American adults are depressed and numbers are, highest ever: Survey
Recent data from a Gallup survey reveals a deeply concerning rise in depression rates among adults in the United States, indicating a worrisome state of mental well-being nationwide.
Alarming new data unveils a significant and distressing rise in depression rates among adults in the United States, indicating a concerning state of mental well-being nationwide. According to recent findings, a shocking 29% of US adults acknowledge having received a depression diagnosis at some point in their lives, marking a staggering increase of almost 10% since 2015. Notably, the percentage of Americans presently undergoing treatment for depression has also soared to 17.8%.
According to a recent survey of Gallup, these staggering figures represent the highest rates ever recorded. “…rates are the highest recorded by Gallup since it began measuring depression using the current form of data collection in 2015.”
Depression Rates Among Different Demographics
The poll also highlighted a rising trend in depression rates among Black and Hispanic Americans, which have now exceeded the rates among white Americans, a group that historically reported higher rates of depression.
A significant disparity was observed between the genders. “Women have historically reported substantially higher levels of depression than men,” the report says.
Since 2017, the rate of women reporting depression diagnoses has nearly doubled compared to men. In 2023, over one-third of women reported having been diagnosed with depression at some point, compared to 20.4% of men.
A 24.6% of young adults disclosed that they are currently dealing with or are being treated for depression.
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic has been identified as a contributing factor to the increasing rates of depression, particularly among women and young people since 2017. The pandemic's impact was felt more acutely by women, many of whom lost jobs or were engaged in frontline healthcare roles. Young adults, on the other hand, experienced heightened loneliness, especially those who were single and lacked social interactions, which could be linked to their higher depression rates.
The Gallup poll was conducted with 5,167 U.S. adults between February 21-28. The respondents were part of the Gallup Panel, comprising about 1,00,000 adults across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Respondents were asked, “Has a doctor or nurse ever told you that you have depression?” and “Do you currently have or are you currently being treated for depression?”
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