1. Main facts and figures
- in 2014, there were no meaningful differences between ethnic groups in the percentage of men who had experienced a common mental disorder (like anxiety, depression or obsessive compulsive disorder) in the week before they were surveyed
- 29% of Black women had experienced a common mental disorder in the past week, a higher rate than for women from White British and Other White ethnic groups
- common mental disorders were more prevalent in White British women than in Other White women, at 21% and 16% respectively
2. Things you need to know
What the data measures
This data measures the percentage of people aged 16 or older who experienced a common mental disorder in the week prior to being surveyed, by ethnicity.
Common mental disorders include:
- generalised anxiety disorder
- mild, moderate and severe depression
- phobias
- obsessive compulsive disorder
- panic disorder
Percentages have been rounded to 1 decimal point.
Not included in the data
The data does not include people who live in institutional settings or in temporary housing (such as hostels or bed and breakfasts) or homeless people.
The ethnic groups used in the data
Data is shown for the following 5 aggregated ethnic groups:
- Asian
- Black
- Mixed
- White British
- White Other
This is because the number of people surveyed was too small to make any reliable generalisations about specific ethnic groups.
Methodology
The data has been age-standardised so comparisons can be made between ethnic groups as if they had the same age profile (an age profile shows the number of people of different ages within an ethnic group). The data does not show the actual percentage of people in each ethnic group who experienced one or more common mental disorders in the week before the survey.
The figures on this page are based on survey data. Find out more about:
- interpreting survey data, including how reliability is affected by the number of people surveyed
- how weighting is used to make survey data more representative of the whole group being studied
In the data file
See Download the data for:
- confidence intervals for each ethnic group
- the unweighted number of people surveyed
3. By ethnicity and sex
| Ethnicity | All | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | |
| Asian/Asian British | 17.9 | 12.9 | 23.6 |
| Black/Black British | 22.5 | 13.5 | 29.3 |
| Mixed/ multiple/ other | 19.5 | 10.5 | 28.7 |
| White British | 17.3 | 13.5 | 20.9 |
| White other | 14.4 | 13.1 | 15.6 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and sex’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and sex’ (CSV)
Summary of Common mental disorders By ethnicity and sex Summary
This data shows that:
-
the percentage of people who experienced a common mental disorder (CMD) in the past week didn’t vary by ethnic group for men - but it did for women
-
29% of Black/Black British women experienced a CMD in the past week, a higher rate than for White British women or Other White women
-
CMDs were more prevalent in White British women than in Other White women, at 21% and 16% respectively
-
no other meaningful differences between ethnic groups or sexes were observed in terms of CMDs
4. Data sources
Source
Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey: Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, England, 2014
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
NHS Digital
Publication frequency
Every 7 years (further publications dependent on further surveys being commissioned)
Purpose of data source
The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey provides data on the prevalence of treated and untreated psychiatric disorders in English adults aged 16 and over.
5. Download the data
This file contains the following: ethnicity, year, gender, disorder type, value, denominator, numerator, confidence intervals