To estimate the percentage of children with mental disorders, the Children’s Health Policy Centre analyzed data from nearly 62,000 young people contained in 14 high-quality studies. We found that 12.7% of children, or approximately one in eight, met diagnostic criteria for a mental disorder at any given time. In BC, this means approximately 95,000 young people currently meet criteria for a mental disorder, making the burden high across the province. And many children carry an even higher burden as 26.5% of young people with disorders had two or more concurrently.

We also calculated prevalence for 12 of the most common disorders or disorder groups. Anxiety disorders topped the list at 5.2%. Other common problems included attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, 3.7%), oppositional defiant disorder (3.3%), any substance use disorder (2.3%), major depressive disorder (1.3%) and conduct disorder (1.3%). For more information, see Vol. 16, No. 2 of the Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly.