The UK’s biggest mental health ‘inequality hotspots’

Our research shows that across the UK, people with mental health problems are more likely to face financial difficulty than the wider population. However, these disparities are significantly bigger in some parts of the UK than others.  

For example, 72% of people with mental health problems in Northern Ireland say that keeping up with bills and credit repayments is a burden, compared to 52% of the rest of the province’s population — a difference of 20% percentage points. At the other end of the scale, in London this gap is just 6% percentage points.

The map illustrates how this trend plays out in different parts of the UK, and sets out the key drivers of economic inequalities for people with mental health problems in each place.