Report Shows Emotional Distress Rising Worldwide

Global Survey Suggests Emotional Health Is a Government Duty, Not a Private Burden

October 15, 2025

A new report on emotional health shows that worry and stress now affect nearly four in 10 adults worldwide, with emotional distress levels rising sharply over the past decade. The trend must be taken as a warning about systemic neglect by governments and global institutions of emotional health as a pillar of public wellbeing and peace.

The State of the World’s Emotional Health report by Gallup, released in partnership with the World Health Summit, draws on data from 145,000 interviews across 144 countries. It finds that 39 percent of adults felt worried and 37 percent felt stressed the day before being surveyed last year. Levels of sadness, anger and physical pain are also high, with 26 percent, 22 percent and 32 percent of adults reporting those experiences respectively. These figures are all higher than they were 10 years ago.

The report also notes that many indicators of positive emotional experiences have remained steady.

Globally, 88 percent of people said they were treated with respect, 73 percent smiled or laughed, and the same percentage experienced enjoyment the day before the survey. Roughly three-quarters said they felt well-rested, and just over half said they learned or did something interesting. The findings suggest that while distress is rising, many people still retain access to some positive emotional experiences.

Peace

A key finding of the report is the strong connection between peace and emotional health. In countries with lower levels of peace, people are much more likely to report negative emotions such as sadness and anger, even when comparing individuals with similar incomes. In India, economic insecurity, caste and gender discrimination, climate-related displacement and communal violence are all powerful triggers of emotional suffering. Positive emotions, such as laughter or enjoyment, are more common in wealthier countries, but they are not as closely linked to peace. This suggests that peace plays a larger role in reducing emotional distress than in promoting positive feelings. 

The data reveals a strong and consistent relationship between high levels of emotional distress and conditions of instability, insecurity and poverty. Across all four negative indicators, which are anger, sadness, worry and physical pain,  the countries that rank highest are those affected by violent conflict, weak governance, displacement or economic collapse.

Chad ranks first in anger (47%) and sadness (58%), and also appears in the top five for worry (60%) and physical pain (67%). Sierra Leone leads globally in physical pain (70%) and worry (67%), and is among the highest for sadness (55%) and anger (40%). Guinea and Liberia also appear repeatedly, across three or more indicators. These countries have experienced prolonged political instability, public health crises, and economic hardship.

The data on enjoyment presents a clear contrast. Countries that report the highest levels of enjoyment, including Denmark (93%), Paraguay (92%), Indonesia (91%) and Mexico (90%),  are not all wealthy. Several are middle-income or developing nations, but what they share is relative political stability, social cohesion and functioning public institutions. This means positive emotions are more closely linked to economic security and trust in institutions, but reducing distress requires deeper structural peace.

The burden of emotional distress is not evenly shared, according to the report. Globally, women report more sadness, worry and physical pain than men, and have done so for nearly two decades. The gender gap widened during the pandemic, especially for sadness, worry and pain. Further, younger adults report more anger, while midlife adults experience the most stress. Older adults are more likely to report sadness. Furthermore, women are also more likely to say they have health problems that limit daily activities, though this gap narrowed in 2024, with 24 percent of women and 22 percent of men affected.

Policy

What can be seen from these findings is a structural failure to treat emotional health as a policy issue rather than a private burden. Public health systems, particularly in low and middle-income countries, remain poorly equipped to address widespread emotional distress. Mental health services, where they exist at all, are often limited to crisis care, underfunded and poorly integrated into primary healthcare. This absence of routine, preventive care has left hundreds of millions of people without meaningful support, especially in regions affected by conflict or instability.

The persistent global rise in stress and worry also points to the failure of national and international institutions to address the social and political conditions that drive emotional distress. Prolonged exposure to insecurity, injustice, poverty, forced migration, political repression and climate anxiety are deeply embedded causes of emotional suffering. Yet these are rarely addressed in mental health strategies. By treating mental health as an individual issue to be fixed with therapy or medication, governments avoid confronting the systemic roots of public distress.

The fact that people in less peaceful countries report more sadness and anger shows how emotional health cannot be separated from security and governance. Chronic stress reflects people’s lived experience of uncertainty, violence or fear. These experiences wear down a population’s ability to trust, collaborate and maintain stable community life. In such conditions, emotional health becomes both a symptom and a cause of societal breakdown.

The data also challenge the assumption that economic growth alone can deliver emotional wellbeing. In India, for example, there has been a long-standing focus on economic growth as the primary measure of national wellbeing. Positive emotional experiences such as laughter and respect are correlated with GDP, but negative emotions remain high even in middle-income or wealthy countries with fragile peace. This suggests that GDP is not a reliable measure of how people feel. Policymakers must recognise that emotional health depends not only on money, but on stability, fairness and trust in public institutions.

Another concern is how emotional health continues to be left out of major development and humanitarian frameworks. Despite clear evidence linking mental distress with conflict and disaster outcomes, it remains underfunded and overlooked in peacebuilding, refugee protection and climate adaptation efforts. This neglect perpetuates cycles of trauma and unrest. It also weakens the capacity of communities to rebuild after crises, creating long-term fragility.

Solution

To respond to this problem, national governments need to treat emotional health as an essential part of public infrastructure. Health ministries should include regular emotional health checkups and support in primary healthcare services. This involves training health workers, setting aside specific budgets for mental health, and making sure care is available in local communities. Governments should also act across different areas, including education, housing, jobs and justice, to make emotional health a part of all major public policies. Doing this will require changing how wellbeing is understood and measured in government planning.

International institutions, including the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank, must urgently revise their frameworks to recognise that peace is essential for emotional health, and that improving emotional health is necessary for resilience and long-term development. Funding should be reallocated to support emotional health in fragile contexts, not just through psychological services but through investments in stability, human rights and collective healing processes. Donors must require emotional health indicators in all programmes related to peacebuilding, humanitarian relief and sustainable development.

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