Published on February 10, 2026 by Ethan Rotberg, Senior Communications Specialist | Evergreen
Does living in a big city mess with your mental health?
The hustle and bustle of city life can be a bit of a mixed bag.
The Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health collected a series of published data that shows urban living is associated with increases in mood disorders, anxiety disorders and other mental health problems, though decreases were seen in some other mental health outcomes.
What we do know is the scale of the decline in mental health in Toronto. The percentage of Torontonians who say they have good mental health declined substantially between 2015 and 2022—from 73% to 52%, according to findings from a recently-published report card on mental wellness in the city.
“Those are alarming figures,” says Dr. Kwame McKenzie, CEO of Wellesley Institute, who helped produce the report on behalf of Thrive Toronto. “Unless we do something to turn that around, we’re looking at significant problems going forward.”
City life can put real pressure on our mental health. But cities are also where many of the solutions live. Experts point to the role of everyday places—including where we connect with nature and other people—in shaping how we cope.
McKenzie says the decline in mental health has been seen across the board, whether you’re living in urban or rural areas. But, especially among some demographics, Toronto is seeing lower mental health than the Ontario average.
The report does highlight a number of possible reasons for the decline in mental health, including working conditions, financial difficulties, time pressures, a lack of a support system and a low sense of belonging.
These issues aren’t unique to urban living, but there’s no question that mental health is shaped by the environments we move through every day, says Lindsay McCunn, an environmental psychologist and professor at Vancouver Island University. What’s the impact of the hustle and bustle?
“Our physical surroundings influence our stress levels and our mood, our ability to pay attention, be productive and learn and how safe we feel,” she says. “Cities are particularly important places to consider from the perspective of environmental psychology because they tend to include attributes that can be perceived positively for some individuals and negatively for others. There can also be chronic stressors associated with urban life, such as housing insecurity, long commute times, air pollution and limited access to quiet, restorative spaces, like parks.”
McCunn adds that, over time, these demands can contribute to feelings of exhaustion, irritability, and reduced capacity to cope with stressors.
Naturally, environmental factors are only one culprit. As the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health shares alongside their data, pre-existing risk factors and social factors also contribute to the divide. Many people move to the city in search of services, social opportunities and employment. “Some of the reasons that some people may seek these things happen to be risk factors for mental health problems,” they note.
Both McKenzie and McCunn point out that cities aren’t just places of stress, but environments that significantly improve mental health as well.
“Urban environments can afford diverse social connections, reliable access to health and social services, abundant professional opportunities, and cultural spaces that can encourage wellbeing and self-development,” says McCunn.
Strengthening social connections is one of four recommendations from the Thrive Toronto Report Card, which suggests that strategies to foster a sense of community, strengthen social ties and reduce isolation and loneliness in school environments, neighbourhoods and communities will support mental wellness.
“There’s a huge amount of information that shows that social connection is really important for our mental health and our physical health,” McKenzie says. “We are social animals.”
McKenzie explains that social connection plays a powerful role in reducing anxiety because it helps make the world feel more predictable and less overwhelming. When people are connected to others, they have more ways of understanding what’s happening around them. City life does offer a variety of opportunities to meet new people.
But social connection isn’t the only way cities can support mental wellbeing. There is a large and growing body of research that shows that engaging with green spaces supports psychological restoration.
“One idea that permeates much of this research is that nature allows us to reduce the amount of effortful attention we apply to everyday tasks in complex settings, like cities,” says McCunn. “Nature seems to engage our minds in a more gentle, effortless way—and this is associated with a reduction in physiological stress (e.g., lower heart rate and cortisol), and an improvement in mood.”
Even brief exposure to nature, she adds, when we walk in a park or spend time near a water source, has been shown to have measurable benefits to the way we feel.
“This is encouraging because it means restoration does not necessarily require a long vacation or trip deep in the wilderness.”
The next steps
The decline in Toronto’s mental health demonstrates why public places matter. It’s also the thinking behind Evergreen’s work to build spaces that connect us to nature and each other.
“Cities are incredibly good, vibrant places when they’re going well. When they’re going badly, they’re places where people feel isolated, frustrated, unsafe and out of touch with nature,” McKenzie says.
“One of the things we know, because of organizations like Evergreen, is that green space is good for your mental health—not just access, but interaction with green space. Making our commons green makes a difference. Being able to go walk around the Brick Works makes a difference.”
