Mental Health In The U.S By Numbers

Prevalence Of Mental Illness

1 in 5 adults (43.8 Million, or 18.5%) experience mental illness in a given year
1 in 25 adults (10 million, 4.2%) experience a serious mental illness that substantially interferes with one or more major life activities.
1 in 5 youth aged 13 to 18 (21.4%) experiences a severe mental disorder at some point during their life. For children 8-15 the estimate is 13%
1.1% of adults live with schizophrenia
2.6% adults live with bipolar disorder
6.9% of adults had at least one major depressive episode in the past year.
18.1% of adults experienced an anxiety disorder such as post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder or phobia.
Among the 20.2 million adults who experienced a substance use disorder, half ( 10.2 million, or 50.5% ) had a co-occurring mental illness

26% of homeless adult staying in shelters live with serious mental illness and 46% live with severe mental illness and/or substance use disorder.
20% of state prisoners and 21% of local jail prisoner have a recent history of a mental health condition
70% of youth in juvenile justice system have at least one mental health condition and at least 20% live with a serious mental illness.
Only 41% of adults in the U.S. with a mental health condition received mental health services in the past year. Among adults with serious mental illness the percentage is higher: 62.9%
Among children aged 8-15 who needed mental health treatment , only half (50.6%) received mental health services int the previous year.
African Americans and Hispanic Americans used mental health services at about half the rate of Caucasian American in the past year; Asian American at about one-third at the rate .
Half of all chronic mental illness begins by age 14; three- quarters by age 24. Despite effective treatment, there are long delays- sometimes decades- between the first appearance of symptoms and when people get help.

Serious mental illness cost America $193.2 billion in lost earnings per year.
Mood disorders, including major depression, dysthymic disorder( Persistent depressive disorder) and bipolar disorder, are the third most common cause of hospitalization for youth and adults ages 18-44.
Individuals living with serious mental illness face an increased risk of having chronic medical conditions. Adults living with serious mental illness die on average 25 years earlier than others, largely due to treatable medical conditions.
Over one-third (37%) of students with mental health conditions age 14-21 and older who are served by special education drop out - the highest dropout rate of any disability group.
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death, the 3rd leading cause of death of death for people aged 10-24 and the second cause of death for people aged 15-24.
More than 90% of children who die by suicide have mental health condition.
Each day an estimated 18-22 veterans die by suicide.