Mental health treatment in the US: statistics and facts

Mental health treatment in the US at a glance

Mental health care has become one of the largest parts of the American health system. According to the 2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 57.3 million adults aged 18 or older received mental health treatment in the past year. That is 21.6 percent of all adults, or more than one in five. In 2002, when the current survey series began, 27.2 million adults, 13.0 percent, were treated. In the comparable series to 2019, the number rose to 40.2 million; later surveys use new measures that put treatment at a higher level but cannot be compared directly.

Yet the need for care is still larger than the care provided. In 2025, 54.6 million adults, 20.6 percent of the adult population, had a mental illness in the past year, and 18.2 million had a serious mental illness that substantially interfered with daily life. Only 50.9 percent of adults with any mental illness received treatment, leaving 26.9 million untreated. Among adolescents aged 12 to 17, 3.7 million had a major depressive episode in 2025, and 42.3 percent of them received no mental health treatment.

Several forces shape access to care. Almost half of Americans, 157.1 million people, live in an area that the federal government designates as short of mental health professionals. Cost remains a barrier: 5.4 percent of adults said they did not get needed mental health care in 2025 because of the cost. And treatment rates differ sharply by group. White adults with a mental illness are far more likely to be treated than Black, Hispanic or Asian adults, and women are more likely to be treated than men.

This hub brings together the latest official data on mental health treatment in the United States, drawing on SAMHSA, the CDC, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Each section ends with a link to a detailed report on that subject.

Half untreated: 26.9 million of the 54.6 million adults with a mental illness got no care.

How many Americans receive mental health treatment?

Two federal surveys measure mental health treatment among adults. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health asks about treatment in the past year in any setting, while the CDC National Health Interview Survey asks whether adults took prescription medication for their mental health or received counseling or therapy from a mental health professional in the past 12 months. Both show a clear increase over the past two decades.

In the SAMHSA series, the share of adults treated rose slowly from 13.0 percent in 2002 to 14.5 percent in 2012, then faster to 16.1 percent, or 40.2 million adults, in 2019. Measured differently after the pandemic, the share was 21.8 percent in 2022, 23.0 percent in 2023, 22.9 percent in 2024 and 21.6 percent in 2025. SAMHSA cautions that these later years cannot be compared directly with each other or with earlier years because the questionnaire changed, but the level of treatment is clearly higher than before 2020.

In the CDC survey, the share of adults who received any mental health treatment rose from 19.2 percent in 2019 to 20.3 percent in 2020 and 23.9 percent in 2023. The increase was similar for adults aged 18 to 44 and 45 to 64, while there was no significant change among adults aged 65 and older. Medication use in 2024 stood at 19.3 percent of adults and counseling at 14.0 percent. Preliminary data for 2025 show 13.4 percent of adults counseled by a mental health professional.

Almost one in four: 23.9 percent of US adults received mental health treatment in 2023.

Medication is the most common form of treatment. Already in 2019, 13.1 percent of adults took prescription medication for a mental health condition, compared with 8.3 percent who received outpatient care such as therapy and 1.0 percent who received inpatient care. Most of the growth since 2002 came from medication. Counseling is much more common among younger adults: in 2024, 20.2 percent of adults aged 18 to 29 received counseling or therapy, compared with 5.0 percent of those aged 75 and older. The full trend, types of care and reasons for not seeking help are covered in our report on adults receiving mental health treatment.

How common is mental illness?

Mental illness affects about one in five American adults each year. In 2025, 20.6 percent of adults, 54.6 million people, had any mental illness and 6.9 percent, 18.2 million, had a serious mental illness. About one in three adults with a mental illness had a serious one. Beginning with the 2025 survey, SAMHSA uses a new statistical model to classify mental illness and has re-estimated earlier years on the new basis: under that method, the share of adults with any mental illness was 21.0 percent in 2021 and 21.5 percent in 2024, a stable level.

Mental illness is most common among young adults. In 2025, 28.6 percent of adults aged 18 to 25 and 27.1 percent of those aged 26 to 49 had any mental illness, compared with 12.8 percent of adults aged 50 and older. Serious mental illness follows the same pattern: 12.1 percent among those aged 18 to 25, 9.6 percent among those aged 26 to 49 and 3.0 percent among those aged 50 and older. In absolute terms, the largest group is adults aged 26 to 49, of whom 28.5 million had a mental illness.

Young adults most affected: More than one in four adults under 50 had a mental illness in 2025.

Suicidal thoughts are part of the picture. In 2025, 13.9 million adults, 5.3 percent, had serious thoughts of suicide, 4.9 million made a suicide plan and 2.3 million attempted suicide. Mental illness also often occurs alongside substance use: 18.5 million adults had both a mental illness and a substance use disorder in 2025. Substance use is covered in our report on drug use in the US, other risks to health in our report on health risk factors in the US, and international comparisons in our report on mental health worldwide.

The treatment gap

Despite the growth in treatment, about half of adults with a mental illness receive no care. In 2025, 27.8 million of the 54.6 million adults with any mental illness received treatment, 50.9 percent, while 26.9 million did not. Among adults with a serious mental illness, 67.7 percent, or 12.3 million, were treated, but about 5.9 million went without care. Of these, 40.5 percent, 2.3 million people, said they had needed care but did not receive it.

The gap is largest for people with both a mental illness and a substance use disorder. Of the 18.5 million adults with both conditions in 2025, 42.6 percent, 7.9 million, received neither mental health nor substance use treatment. Those who were treated mostly received only mental health care: 72.9 percent of the treated group. Among adults with a serious mental illness and a substance use disorder, 28.7 percent received no treatment.

Cost is one of the main obstacles. According to preliminary CDC estimates, 5.4 percent of all adults did not get mental health care they needed in 2025 because they could not afford it. In earlier SAMHSA surveys, cost was the most frequently cited reason among people with unmet need: 37.2 percent of adults who needed care but did not get it in 2016 said they could not afford it, ahead of those who thought they could handle the problem without treatment, 31.0 percent, and those who did not know where to go, 26.0 percent. The full picture is in our report on untreated mental illness.

Who is less likely to receive care?

Treatment rates differ greatly between groups. In 2024, 57.9 percent of White adults with any mental illness received treatment, compared with 52.0 percent of multiracial adults, 44.1 percent of Hispanic adults, 38.5 percent of Black adults and 32.5 percent of Asian adults. After adjusting for other factors, SAMHSA found that Asian adults had 0.31 times the odds of White adults of being treated, Black adults 0.47 times and Hispanic adults 0.62 times. The gap has persisted for years: in pooled data for 2022 and 2023, 57.4 percent of White adults with a mental illness were treated compared with 35.4 percent of Asian adults.

A gap of 25 points: White adults with a mental illness were treated far more often than Asian adults.

Sex is another major factor. In 2024, 59.2 percent of women with a mental illness received treatment, compared with 42.1 percent of men. Among all adults, CDC data show women were also more likely to take medication for their mental health, 24.9 percent compared with 13.4 percent of men, and to receive counseling, 16.9 compared with 10.9 percent. Income and insurance matter: 55.5 percent of adults with a mental illness at twice the poverty line or more were treated, compared with 45.8 percent of those just above the poverty line. Among adults with serious thoughts of suicide in 2024, 53.8 percent of the insured but only 26.1 percent of the uninsured were treated.

Where people live also shapes the kind of care they get: rural adults lean more on prescriptions and less on talking therapy than residents of big cities. These and other differences are explored in our report on mental health treatment disparities.

Mental health treatment for children and teens

Depression among teenagers rose sharply in the years before and during the pandemic and has since eased. According to SAMHSA, 20.8 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 17 had a major depressive episode in 2021. The share fell to 19.5 percent in 2022, 18.1 percent in 2023, 15.4 percent in 2024 and 15.1 percent, or 3.7 million teenagers, in 2025. Girls are far more affected than boys: in pooled data for 2022 to 2024, 26.0 percent of girls had a major depressive episode, compared with 9.8 percent of boys.

Falling since 2021: The share of teens with major depression dropped from 20.8 to 15.1 percent.

Of the adolescents with a major depressive episode in 2025, 57.7 percent, 2.1 million, received mental health treatment. Overall, 27.6 percent of all adolescents received some mental health treatment in 2025. The most common setting was the office of a therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist or other mental health professional, used by 14.0 percent of adolescents, followed by school health or counseling centers, 11.4 percent. 13.3 percent of adolescents took prescription medication for their mental health and 13.0 percent received treatment by telehealth. Treatment differs by group: in 2024, 67.7 percent of White teenagers with major depression were treated, compared with 44.7 percent of Black teenagers. More detail is in our report on youth mental health treatment and on child health in our report on child health and nutrition.

Mental health on campus

College students show high but improving levels of distress. According to the Healthy Minds Study for 2024 to 2025, based on more than 84,000 students at 135 colleges, 37 percent of students had moderate to severe depression, down from 44 percent in 2021 to 2022, and 32 percent had moderate to severe anxiety, down from 37 percent. The share who had seriously considered suicide in the past year fell from 15 to 11 percent over the same period.

Three years of decline: Depression among students fell by seven percentage points.

Students are relatively likely to get help. In 2024 to 2025, 37 percent had received therapy or counseling in the past year and 30 percent had taken psychiatric medication. Among students with symptoms of depression or anxiety, 60 percent received some treatment. The main barriers are lack of time, cited by 23 percent, and cost, 22 percent. College counseling centers saw 162,187 students in 2024 to 2025, according to the Center for Collegiate Mental Health, and anxiety was the most common concern, in 64.9 percent of clients. More is in our report on college student mental health.

Veterans and VA mental health care

Veterans face a much higher risk of suicide than other adults. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 6,488 veterans died by suicide in 2024, an average of 17.7 per day. The veteran suicide rate was 36.4 per 100,000, compared with 16.4 among non-veteran adults. After adjusting for age, female veterans had a suicide rate 99.9 percent higher than non-veteran women, and male veterans a rate 56.5 percent higher than non-veteran men. Firearms were involved in 74.3 percent of veteran suicides.

The VA runs one of the largest mental health systems in the country. In 2024, 6.27 million veterans were recent users of VA health care, and 48.2 percent of them had a mental health or substance use diagnosis. More than 1.1 million veterans received video telemental health care in fiscal year 2024, and VA mental health funding was $16.73 billion in fiscal year 2025, with $18.89 billion requested for 2026. Still, 62.2 percent of the veterans who died by suicide in 2024 had not used VA health care in the previous two years. More is in our report on veterans mental health treatment.

Where Americans receive treatment

Treatment is delivered by a large network of specialty facilities, alongside private practices, primary care doctors and hospitals. According to SAMHSA, 21,205 facilities providing mental health or substance use treatment took part in the 2024 national survey of treatment services. Of these, 14,091 offered mental health treatment, including 8,839 that offered both mental health and substance use treatment.

Most mental health facilities are privately run. In 2024, 56.2 percent were private non-profit organizations and 29.8 percent private for-profit businesses, up from 16.9 percent in 2021. Local, county or community governments ran 5.8 percent, state governments 4.4 percent, the federal government 3.0 percent and tribal governments 0.8 percent. 85.3 percent of facilities offered outpatient care, 17.5 percent residential care and 9.1 percent hospital inpatient care.

For-profit share rising: Almost three in ten facilities are now private for-profit businesses.

Most facilities accept public and private insurance. In 2024, 86.0 percent accepted cash or self-payment, 84.5 percent Medicaid, 83.1 percent private health insurance and 63.5 percent Medicare. 50.9 percent offered free or minimal-payment treatment to clients who could not pay. 68.4 percent offered suicide prevention services. More is in our report on mental health treatment facilities.

The shortage of mental health professionals

The supply of mental health professionals has not kept pace with demand. As of 30 June 2026, HRSA counted 7,109 mental health professional shortage areas, home to 157.1 million people, up from 122.4 million in June 2024. Barely a quarter of the need in these areas was met. 60.4 percent of the designations are in rural areas.

Texas and Florida lead: More than 13 million people in each state live in a shortage area.

Counselors make up the largest part of the workforce. In May 2025, there were 491,930 employed substance abuse, behavioral disorder and mental health counselors, 132,810 mental health and substance abuse social workers, 75,990 clinical and counseling psychologists and 27,980 employed psychiatrists, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Including the self-employed, HRSA estimates the supply of psychiatrists at 52,164 in 2023. HRSA projects that by 2038 the supply of adult psychiatrists will meet only 50 percent of demand, and the supply of psychologists only 48 percent. The average wait for behavioral health services is 48 days. More is in our report on the mental health workforce, and new tools such as digital triage are discussed in our report on AI in healthcare.

What has changed since the pandemic?

The pandemic was a turning point for mental health care in the US. It brought a surge of anxiety and depression, especially among young people, and pushed treatment online almost overnight. At college counseling centers, 96.1 percent of clients were seen only by video in 2020; by 2024 to 2025, 68.0 percent were again seen only in person and 10.3 percent only by video. Telehealth has nonetheless stayed part of care: 13.0 percent of adolescents received mental health treatment via telehealth in 2025, and the VA delivered 6.5 million video telemental health episodes in fiscal year 2024. More on the pandemic is in our report on COVID-19 statistics.

Several trends point in a positive direction. Depression among teenagers and college students has declined for several years in a row, and every adult treatment measure since 2022 shows a higher level than the last comparable figure for 2019. At the same time, the gap between need and supply remains large. About half of adults with a mental illness receive no treatment, the population living in shortage areas has grown, and the treatment gaps by race, sex and income have hardly changed. Spending on wellbeing outside the medical system is covered in our report on the wellness industry.

The data in this hub come from different surveys, each with its own methods. SAMHSA has changed its treatment questions several times since 2020 and, from 2025, uses a new method to classify mental illness. Figures from different years and different sources should therefore be compared with caution, and BusinessStats shows breaks in the data wherever they occur.

Mental health treatment in the US in numbers

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