The Mental State of the World

A Perspective on Internet-Enabled Populations in 2023
A Publication of the Global Mind Project – March 4, 2024

The fourth annual Mental State of the World Report provides a perspective on the Internet-enabled global population. In focus this year is one key trend – that the dramatic decline in mental well-being between 2019 and 2020, and continued into 2021 through the COVID-19 pandemic, continues to persist with no sign of recovery. The expectation may have been that once the lockdowns lifted and the threat of COVID-19 subsided our collective mental health would begin a recovery towards its pre-pandemic levels. However, the data across 64 countries argues otherwise – that the effects of diminished global mental well-being have become a new normal. Indeed, many of the shifts that the pandemic brought about persist, from an increase in remote work to increased use of single-use plastics, and could all have a contributing effect that must be studied and understood.