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The world today is facing a deep mental health crisis. In Europe, the use of antidepressants has more than doubled over the past 20 years.
Global antidepressant consumption has dramatically increased in the past two decades, with Europeans being the largest consumers on the world map.
Antidepressant use has nearly doubled from 2000 to 2020 in 18 European countries, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
OECD data also show a significant increase in anxiety disorders and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Do countries ranking among the happiest in Europe or the world have lower antidepressant consumption? And which country ranks at the top of the list for the highest antidepressant consumption? As for our country – with its Mediterranean sun and sea that soothes everything – where does it rank?
Data on global per capita antidepressant use show that Iceland has the highest percentage of citizens taking antidepressant drugs.
The data was collected by the organization Our World in Data and analyzed the number of antidepressant prescriptions given in 22 countries for 2021.
In the chart below from Our World in Data, you can see the consumption of antidepressant drugs per 1,000 people for 2021. Daily antidepressant consumption per 1,000 people is calculated as the ‘defined daily dose,’ allowing for comparison of total drug consumption levels, taking into account that different antidepressants have different recommended doses.
The data showed that Iceland is at the top of the list, with 161.1 prescriptions per 1,000 people, which corresponds to about one in six people. It’s worth noting that this is a sparsely populated country with fewer than 400,000 residents, half of whom are concentrated in the wider area of the capital, Reykjavik.
At the bottom of the list is South Korea with 27 prescriptions per 1,000 people, likely due to insufficient available data.
Mediterranean Portugal and the much more “European” Canada (compared to the USA) follow in the top 3 with 139 and 130 prescriptions per 1,000 people, respectively.
In the fourth, fifth, and sixth positions are Australia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom with 122, 108, and 107 prescriptions per 1,000 people respectively.
The list is completed by Spain (92 prescriptions per 1,000 people), Chile, Denmark (84.5 per 1,000 people), Belgium, the well-known as the happiest country in Europe Finland (81.5 per 1,000 people), and immediately after the happy Scandinavian country, Greece comes with 70.9 prescriptions per 1,000 people.
A question arises not from Greece’s 12th position in the ranking, however, but from the prominence of three of the happiest countries in the world in the consumption of antidepressants.
Since 2023, the World Happiness Report ranked Iceland as the third happiest country in the world after Finland and Denmark. According to the report, Iceland had the highest sense of social support and the second-highest generosity score.
One explanation proposed by experts is that these unpleasant top positions are not due to the dark, cold winters and the short duration of the day, but to the low cost of medications.
