When Music Speaks: Mental Health and Next Steps in the Danish Music Industry. Part 1 - Danish Music Creators' Subjective Wellbeing and Mental Health

This report contains findings based on the largest ever study of musicians’ and music creators’ mental health in Scandinavia, with 1865 survey respondents.

Across our whole sample of musicians and more broadly defined music-makers in Denmark, subjective wellbeing is estimated to be worse than the wider Danish population based on our best approximation, with young music creators and women particularly badly affected.

Levels of anxiety (measured using the HADS-A scale) are high amongst our sample. 45.8% received scores indicating abnormal levels of anxiety. However, age is significant variable here. For survey respondents under the age of 40, 68.7% received scores indicating abnormal levels of anxiety, with 42.8% reaching the threshold of clinical significance. Anxiety was seen to be most acute in the age band 25-29 years. For those in this age band, 78.2% received scores indicating abnormal levels of anxiety, with 49.1% showing clinically significant anxiety, of which 15.5% scored severe, clinically significant, anxiety. Gender is also a significant variable. For female respondents, 65.4% received scores indicating abnormal levels of anxiety (of which 41.2% reached the threshold of clinical significance) compared to 39.1% for men.

Of those respondents who can be categorised as having abnormal anxiety, 61% of these considered music as their main career. This suggests, in line with other global studies, that the music career itself is a significant factor.