Nearly a quarter of children now have a ‘mental disorder’, figures suggest

Nearly a quarter of children in England now have a ‘probable mental disorder’, according to a report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). 

The rate of these disorders, recorded based on answers from a questionnaire of eight to 16-year-olds, is on the increase.

Data for 2023 suggested 23.3 per cent of children had a probable mental disorder, such as anxiety or depression, up from 19 per cent the year prior.

Experts have previously highlighted the impact of the Covid pandemic, and the disruption it caused to children’s education and social lives, alongside the cost-of-living crisis and social media as damaging kids’ mental wellbeing. 

The statistic was featured in the ONS’s ‘Children’s well-being measures’ report for 2024, which also highlighted shocking rises in stress factors British kids are experiencing. 

One was the proportion of children now living in ‘food insecure households’, based on interviews with their parents or carers. 

In mark of the rising cost of living, data for 2023 shows more than one in six children (16.9 per cent) now live in households at risk of not providing them the nutrition they need. 

This is up from just over one in 10 children (11.6 per cent) in 2022.

Poverty was also on the rise, year-on-year.

The proportion of children living in a household without full access to 21 everyday goods and services rose to 15.3 per cent, equivalent to about one in six kids.

This was up from 12.6 per cent (about one in 10 children) the year before.  

The pervasive nature of social media and online access also had an increasing negative impact on children’s wellbeing.

Nearly a third (32 per cent) of kids reported seeing something ‘worrying or nasty’ within the last 12 months of November last year.

This is up from 29 per cent they year prior. 

The team didn’t explain what content this could include but social media is awash with graphic videos from warzones or explicit adult content.  

There was also an uptick in children being victims of crime.

Almost one in 10 (9.8 per cent) kids were a victim of crime in 2023, according to the ONS report, up from about one in 20 (6.6 per cent) in 2022.

Boys were more likely than girls to be a victim of crime at 11.6 per cent compared to just 8 per cent. 

However, whereas boys only saw the rate of crime they experienced increase by 3.5 percentage points year-on-year, girls saw their rate double. 

Children were also less likely to have visited nature in 2023.

Access to green spaces has been linked to a swathe of health benefits, both mental as well as physical.

However, less than half (46.4 per cent) of eight-to-15-year-olds in England visited an outdoor area that wasn’t their garden within the last week they weren’t at school in 2023, according to the ONS report.

This fall from the 50.1 per cent of kids who reported visiting such a place in 2022. 

When it came to overall life satisfaction British children reported mixed feelings.

About one in 20 (4.8 per cent) of children reported having ‘low’ overall satisfaction with their life in 2023, the same proportion as the year prior.

But the proportion who rated their life satisfaction as high increased to 44.5 per cent, up from 41.5 per cent the year prior.

However, only 35.8 per cent rated it as ‘very high’ a decline from 38.4 per cent the year before.

More children also described being unhappy in 2023.

When asked to rate their happiness the day before 6.4 per cent of children rated it as ‘low’ a minor increase on the 6.1 per cent the year prior.