SHIFT Newsroom · England
England’s mental-health survey: what the newer figures can tell us
UK archive · Original report: 27 November 2025. The 2023/24 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, published in stages during 2025, helps describe need. Its figures are not a live count for 2026.
UK archive review · 13 September 2026. Original source: 27 November 2025. This article revisits a UK development; it is not a new announcement today.
Keep the survey period attached to the headline
England's Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey collected information from March 2023 to July 2024. Results were released in stages in 2025, with the full publication dated 27 November. These are survey findings about that period, rather than a live September 2026 measure.
Among adults aged 16–64, the estimated prevalence of common mental-health conditions was 22.6%, compared with 18.9% in the 2014 survey. The publication also describes inequalities and access to treatment.
What a national estimate cannot do
A population survey cannot diagnose a reader, establish what caused their difficulties or predict how long they will wait for help. Comparisons also need matching age groups and definitions; numbers taken from different tables may describe different populations.
The publisher has withdrawn the autism chapter because of a measurement problem. We have excluded those estimates from this article and have not treated the rest of the report as invalid because one chapter requires correction.
Why it belongs in the archive
This is a useful baseline for examining demand for support in England. For SHIFT, the editorial question is whether services are becoming easier to reach alongside that need. Answering it requires service data and people's experiences, not simply repeating a striking prevalence figure.
What this means in the UK
Keep the geography, age range and data period visible when using national mental-health statistics.
Known facts
- The underlying survey fieldwork ran in 2023–2024 and covered England.