Mental Illness Prevalences and Unemployment Rates

Taylor Fogarty, SARC 5400 Final Project

Data obtained from OurWorldInData.org and WorldBank.org

Global Unemployment North America South America Europe Africa Asia Oceania

Is there a relationship between mental illness and unemployment?

While mental illness prevalences stay relatively constant from 1991 to 2017, unemployment within each continent varies much more over time. They do not seem to be generally correlated with no clear changes in mental health while the unemployment increases or decreases. It does appears that consistently lower unemployment is associated with lower alcohol use disorder prevalence, seen in the data from Asia and Oceania, however this may be a cultural difference rather than or in addition to a cause-effect relationship.

In this case, continent averages may not be appropriate. Realistically, each continent has prospering and struggling countries that may even each other out.

Luckily, countries can also be divided by their development level.

All All Stacked High SDI High-Medium SDI Middle SDI Low-Middle SDI Low SDI

It's apparent when the countries are divided by Socio-Demographic Index (a measure of their relative development, comparing income per capita, education, and fertility rates) that mental illness is actually more prevalent in more developed countries. This could be for several reasons including the rising association of more technology with illnesses like anxiety and depression, but it could also point to a lack of diagnosis in underdeveloped countries. A lack of effective health care or a society that downplays mental illness could leads to less reports when the prevalences are in fact similar.

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