Adults receiving mental health treatment in the US: statistics and facts

Adult mental health treatment at a glance

Mental health treatment among US adults is far more common than in the early 2000s. According to the 2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 57.3 million adults, 21.6 percent of all adults aged 18 or older, received mental health treatment in the past year. In 2002, the first year of the current survey series, the share was 13.0 percent, or 27.2 million people. Prescription medication is the most common form of treatment, followed by outpatient care such as therapy and counseling.

Among adults who have a mental illness, about half receive treatment. In 2025, 50.9 percent of the 54.6 million adults with any mental illness and 67.7 percent of the 18.2 million adults with a serious mental illness were treated. A separate federal survey, the National Health Interview Survey, found that 19.3 percent of adults took prescription medication for their mental health in 2024 and 14.0 percent received counseling or therapy from a mental health professional.

This report covers the long-term trend, the types of treatment adults receive, differences by age, sex and income, and the reasons people give for not getting care. For the wider picture, see our hub on mental health treatment in the US. The adults who go without care are covered in our report on untreated mental illness.

Two decades of rising treatment

Between 2002 and 2019, the share of adults receiving mental health treatment rose from 13.0 to 16.1 percent, and the number from 27.2 million to 40.2 million. Growth was slow until about 2011 and then accelerated: the share reached 14.5 percent in 2012, 15.0 percent in 2018 and 16.1 percent in 2019, the last year before the pandemic changed how the survey was conducted.

Steady growth: The share of adults in treatment rose by about a quarter between 2002 and 2019.

Since 2020, the survey has changed several times, but each measure since 2022 shows a level well above 2019. The share of adults treated was 16.9 percent in 2020 and 18.8 percent in 2021, when telehealth was included for the first time. Under the new definition introduced in 2022, the share was 21.8 percent in 2022 and 23.0 percent in 2023. It was 22.9 percent, or 60.1 million adults, in 2024 and 21.6 percent, or 57.3 million, in 2025, measured with a revised questionnaire in each of those years.

One in five adults: Around 21 to 23 percent of adults have received treatment each year since 2022.

Medication, therapy and inpatient care

Prescription medication is by far the most common type of mental health treatment. In 2019, 13.1 percent of adults, 32.6 million people, took prescription medication for a mental health condition, compared with 8.3 percent, or 20.6 million, who received outpatient care and 1.0 percent, or 2.4 million, who received inpatient care. In 2002, the shares were 10.5, 7.4 and 0.7 percent. Almost all of the growth came from medication; outpatient care stayed between 6 and 8 percent of adults for most of the period.

Medication drives growth: Prescription treatment rose from 10.5 to 12.0 percent of adults while outpatient care was flat.

The National Health Interview Survey shows a similar pattern. In 2024, 19.3 percent of adults took prescription medication for their mental health and 14.0 percent received counseling or therapy. In 2019, the shares were 15.8 and 9.5 percent, and 19.2 percent of adults received any treatment. That share rose to 23.9 percent in 2023. Substance use, which often occurs alongside mental illness, is covered in our report on drug use in the US.

Treatment among adults with mental illness

Among adults with a mental illness, treatment rates were remarkably stable for many years. Between 2008 and 2019, between 40 and 45 percent of adults with any mental illness received treatment each year, rising from 40.9 percent in 2008 to 44.8 percent in 2019. Among adults with a serious mental illness, the share stayed between about 63 and 69 percent. Under the later measures, the share of adults with any mental illness who were treated was 47.2 percent in 2021, 50.6 percent in 2022, 53.9 percent in 2023 and 52.1 percent in 2024; these years use different methods and are shown only as separate values.

A stubborn gap: For more than a decade, fewer than half of adults with a mental illness were treated.

In 2025, 54.6 million adults had any mental illness, 20.6 percent of all adults, and 18.2 million had a serious mental illness, 6.9 percent. About one in three adults with a mental illness had a serious one. Mental illness was most common among young adults: 28.6 percent of those aged 18 to 25 had any mental illness, compared with 12.8 percent of those aged 50 and older. Global comparisons are in our report on mental health worldwide.

Who receives treatment?

Counseling is much more common among younger adults, while medication use is similar across ages. In 2024, 20.2 percent of adults aged 18 to 29 received counseling or therapy, compared with 11.7 percent of those aged 45 to 64 and 5.0 percent of those aged 75 and older. Medication use ranged only from 18.2 to 20.4 percent across age groups.

Therapy is for the young: Counseling falls sharply with age while medication use stays level.

Women are much more likely to receive treatment than men. In 2024, 24.9 percent of women took mental health medication and 16.9 percent received counseling, compared with 13.4 and 10.9 percent of men. Among adults with any mental illness in 2024, 59.2 percent of women were treated compared with 42.1 percent of men. Differences by race, income and insurance are covered in detail in our report on mental health treatment disparities; the population structure is in our report on the population of the US by sex and age.

Women lead: Almost one in four women took medication for their mental health in 2024.

Why adults do not get care

Cost has long been the main reason adults give for not getting mental health care they need. In 2016, among the 5.5 million adults who felt they needed care but did not receive it, 37.2 percent said they could not afford it, 31.0 percent thought they could handle the problem without treatment, 26.0 percent did not know where to go, and 21.7 percent did not have time. Among adults with a serious mental illness, 46.2 percent cited cost. In 2018, 54.7 percent of adults with a serious mental illness and unmet need said they could not afford care. More recent figures on cost are in our report on untreated mental illness, and the shortage of providers in our report on the mental health workforce.

Cost comes first: More than a third of adults who went without care said they could not afford it.

Where care is delivered also matters. In 2024, adults in nonmetropolitan areas were more likely to take mental health medication, 22.9 percent, than those in large cities, 16.7 percent, but less likely to receive counseling, 10.6 compared with 15.2 percent. Providers and settings are described in our report on mental health treatment facilities.

Adult mental health treatment in numbers

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