Mental Health Tech

Over the past 20 years, the tech industry has become one of the fastest growing sectors in the US Economy.

Hover over the points to see some major events.

As a result of the tech boom, jobs in tech have become extremely desirable, advertising high salaries, job stability, and a fast-paced work environment...

...But is a job in tech really all that it seems?

Introducing the Dataset:

The nonprofit Open Sourcing Mental Illness (OSMI) conducted an annual survey from 2016 to 2019, in which tech professionals voluntarily answered questions about their experience with mental health in the tech industry.

Over these four years, 2,958 people took the survey.

The following visualizations examine OSMI's survey results, and what the results say about mental health in tech.

How well do you really know the people behind the code?

Diagnostic Quiz:

Guess what percent of tech professionals in each group have a mental health issue by using the sliders below.

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You submitted your expectations. Here's how they compare against OSMI's survey results:

How did you do? Were you surprised by your results?

And it's not just your demographic groups that are struggling...

Mental Health Issues by Demographic:

Each person below represents ten people who took the OSMI survey. They are colored red if they struggle with a mental health issue or disorder. Scroll to see how mental health issues are distributed across different demographic groups.

Note: Not every survey participant disclosed every demographic category.

41% of all respondents said they are struggling with mental health issues.

Hover to see what mental health disorders they are struggling with.

A higher proportion of people who identified as Females and Other are struggling with mental health issues, compared to Males.

Each red icon represents 10 people struggling with a mental health issue or disorder. Hover to see what mental health disorders each group is struggling with.

People age 18-25 and 26-35 reported the highest proportion of mental health issues.

Each red icon represents 10 people struggling with a mental health issue or disorder. Hover to see what mental health disorders each group is struggling with.

People who identified as Hispanic/Black reported the highest proportion of mental health issues. Asians had the lowest proportion.

NOTE: Disclosing race was not requested in 2016. Some participants in 2017-2019 also chose not to disclose race.

Each red icon represents 10 people struggling with a mental health issue or disorder. Hover to see what mental health disorders each group is struggling with.

Designers had the highest proportion of mental health issues. Developers had the lowest proportion.

NOTE: Disclosing occupation was only requested in 2016.

Each red icon represents 10 people struggling with a mental health issue or disorder. Hover to see what mental health disorders each group is struggling with.

According to a study done by the World Health Organization, a negative workplace environment can lead to physical & mental health problems, loss of productivity, and absenteeism.

An estimated $1 trillion a year of productivity is lost due to depression and anxiety disorders.

This can be attributed to a variety of poor workplace practices, including bad management practices, low levels of support for employees, inflexible working hours, and inadequate health policies.

Let's see whether OSMI survey responses about employer/coworker behavior reflect a relationship between negative workplace culture and mental health issues...

These sankey visualizations show the relationship between survey responses about mental health and employer/coworker behavior. The first three panels highlight particularly interesting relationships, and the last panel allows you to select which responses to explore yourself.

What are the impacts of a bad workplace culture around mental health?

This visualization shows participants' most frequently used words in response to prompts about employer behavior regarding mental health. Use the dropdown below to toggle between prompts. Hover over words on the barchart to highlight them in the word cloud. Use the response generator below the word cloud to read participants' full responses.

Word Frequencies

Individual Stories

The Future of Mental Health in Tech

The future of mental health in the tech industry is reliant on proactivity today. OSMI's survey responses reveal three main takeaways for how to move forward:

Support underrepresented demographics.

Survey data shows that women , non-binary genders , and Hispanic/Black tech professionals struggle the most with mental health issues.

Educate management.

Survey data shows that many tech professionals who are struggling with mental health issues work in environments where employers do not provide enough support for employee mental health.

Hold employees accountable.

Survey data shows that tech professionals' coworkers often dismissed, stigmatized, and mocked mental health issues. More should be formally done to incentivize a supportive environment.

A stronger, more supportive work culture is everyone's responsibility.

How are you doing your part?

For more information about OSMI's Survey on Mental Health, please visit https://osmihelp.org/.

For more resources about mental health and mental health awareness, please visit https://www.mhanational.org/. OSMI's Resource Page also provides a wide range of resources.

Meet the Team

Seth Billiau
Senior, Currier House

Sarah Hong
Senior, Lowell House

Austin Hwang
Senior, Currier House