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This line from a recent article surprised me/didn't surprise me in equal measure.

In 2014-15, 7,375 students declared arriving to university in poor mental health. While figures show an increase each year since then, the 2017-18 academic year saw a total of 12,773.

Seems an unlikely actuality

Isn’t the definition of “poor mental health” likely to be very broad?

There could be changes in methodology between the 2 years, or more subtle changes in the general environment the figures are collected under (like kush's suggestion)

But in general nothing seems particularly wrong to me apart from the presentation - the figure went up from a bit over 1% of entrants to a bit under 2%; as part of a long term trend I wouldn't be surprised in the future if it was barely noticeable.

As a result of Increases in snowflakery probably.....

You're probably both right about measurements and definitions and you're definitely right that a bit under 2% sounds a lot less dramatic and attention grabbing than an increase of 73%(which is what grabbed me of course :-)

Perhaps still indicative of something that 73% more want to identify as having poor mental health

I agree it seems high and 'poor mental health' is quite vague but given the current state of things i find it not the least bit surprising that more and more young people in tbe education system are struggling with mental health

Every year that passes it gets more acceptable to admit to suffering with mental health problems. Awareness is improving all the time too, with sports people opening up regarding their struggles, which is great to see.

Still, there is probably a general increase in poor mental health amongst youngsters - I blame camera phones and social media. Imagine if some of the stupid things you did as a kid were recorded and sent round to everyone? Social media depresses kids as well as they are constantly comparing themselves to fake-ass celebrities.

Awareness of the issues and the fact that we are more open about our problems is no doubt a contributory factor.

If you, or anyone you know has suffered from depression (you know lots of people who have suffered even though you may not know it) then I can thoroughly recommend going to see this show.
I can recommend it even if you don’t know anyone who has been depressed too.

https://www.thecornhall.co.uk/shows/a-super-happy-story/

It doesn’t trivialise the issue, but it will entertain and may well enlighten you about what being depressed can feel like. I’ve been there myself, it’s not great.

I have been a close witness to people who are clinically depressed and I imagine a reasonable number of those reporting poor mental health are some way from that. Was slightly worried by the headline as it could tend to trivialise the issues people struggle with.

That was my instinct anyway. When I thought more about it, i started to think it was more a positive indicator, related to how people feel much more able to be open about these things these days. As others allude to

I think it is definitely a mixture of the two.

It is great that people with real issues are now more comfortable to open up and talk about it, but I think it also means a lot of people can now label themselves and that means that their situation isn't their fault.

It's definitely a good thing that its becoming more and more socially acceptable to open up about mental health issues, I do feel for kids these days growing up in the school system - my cousin is 16 and going through it and the pressure from schools (and on schools) is immense, when you add in all the pressures that social media brings I'm really glad that its less of an embarrassing thing to admit too and more people are getting help.  When I was at school, I didn't have social media etc but I really felt the pressures of the school system churning you through the 1. GOOD GRADES, 2. GET TO UNI, 3. DEGREE, 4. GOOD JOB production chain, it wasn't the path i went down but several of my friends came out at 23 could only get bar work and they ended up quite depressed about it. I imagine it's even tougher these days.

I'm sure lots of people in my generation at school (and moreso the generations before) suffered from some element of mental health issues/depression and found no medium to ask for help, or felt too embarrassed about it etc and that probably affected a lot of people negatively going into adult life.  I certainly never saw anything or anyone offering help or support for depression or mental health when i was at school, so I'm really happy this is changing. It's one of those things which will never go away but we can learn to deal with it and support people better. Despite all the poltical meltdown the UK is still one of the best places to live on the planet as if you can ask for help, you'll often get it - and if you can't ask for whatever reason there are more and more ways of help finding you. 

That’s because it’s not their fault. I thought we’d got past the stage of telling people with depression to just ‘pull yourself together’ or ‘get a grip’, or ‘get out there and meet people’.

That's not what I'm saying.

I'm just not believing that 100% of those people have a genuine mental health issue.

I’ve reread your post and can accept that I misinterpreted you.

Apologies, the lack of understanding of these issues is a sore point for me on many levels so I was overly sensitive.