Half of people face lifetime mental illness

Using structured interviews from the World Mental Health Surveys and modelling by McGrath et al., cumulative‑risk curves show that around 50% of people will experience at least one common mental disorder (depression, anxiety, bipolar, or substance‑related) by age 75, with clear differences by sex and disorder type. The data come from >150,000 face‑to‑face diagnostic interviews across 29 countries and reveal most first onsets occur in youth and early adulthood, though many first episodes occur later in life. — If roughly half the population will at some point need mental‑health care, policymakers must reframe workforce, financing, prevention, and stigma strategies around lifetime demand rather than point‑prevalence snapshots.