Young adults in wealthy countries are four times more likely to report clinically significant mental health challenges than older generations, according to a global survey of one million people.

An embargoed report from Sapien Labs has found that young adults in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and parts of Europe are struggling more than peers in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, with early smartphone adoption, ultra-processed food consumption and weakening family and spiritual bonds cited as contributing factors.

The Global Mind Health in 2025 report, due for release on February 26, 2026 at 00:01 GMT, is based on online survey data from around one million people in 84 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. It uses a Mind Health Quotient (MHQ) score to assess an individual’s emotional, social, cognitive and physical capacities to manage work, relationships and daily life.

Tara Thiagarajan, founder and chief scientist at Sapien Labs, linked the findings to ongoing social media addiction trials in Los Angeles.

“Social media can be addictive and harmful to youth mental health, as we’re seeing in the social media addiction trials. Our data shows the consequences that play out in young adults around the world. Smartphone adoption at an early age has been shown to not only impact things like anxiety and depression, but also young people’s ability to deal with life’s routine challenges, such as holding a job and managing friend and family relationships.”

The report suggests the decline in mental wellbeing is specific to younger generations. Young adults are four times more likely to report “clinically significant” mental challenges than older cohorts, marking a reversal of trends seen a few decades ago when young adults were typically the most confident group.

Country-level data shows notable variation. Children in Finland are reported to receive smartphones at younger ages than in many other countries, while Tanzania and Uganda are among the oldest to gain access. Germany and other western European nations score lowest on spirituality measures, whereas Tanzania and other sub-Saharan African countries score highest.

The US and UK rank among the highest consumers of ultra-processed foods, while Spanish-speaking Latin America reports the strongest family bonds. In contrast, parts of West Africa and East Asia score lower on that metric.

Researchers argue that the combination of early smartphone exposure, dietary patterns and weakening social structures creates a “cocktail” of risk factors that differ by country but converge in their impact on young adults’ MHQ scores.

The data also points to emotional and cognitive consequences linked to early smartphone use, an issue now under scrutiny in the high-profile social media addiction litigation in the US, where technology executives including Mark Zuckerberg are facing questions over platform impact on youth mental health.

While the report does not establish direct causation, it highlights consistent associations between early digital exposure and reduced resilience in managing employment, relationships and daily stressors.

Sapien Labs positions the findings as evidence of a widening generational mental health gap that is more pronounced in higher income countries. The organisation said the scale of the dataset, spanning 84 countries, provides one of the most comprehensive cross-national snapshots of young adult mental wellbeing to date.