According to statistics, over one-quarter of children now have a'mental condition'.

 According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), about one-quarter of youngsters in England now have a 'probable mental illness'.

The prevalence of these diseases, as measured by responses to a questionnaire administered to children aged eight to sixteen, is increasing.

Data for 2023 indicated that 23.3% of youngsters had a likely mental condition, such as anxiety or depression, up from 19% the previous year.
Experts have already noted the impact of the Covid epidemic, including the disruption it caused to children's education and social lives, as well as the cost-of-living issue and social media, as being detrimental to children's mental health.

The information was included in the ONS's 2024 'Children's Well-Being Measures' study, which also revealed alarming increases in stress factors among British children.
One was the proportion of children now living in 'food insecure households', as determined by interviews with their parents or carers.

In light of the rising cost of living, data for 2023 show that more over one in every six children (16.9 percent) now live in households that are at danger of failing to provide them with adequate nourishment.

This is increase from little more than one in ten children (11.6%) in 2022.

Poverty was likewise rising year after year.

The number of children living in households without complete access to 21 common goods and services increased to 15.3 percent, or approximately one in every six children.
This was increased from 12.6% (or around one in every ten children) the previous year.

The widespread use of social media and online access has also had a negative impact on children's well-being.

Nearly a third (32%) of children reported seeing something 'worrying or terrible' within the last year, from November of last year.

This is up from 29 percent the year before.

The team did not specify what content this could entail, although social media is rife with gruesome videos from combat zones and explicit adult content.

There was also an increase in children becoming victims of crime.

According to the ONS research, nearly one in every ten children (9.8 percent) were victims of crime in 2023, up from one in every twenty (6.6 percent) in 2022.

Boys were more likely than girls to be victims of crime, with 11.6 percent versus 8.8 percent.

However, whereas boys' crime rates increased by only 3.5 percentage points every year, girls' rates doubled.

Children were also less likely to visit nature in 2023.
Access to green spaces has been linked to a variety of health advantages, both mental and physical.

According to the ONS data, less than half (46.4%) of eight- to 15-year-olds in England visited an outdoor place other than their garden in the last week they were not at school in 2023.

This is down from 50.1% of children who reported visiting such a venue in 2022.

When it came to general life happiness, British children expressed conflicting emotions.

In 2023, around one in every twenty (4.8%) youngsters reported having 'poor' overall satisfaction with their lives, which was the same proportion as the previous year.

However, the number of people who reported excellent life satisfaction grew to 44.5%, up from 41.5% the previous year.

However, only 35.8 percent assessed it as'very high', down from 38.4 percent the previous year.

More children reported being dissatisfied in 2023.

When asked to estimate their happiness the day before, 6.4% of children rated it as 'poor', a slight increase from 6.1% the previous year.