Almost One in Five People Aged 25 to 34 Saw a Mental Health Professional in a Year, and Women Are Twice as Likely as Men to Take Medicines for Anxiety and Sleep

Almost one in five people aged 25 to 34 in Portugal (19.3 percent) saw a psychiatrist, psychologist or psychotherapist in the year before they were interviewed, the highest share of any age group. Across everyone aged 15 and over the figure was 11.9 percent, and it falls steadily with age, to 6.6 percent of people aged 65 to 74 and 5.9 percent of those aged 75 to 84.

The figures come from the Inquérito Nacional de Saúde (National Health Survey), which the Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE, the national statistics office) carried out in the last quarter of 2025 on a representative sample of 22,000 households. INE published its detailed mental health results on 9 October. All the answers are self-reported.

Who sees a mental health professional

• By sex: 15.1 percent of women and 8.6 percent of men had at least one consultation.
• By age: 17.0 percent of 15 to 24 year olds and 19.3 percent of 25 to 34 year olds, falling to 13.3 percent at 35 to 44 and 10.2 percent at 55 to 64.
• By education: 20.1 percent of people with a university degree, against 11.5 percent of those who finished secondary school and 7.8 percent of those with basic schooling only.
• By work status: 16.3 percent of the unemployed, 12.9 percent of people in work and 6.4 percent of pensioners.

Asked about access, 10.6 percent said they had needed mental health care and got it every time. Another 2.9 percent said they had needed it and, at least once, could not get it. The remaining 84.4 percent said they had not needed it.

Depression rises with age

In 2025, 6.7 percent of people aged 15 and over showed mild symptoms of depression and 4.3 percent severe symptoms. Women were more affected than men (5.8 percent with severe symptoms, against 2.7 percent).

Symptoms rise with age. Among people aged 85 and over, 9.7 percent had severe symptoms and another 12.9 percent mild ones. They fall with education: 10.3 percent of people who never went to school had severe symptoms, against 2.2 percent of graduates. Among people who rated their own health as bad or very bad, 23.5 percent had severe symptoms.

Medicines for sleep, anxiety and depression

The survey asked about prescribed medicines taken regularly. Among people aged 15 and over:

• 14.7 percent regularly took medicines for insomnia;
• 12.1 percent for anxiety;
• 9.3 percent for depression.

Women were more than twice as likely as men to be on each of them: 20.0 percent of women took medicines for insomnia (men 9.1 percent), 16.4 percent for anxiety (men 7.5 percent) and 12.9 percent for depression (men 5.5 percent). INE says use tends to fall as education rises.

Wellbeing, and knowing where to look

INE also measured a mental wellbeing index, built from five questions about the previous two weeks (mood, calm, energy, rest and interest in daily life), where a higher score means better wellbeing. The national score was 71. Men scored 75 and women 68. The score falls from 79 among 15 to 24 year olds to 62 among people aged 85 and over, and it was lower for the unemployed (67) and pensioners (68).

On mental health literacy, 75.4 percent said it was easy or very easy to find out about activities that are good for mental wellbeing, but only 62.5 percent said the same about finding information to deal with a mental health problem. Graduates found both easier (88.7 and 74.6 percent) than people with basic schooling (66.3 and 53.5 percent) and pensioners (57.4 and 44.2 percent). By region, the Azores had the lowest scores (70.4 and 58.1 percent).

Overall, 77.0 percent of people said they were satisfied with their lives, from 85.8 percent of 15 to 24 year olds to 70.9 percent of those aged 65 and over. The share was 81.9 percent among people in work and 65.9 percent among the unemployed. By region it ranged from 80.4 percent in the Centro to 73.2 percent on the Setúbal Peninsula.

Part of a series

INE has published other detailed results from the same survey this month, on the daily difficulties of people over 65 and on diet, exercise and weight. Psychologists have put the cost of stress and poor mental health at work at 13.3 billion euros in 2024, and the Ombudsman has pressed for more mental health care in youth detention centres and prisons.

Anyone in immediate danger, or worried that someone else is, should call the European emergency number, 112.