More than 300 million people currently live with depression, making it the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide, according to the latest estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The UN agency released the estimates ahead of World Health Day on 7 April. Xinhua news agency quoted a WHO news release as saying:
These new figures are a wake-up call for all countries to re-think their approaches to mental health and to treat it with the urgency that it deserves.