A recent report gives a somewhat rare look into an issue that doesn’t get talked about much, but an issue that should enter into our thinking when praying for all the diverse groups of people that make up Yueyang, China.

A senior mental health official says that at least 100 million Chinese people, or 7.7% of the population, suffer from mental illness, the Telegraph reports.

“This is a modest number,” Huang Yueqin, the director of the National Center for Mental Health, told the paper, noting that actual figures may be much higher. By her own estimate, Huang says a third of her university classmates have had some form of mental illness.

The WHO notes that mental illness has overtaken heart disease and cancer as the largest burden on China’s health care system. There are few mental health professionals working in China today, and Huang estimates that only 5% of China’s mentally ill seek treatment.

To be fair, “100 million” sounds like a HUGE number, but in relation to the total population of China, this is actually a lower percentage than what is reported in the USA.

If the percentage holds, there would be well over 100,000 mentally ill people in Yueyang city alone!  A sobering realization.  Please be in prayer for the people of Yueyang.