ZUS: 34.1 million sick-leave days due to mental disorders in 2025
Sick leave for mental health reasons has risen for the third year in a row, although the overall number of sick-leave days is lower than in 2020. Such leave also lasts noticeably longer than average.
In 2025, mental and behavioral disorders accounted for 34.1 million sick-leave days in Poland. This is according to data from the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) collected in response to a query from pulsHR.pl (opens in a new tab). That is 12.4% more than a year earlier and 23.2% more than in 2020. The number of medical certificates rose over that time from 1,455,777 to 1,758,554, or by about 21%.
After falling to 23.8 million days in 2022, the trend reversed: in 2023 it was 26.1 million days, and in 2024 more than 30.3 million. Overall sick leave, according to the pulsHR summary, fell from 256 million days in 2020 to just under 242 million in 2025. The ZUS report “Sick leave in 2025” gives about 290.5 million days for all causes because the sources count it differently. According to the report, mental disorders accounted for 14.1% of all sick-leave days and were the second cause after musculoskeletal diseases.
The most days of absence were due to reaction to severe stress and adjustment disorders (12,560,271), other anxiety disorders (6,554,585) and depressive episodes (6,416,779). Sick leave in category Z73 (a disease classification code meaning problems in coping with life difficulties, including occupational burnout) grew faster than the whole group: the number of days in this category rose by 38.8% year on year.
Sick leave for mental health reasons lasts longer than average. According to ZUS, 39.3% of such certificates were issued for 21-30 days, and 28% for 11-20 days. The average length of all sick leave in 2025 was just under 11 days.
Psychologist and business consultant Patryk Wójcik notes in an interview with pulsHR that mental disorders are discussed more easily today than a dozen or so years ago, which may increase their visibility in statistics. Michał Pajdak from the ePsycholodzy platform says that the biggest source of mental strain today is “chronic pressure, not a single crisis”.
For managers and HR departments, this means that absence for mental health reasons usually lasts several weeks rather than several days, which matters when planning replacements.