Last updated: August 2026. Human written and fact checked against each named source.
Three in four Irish adults rate their own mental health as good or very good, yet one in eight now shows signs of a probable mental health problem and job stress doubled in the space of five years. This page gathers the most current, verifiable stress and mental health statistics for Ireland in one place, drawn from the CSO, the Department of Health’s Healthy Ireland Survey, the ESRI, Eurostat and Ireland’s mental health charities. It is written for journalists, students, HR teams and anyone who needs a sourced Irish figure on stress, wellbeing, depression or anxiety.
Key Stress and Mental Health Statistics for Ireland at a Glance
- 75.5% of people aged 15 and over rate their mental health as good or very good, while 5.9% rate it bad or very bad. Source: CSO Irish Health Survey 2025, table IHS02
- 12% of the population has a probable mental health problem, up from 10% in 2016 and down from a pandemic peak of 15% in 2021. Source: Healthy Ireland Survey 2024
- 10.4% of adults reported depression in the past 12 months, peaking at 14.2% among 35 to 44 year olds. Source: CSO Irish Health Survey 2025, table IHS10
- Job stress in Ireland doubled from 8% in 2010 to 17% in 2015, one of the steepest rises in Western Europe. Source: ESRI and Health and Safety Authority, 2018
- 29.3% of Ireland’s 25 year olds show higher than normal stress levels, and a quarter have been diagnosed with depression or anxiety. Source: CSO Growing Up in Ireland, Cohort ’98 at Age 25
- 53% of Irish adults say they have experienced depression at some point in their lives. Source: Aware National Survey 2024
- 42.5% of adults screened positive for at least one mental health disorder in a national study by Maynooth University and Trinity College. Source: State of Ireland’s Mental Health, 2022
- One in five women aged 15 to 24 has a probable mental health problem, the highest of any group. Source: Healthy Ireland Survey 2024
- 77% of people want to learn how to manage stress and anxiety, the top mental health topic in every age group. Source: Mental Health Ireland national survey, September 2024
- 99% agree that time in nature benefits their mental health, and 53% actively use it to support theirs. Source: Mental Health Ireland national survey, September 2024
How Ireland Rates Its Own Mental Health
The CSO asked almost 8,000 people to rate their own mental health for the first time in the 2025 Irish Health Survey, published in May 2026. Overall, 75.5% of people aged 15 and over rated it good or very good, 18.6% said fair, and 5.9% said bad or very bad. Source: CSO Irish Health Survey 2025, table IHS02.
The age and sex pattern is striking. Only 56.5% of women aged 15 to 24 rate their mental health as good or very good, against 72.8% of men the same age, and 12.8% of those young women rate it bad or very bad. Mental health ratings then improve steadily with age: 86.4% of people aged 65 to 74 rate theirs good or very good, the best of any age group. By region, bad or very bad ratings range from 4.7% in HSE Dublin and South East to 7.1% in the HSE Midwest, calculated from the same CSO table.
Depression and Anxiety in Ireland
In the same CSO survey, 10.4% of adults reported experiencing depression in the past 12 months (9.0% of men, 11.8% of women), with the highest rate, 14.2%, among 35 to 44 year olds and the lowest, 5.6%, among those aged 75 and over. Source: CSO Irish Health Survey 2025, table IHS10.
Charity and academic surveys point to a heavier lifetime load. In Aware’s 2024 national survey of 1,200 adults, 53% reported experiencing depression at some point in their lives, 21% had an official depression diagnosis, 17% had an anxiety disorder diagnosis, and among 25 to 34 year olds the anxiety figure rose to 25%. Some 45% said shame, embarrassment or fear of judgement had delayed them seeking support. Source: Aware National Survey 2024. A separate nationally representative study of 1,100 adults by researchers at Maynooth University, Trinity College and Ulster University found 42.5% screened positive for at least one mental health disorder, including 11.5% for major depression, 7.1% for generalised anxiety and 15.0% for insomnia disorder. Source: State of Ireland’s Mental Health, 2022.
Stress: Who Feels It Most
The most detailed stress measurement of any Irish cohort comes from Growing Up in Ireland, which assessed the ’98 cohort at age 25 using the clinical DASS scale. It found 29.3% showing higher than normal stress levels and 4.9% at severe levels, while 25.0% had been diagnosed with depression or anxiety at some point (31.5% of women against 18.3% of men) and 20.9% recorded low self-esteem. Source: CSO, Growing Up in Ireland Cohort ’98 at Age 25, published January 2025.
Money and work lead the causes. In Aware’s 2024 survey, 56% of adults reported financial worry, 36% stress from family responsibilities, 34% relationship concerns and 31% work-related stress. Source: Aware National Survey 2024.
Workplace Stress in Ireland
The benchmark Irish study on job stress, by the ESRI for the Health and Safety Authority, found that job stress among employees in Ireland doubled from 8% in 2010 to 17% in 2015, one of the steepest increases in Western Europe, though still below the ten-country Western European average of 19%. Stress was highest in the health sector (18%), public administration (16%) and manufacturing (15%). Workers highly exposed to emotional demands were 21 times more likely to experience job stress, those under time pressure 10 times more likely, and those working over 40 hours a week twice as likely. Source: ESRI, November 2018.
Men, Women and the Wellbeing Gap
Almost every Irish dataset shows women carrying more of the load. Women rate their mental health good or very good less often than men (73.3% against 77.7%), report more depression in the past 12 months (11.8% against 9.0%), and score lower on both Healthy Ireland scales, with an average positive mental health score of 64.4 against 68.3 for men. Sources: CSO IHS02, IHS10 and the Healthy Ireland Survey 2024. Among 25 year olds, women were diagnosed with depression or anxiety at 31.5% against 18.3% for men, and recorded low self-esteem at 23.4% against 18.2%. Source: CSO Growing Up in Ireland.
Men measure better on the scales but engage less. In Mental Health Ireland’s 2024 survey, 19% of men said supporting their mental health is not something people in their social circle do, against 8% of women, and 17% of men admitted they do not know how to support their mental health, against 12% of women. Source: Mental Health Ireland, September 2024. The cost of leaving things unmanaged shows up in Aware’s data: 60% of people with anxiety say it makes work and responsibilities difficult, up from 45% a year earlier, and 62% of those in the moderate depression range report being unable to function most days. Source: Aware National Survey 2024.
The Pandemic Dip and the Slow Recovery
The Healthy Ireland Survey has tracked the nation’s mental health on two validated scales since 2016: the Energy and Vitality Index (EVI, higher is better) and the MHI-5 (lower means more psychological distress). Both fell sharply during the pandemic and neither has fully recovered. The average positive mental health score was 66.3 in 2024, still below the 67.8 recorded in 2016, and the share of the population with a probable mental health problem stands at 12%, above the 10% of 2016. The table below is compiled from the 2024 survey of 7,398 people, carried out by Ipsos B&A for the Department of Health. Source: Healthy Ireland Survey 2024 Summary Report.
| Measure | 2016 | 2021 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Positive mental health score (EVI, 0-100) | 67.8 | 62.4 | 65.3 | 66.3 |
| Negative mental health score (MHI-5, 0-100) | 81.2 | 76.0 | 78.2 | 78.7 |
| Probable mental health problem (MHI-5 of 56 or lower) | 10% | 15% | 12% | 12% |
Within those averages, one in five (20%) women aged 15 to 24 has a probable mental health problem, an improvement on the 27% recorded in 2021, and people in Dublin (14%) show higher levels than people outside Dublin (11%). Women aged 45 to 54 record the lowest positive mental health score of any group, at 62.8. Source: Healthy Ireland Survey 2024.
How Ireland Compares With Europe
Ireland reports comparatively low chronic depression by EU standards. In the last European Health Interview Survey, 7.2% of the EU population aged 15 and over reported chronic depression, while Ireland’s share was 4.0% or less, among the lowest in the Union alongside Hungary, Greece, Malta, Bulgaria and Romania; the highest shares, 10.0% to 12.2%, were in Luxembourg, Denmark, Croatia, Germany, Sweden and Portugal. Ireland also showed one of the smallest gaps between women and men. Source: Eurostat, European Health Interview Survey 2019. Survey wording and diagnosis rates differ across countries, so these comparisons sit alongside, rather than against, the higher Irish figures from screening studies above.
What People in Ireland Do About Stress
The encouraging side of the data is how actively people respond. In Mental Health Ireland’s September 2024 national survey, 89% of respondents said they do something intentional to support their mental health every week, and learning to manage stress and anxiety ranked as the number one topic people want help with in every single age group, at 77% overall. Time (32%) and money (31%) are the biggest barriers. The same survey found 99% agree that spending time in nature benefits their mental health, with 53% actively using it for that purpose. Source: Mental Health Ireland national survey, September 2024. Aware’s 2024 survey points the same way: 81% of people are taking some action on their mental health, up from 74% in 2023. Within that, 49% attended a GP, psychiatrist or psychologist, 41% confided in someone they trust, and 35% made lifestyle changes. Source: Aware National Survey 2024. Workplaces are becoming a route in too: 28% of people have taken part in a mental health workshop, and for half of them that happened at work. Source: Mental Health Ireland, September 2024.
Method and Sources
Every figure on this page was checked against its primary source in August 2026. Self-rated mental health and depression prevalence come from the CSO Irish Health Survey, Main Results 2025 (published May 2026, PxStat tables IHS02 and IHS10); national trend scores from the Department of Health’s Healthy Ireland Survey 2024 Summary Report; the age-25 cohort figures from the CSO’s Growing Up in Ireland Cohort ’98 at Age 25 release (January 2025); workplace stress from the ESRI and Health and Safety Authority study of the European Working Conditions Survey (2018); lifetime and diagnosis figures from Aware’s 2024 national survey and the 2022 State of Ireland’s Mental Health study; behaviour figures from Mental Health Ireland’s September 2024 survey; and the EU comparison from Eurostat’s European Health Interview Survey. Percentages described as calculated were derived by us from the cited tables. The page will next be reviewed when the Healthy Ireland Survey 2025 and the next CSO Irish Health Survey publish. If you are struggling, talk to your GP, or contact Aware or the HSE’s mental health supports at yourmentalhealth.ie.
How Salt Cave Paradise Helps
Salt Cave Paradise is a wellness centre in Balbriggan, County Dublin, built around quiet, screen-free relaxation: dimly lit salt rooms, flotation therapy and a rooftop jacuzzi, sauna and ice bath. Relaxation practices like these are a complement to, not a substitute for, professional mental health support, and anyone struggling should talk to their GP first. If unwinding is what you are after, you can read about the salt water cave, browse our spa packages, or book a session online.
