Cost of depression in the workplace across eight diverse countries – collectively US$250 billion

Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide. Previous research has shown that by far the greatest contributor to the overall economic impact of depression is loss in productivity; including both increased absenteeism and presenteeism-related costs in the workplace. However, there is very little research on the costs of depression outside of Western countries and high-income countries. Using data from a survey of 8,000 employees across 8 countries spanning diverse cultures and levels of economic development, we found that workplace depression collectively costs almost US$250 billion. When analysing data from Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, South Africa and the USA, we found that between 0.1% and 4.9% of a country’s GDP was lost due to absenteeism and presenteeism in the workplace.