Post-traumatic stress disorder statistics 2025

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health disorder that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. It’s a serious condition that can have far-reaching consequences for an individual’s social, occupational and relational life. 

To help you understand PTSD better, we’ve listed some facts and figures about PTSD from leading organisations in mental and public health. 

Prevalence

• 70% of individuals globally experience a potentially traumatic event in their lifetime but only 5.6% will develop PTSD. [1]
• An estimated 3.9% of the global population will experience PTSD at some stage in their lifetime. [1]
• 5.7% of adults in the UK screened positive for PTSD compared to 4.4% in 2014. [2]

Demographics

• More women than men screened positive for PTSD (6.1% and 5% respectively). [2]
• LGBTQ people are more than twice as likely to experience PTSD than cisgender/heterosexual people, especially transgender people. [3]
• People with problem debt were 3 times (16.4%) more likely to screen positive for PTSD than those without problem debt (4.6%). [2]
• Almost 1 in 10 (9.4%) adults living in the most deprived areas screened positive for PTSD compared to 3.9% in the least deprived areas. [2] 
• Rates of PTSD were higher in people of working age (14-64) who are unemployed (19.9%) or economically inactive (15.1%) than among those who were employed (4.6%). [2]
• Almost 10% of adults with poor physical health screened positive for PTSD. [2]
• People with a limiting physical health condition were more likely to report a traumatic event (29.5%) and more likely (10.1%) to screen positive for PTSD than those without (3.4%). [2]
• More than half (55.7%) of people who screened positive for PTSD were receiving mental health treatment – most (45.6%) were receiving medication, some psychological therapy (23.8%) and others both (13.8%). [2]
• 9% of military respondents reported probably PTSD (up from 6% in 2014/16 and 4% in 2004/2006). [4]
• 7.9% of healthcare workers in a study were diagnosed with PTSD. [5]

Treatment

• 24% of people who screened positive for PTSD are receiving psychological treatment. [6]
• 1 in 4 people in low- and middle-income countries report seeking treatment for PTSD. [2]
• The PTSD recovery rate with NHS Talking Therapies (NHS TT) is about 37.8% and 15-20% in some services – this is lower than the overall NHS TT recovery rate of 50-60% across all disorders. [7]

Comorbidity and suicide risk

• 78.5% of people with PTSD have a comorbidity: [8]
  • Major depression 54%
  • Social phobia 36.3%
  • Psychotic symptoms 30.4%
  • Obsessive compulsive disorder 27.7% 
  • Generalized anxiety disorder 9.8%
  • Alcohol misuse and dependency 9.5% 
  • Substance misuse 12.6%
•  It is estimated that 27% of people who received a PTSD diagnosis in their lifetime have attempted suicide. [11]
• Women with PTSD are almost 7 times more likely than other women to die by suicide, and men with PTSD are 4 times more likely to die by suicide than other men. [11]

Cost and economic impact 

• PTSD has an estimated annual cost of about £40 billion due to direct costs (e.g., hospital stays, medication, doctors, treatment) and indirect costs (e.g., homelessness, unemployment and disability allowances, productivity lost at work). [9]

Role of genetics and environment 

• A large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) found that genetic factors account for about 5-20% of PTSD risk following trauma exposure, showing a significant hereditary contribution to PTSD susceptibility. [10]