olds who are workless due to ill health only have qualifications at GCSE-level or below, compared to a one-third (34 per cent) of all people in that age group.
Mental health problems are blighting young people’s education. An estimated one-in-eight (12 per cent) of 11-16-year-olds with poor mental health problems missed more than 15 days of school in the autumn term of 2023 compared to just one-in-fifty (2 per cent) of their healthier classmates.
