Depression affects 5.2% of Spain's residents, 4.4% of the world and 5.9% of African women, says WHO
Sunday, March 5, 2017 @ 10:31 PM
OVER 2.4 million residents in Spain suffer from depression – a total of 5.2% of the population, according to a new report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which says the incidence of this illness has gone up by 18.4% in the last decade.
Globally, a total of 322 million people are battling depression at this very moment, or 4.4% of the world's population, with nearly the same number – 264 million or 3.6% of the planet's total headcount – also suffering anxiety, such as life-limiting phobias, panic attacks, stress-related conditions and social fears.
Anxiety affects 4.1% of Spain's population, or a total of 1,911,186.
The most recent figures available are from the end of 2015 – those of 2016 are still being calculated and numbers for 2017 will not be known for another year at least – and, by the close of that year, the number of people with depression had risen by a fifth in a decade, since late 2005.
The world's number one cause of disability, depression is most prevalent in south-east Asia and the western Pacific, including India and China – despite common misconception that it is a condition 'invented' by the 'affluent west' – and nearly half the planet's sufferers are found in these regions.
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