Abstract
BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: We utilized data from the 2021 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study to (i) provide estimates of the incidence, prevalence, and illness-related burden associated with schizophrenia; (2) examine how these rates have changed from 1990 to 2021; and (3) explore the association of these rates with several country-level variables (eg, access/quality of healthcare systems).
STUDY DESIGN: The GBD study provides estimates for the incidence, prevalence, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) associated with 371 illness, injuries, and risk factors by age and sex across 204 countries and territories. We examined data from the GBD 2021 study to describe the global epidemiology of schizophrenia as well as the association between metrics of schizophrenia epidemiology and country-level variables previously associated with these metrics.
STUDY RESULTS: In 2021, the global age-standardized incidence, prevalence, and DALY rates were 15.4, 277.7, and 177.8 per 100 000 individuals, respectively. Between 1990 and 2021, global incidence rates (both age-standardized and crude) declined, whereas crude prevalence and DALY rates per 100 000 increased and age-standardized prevalence and DALYs remained unchanged. However, these findings varied by age, gender, and geography. Changes in country-level variables between 1990-2021 (eg, alcohol use and per capita income) were associated with changes in incidence, prevalence, and DALY rates over this same time period.
CONCLUSIONS: Schizophrenia remains a significant health concern worldwide. Our results highlight the need for health systems to prepare to address the growing prevalence of schizophrenia which may be greatest among older adults, and especially older women.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | sgag012 |
| Pages (from-to) | 12 |
| Journal | Schizophrenia bulletin open |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 16 Apr 2026 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 4 May 2026 |
Bibliographical note
Copyright © The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the University of Maryland’s school of medicine, Maryland Psychiatric ResearchCenter.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Funding
This work was supported by multiple sources. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. G.E. Aurizki reports support from the University of Manchester (2022–2026) and was financially supported by the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education Agency (Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan/LPDP), the Republic of Indonesia; outside the submitted work. O. Ayinde reports grants or contracts from grant MR/X022242/1 Medical Research Council (UK) and grant R01MH137768 from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH), outside the submitted work. R. Bai reports support for the this article from the Open Research Fund of Key Laboratory of Endocrine Glucose & Lipids Metabolism and Brain Aging, Ministry of Education (Open Research Fund No. [2023JYBZDSYS012]). S. Bhaskar reports grants or contracts from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI; grant ID 23KF0126), JSPS and the Australian Academy of Science JSPS International Fellowship (grant ID P23712); leadership or fiduciary roles in other board, society, committee or advocacy groups, paid or unpaid as District Chair of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging of Rotary District 9675 (Sydney, Australia), as Chair, Founding Member, and Manager of the Global Health & Migration Hub Community (Global Health Hub Germany in Berlin, Germany), as Editorial Board Member of PLOS One, BMC Neurology, Frontiers in Neurology, Frontiers in Stroke, Frontiers in Public Health, Journal of Aging Research, Neurology International, Diagnostics, and BMC Medical Research Methodology; as a member of the College of Reviewers, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Government of Canada; as the Director of Research of World Headache Society (Bengaluru, India); as Expert Adviser/Reviewer of Cariplo Foundation (Milan, Italy); as Visiting Director of National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Department of Neurology, Division of Cerebrovascular Medicine and Neurology, Suita (Osaka, Japan); as Member, Scientific Review Committee of Cardiff University Biobank (Cardiff, UK); as Chair of Rotary Reconciliation Action Plan; and as Healthcare and Medical Adviser at Japan Connect (Osaka, Japan), all outside the submitted work. S. Cortese reports grants or contracts from the NIHR and European Research Agency; Consulting fees from BAP, Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH), and Medice; Support for meetings and/or travel from BAP, Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH), and Medice; all outside the submitted work. X. Dai reports support for the present manuscript from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, for payment of salary. D. Dias da Silva reports grants or contracts from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Project 2024.06933 RESTART (payment made to institution to support research) and Escola Superior de Saúde do Politécnico do Porto; Payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers bureaus, manuscript writing or educational events from Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade do Porto (Portugal) and Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto (Portugal); Support for attending meetings and or travel from Escola Superior de Saúde do Politécnico do Porto, Portugal and Research Unit LAQV-REQUIMTE, Portugal; all outside the submitted work. E. Eboreime reports grants or contracts from CIHR and Grand Challenges Canada; Support for attending meetings and/or travel from Grand Challenges Canada; Leadership or fiduciary role in other board, society, committee or advocacy group, paid or unpaid with Global Implementation Society; all outside the submitted work. A. Faro reports support for the present manuscript from National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil). I. Ilic reports support for the present manuscript from the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia (no. 451-03-137/2025-03/200110). B. Langguth reports consulting fees from Rovi; Payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers bureaus, manuscript writing or educational events from Rovi; Support for attending meetings and/or travel from Rovi; Leadership or fiduciary role in other board, society, committee or advocacy group, paid or unpaid as Chair of the board of directors of the German Society for Brain Stimulation in Psychiatry; outside the submitted work. K. Krishan reports non-financial support from the UGC Centre of Advanced Study, CAS II, awarded to the Department of Anthropology, and RUSA 2.O grant awarded to Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, outside the submitted work. A.M. Madureira-Carvalho reports grants or contracts from Instituto Universitário de Ciências da Saúde (IUCS); Payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers bureaus, manuscript writing or educational events from Instituto Universitário de Ciências da Saúde (IUCS); Leadership or fiduciary role in other board, society, committee or advocacy group, paid or unpaid as Member of the Board (treasurer) of the Portuguese Association of Forensic Sciences (APCF); outside the submitted work. W Marx reports grants or contracts from the National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator Fellowship, Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT) Deakin University, Seed funding; and Farmers Union (a Bega Group brand); Payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers bureaus, manuscript writing or educational events from VitaFoods Asia; Support for attending meetings and/or travel from European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP)2024; Leadership or fiduciary role in other board, society, committee or advocacy group, unpaid as President of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research, outside the submitted work. P.B. Mitchell reports grants or contracts from Australian NHMRC Investigator Grant (117788); Payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers bureaus, manuscript writing or educational events from Shanghai Yunguan Yiyun Education, outside the submitted work. F, Mughal reports support for the present manuscript from NIHR 300957, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) for this study. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of NIHR, National Health Service (NHS) or the UK Department of Health and Social Care. S. Mohammed reports support for the present manuscript from the Gates Foundation. F.B. Omage reports grants or contracts from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) grant no 2023/02691-2, outside the submitted work. S. Onie reports support for the present manuscript from Lynch Family Foundation Research Fellowship for Global Health Equity and an NHMRC Investigator Grant; Consulting fees from the World Health Organization, outside the submitted work.
UN SDGs
This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
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