AOK absenteeism report: Employees are more likely to be absent due to mental illnesses

Absences from work due to mental illnesses have increased significantly. According to data from the AOK, employees were absent more frequently due to mental illnesses last year than ten years ago. In 2025, the statistics show 403 days of sick leave due to mental illnesses per 100 AOK insured people, the health insurance company announced. According to the AOK absence report, there were 248 days of absence in 2016. This corresponds to an increase of 42 percent.

When comparing different types of illnesses, mental illnesses continue to lag well behind respiratory infections. However, employees with mental illness were absent for particularly long periods of time. On average, they were on sick leave for 28.5 days last year, while the absence due to respiratory illnesses lasted an average of 5.7 days. There was an above-average increase in burnout diagnoses.

Overall, employee absenteeism has recently decreased slightly, the health insurance company said. In 2025, 23.3 days of incapacity for work were registered per AOK member. In 2024 there were 23.9 days, the same as in 2023. According to the information, the previous peak was reached in the Corona year 2022 with 24.5 days of illness. The data was analyzed by the AOK Scientific Institute (WIdO) and prepared for the AOK absenteeism report.