In the African region, close to 30 million people suffer from depression, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Nigeria is followed by Ethiopia which has 4,480,113 sufferers, 4.7 per cent of its population.

The data was contained in a WHO report released ahead of the 2017 World Health Day themed “Depression: let’s talk about it.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo has 2,871,309 sufferers, South Africa has 2,402,230 sufferers and Tanzania has 2,138,939.

The country with the lowest number of depressed persons is Seychelles which has just 3,722 sufferers.

According to the WHO, Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease.

The WHO said further that more than 300 million people around the globe are estimated to suffer from depression.