Global - Level of stigma around mental illnesses

Global and national health bodies have made concerted efforts to reduce the stigmas around mental illness. How are these efforts panning out? In this YouGov Profiles piece, we gauge the proportion of consumers in five global markets who feel that shame around mental health is on the decline.

Out of the five markets we explore in this piece – Britain, the United States, India, Canada, and Brazil – Brits are the most likely to agree that stigmas around mental illnesses are declining (56%).

In contrast, only a quarter of adults in Brazil (25%) think the same. The US (47%), Canada (43%) and urban India (39%) fall somewhere in between. One of the biggest stigmas around mental illnesses is the notion that they are not “real illnesses”. Profiles data lets us look at the proportion of people in each market who hold that view.

Urban Indians (41%) are more likely than consumers in other markets to agree with the statement “mental illnesses are not real illnesses”. Consumers in Britain (8%) are the least likely to agree with that view, followed by Canada (11%), the US (13%) and Brazil (16%).

For health marketers and policy-makers, this data reveals interesting national differences which can inform the approaches they take to tackling mental ill-health. Global bodies, in particular, should be aware that certain one-size-fits-all approaches formulated through a western lens are perhaps less likely to gain traction in BRICS markets as in other markets.

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Methodology: YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data and rolling surveys, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Profiles data is nationally representative and weighted by age, gender, education, region, and race. Learn more about Profiles.