Spain’s 2025 health survey found that 16.2% of people aged 15 and over had a depressive condition, 1.6 points more than in 2023. Chronic illness affected 66.2%, while fewer people rated their health positively.
In 2025, 68.3% of people aged 15 and over rated their health as good or very good, down 5.8 points from 2023. The same survey found that 16.2% had a depressive condition, according to figures published by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE).
The results come from the Encuesta de Salud de España (ESdE) 2025, prepared jointly by Spain’s Ministry of Health and the INE. Published by the ministry on 20 October 2026, the survey covered 25,961 people: 21,641 aged 15 and over and 4,320 children, in a representative sample of people living in private households in Spain. It tracks health status and use of health services, as well as factors that shape health.
The rate of depressive conditions rose 1.6 points in two years. Severe symptoms accounted for 7.2% of the population, down 0.8 points from 2023; other depressive conditions increased by 2.5 points. These figures describe reported conditions and symptoms, not individual diagnoses.
Separately, the Ministry of Health reported that 35.6% of people aged 15 and over had symptoms across the depressive spectrum in 2025, compared with 29.8% in 2023, an increase of 5.8 percentage points. The ministry said most of these symptoms were mild. This broader measure of reported symptoms differs from the survey’s 16.2% figure for a depressive condition. For the symptom measure, the reported rate was 42.2% among women and 28.8% among men.
Chronic illness was more widely reported, too. In 2025, 66.2% of people aged 15 and over said they had a chronic disease or health problem, compared with 57.7% in 2023. That was an increase of 8.5 points. Women reported chronic conditions more often than men, at 70.9% compared with 61.4%.
The shift in perceived health differed between the sexes. Among men, 73.6% rated their health positively, 4.4 points fewer than in 2023. Among women, the figure was 63.1%, down 7.1 points. Positive health ratings fell in every age group except among people aged 85 and over.
High cholesterol was the most frequently reported chronic problem, affecting 21.1% of the population. High blood pressure came next, at 20.0%. Chronic lower-back pain affected 17.8%.
Some conditions rose faster than others. Chronic allergy increased by 5.3 points between 2023 and 2025, while high cholesterol rose by 3.1 points. Menopause-related problems were up 2.3 points.
Among children under 15, chronic allergy was the most common condition listed, at 9.6%, while asthma affected 4.6%. Behavioural disorders were reported in 3.5%. The survey also recorded depressive problems in this age group. Over the two-year period, the sharpest increase was among people aged 65 and over, rising from 9% in 2023 to 12.2% in 2025.
A separate measure of living standards has examined income differences between towns, including this Seville province ranking. By contrast, the INE survey tracks self-reported health and chronic conditions across age and sex groups.
