Mental health sick leaves triple in Catalonia over ten years

Mental health-related sick leaves in Catalonia have tripled over the last decade, according to annual health reports. In the most recent year, 194,953 cases were recorded, accounting for 8.8% of all common contingency sick leaves—a two-percentage-point increase from ten years ago.

While the percentage of total cases has risen moderately, the impact on working days is significant. The average duration for mental health leave is 79 days, nearly three times the general average of 28 days. In 2025, mental health reasons accounted for approximately one in every four days of total sick leave, with the annual volume of lost days exceeding 15 million.

This places mental health disorders as the second leading cause of lost working days, following musculoskeletal pathologies. Medical professionals from the Catalan Society of Family and Community Medicine (CAMFiC) note a rise in severe anxiety and adaptive disorders. While unions attribute the increase to workplace issues such as harassment, poor organization, and low wages, employer groups describe the trend as a multi-causal phenomenon that cannot be attributed solely to work-related factors.