The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s new report "The Economic Case for Preventing Mental Ill Health" looks at how much problems caused by mental health cost governments across OECD and EU countries.

The report says it is "one of the most significant public health and economic challenges today" because it affects around 20 percent of the population.

"Across the EU, major depressive disorders, generalised anxiety disorders and alcohol use disorders together are projected to reduce healthy life expectancy by 2.5 years during 2025-2050, and to account for health system costs equivalent to around 6 percent of total health expenditure," the report says.

The OECD estimates an annual loss of GDP of 1.7 percent across the EU during this period: "This translates into an annual loss of €313 billion across EU countries, which is roughly equivalent to the entire GDP of Czechia in 2023."

"This impact is largely driven by reduced workforce participation, higher rates of absenteeism and "presenteeism", where employees are physically present but unable to function at full productivity," the report says.

However, the statistics for Estonia put the figure at just over 2 percent. This is the fourth highest, following Lithuania, Finland, and Latvia. Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece would experience the smallest impact, at about 1 percent.

While the report does not dwell on specific counties, it says Estonia has the biggest gap between depressive symptoms between rich and poor.

"The largest disparity is observed in Estonia, where the least wealthy men are almost 34 times more likely to experience depressive symptoms than their wealthiest counterparts," it says.

Austria and Belgium are also over 30 times more likely.

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