Mental health and substance use in U.S. college students 2019-2020

In Spring 2020, around 40.9 percent of college students in the United States reported having depression, compared to 35.7 percent in Fall 2019. This statistic illustrates the prevalence of select mental health and substance use issues among college students in the United States in Fall 2019 and Spring 2020.

Prevalence of select mental health and substance use issues among college students in the United States in Fall 2019 and Spring 2020

Characteristic	Fall 2019	March-May 2020
Depression	35.7%	40.9%
Suicidal ideation, past 2 weeks	20.9%	17.7%
Anxiety	31%	31%
Flourishing	38.1%	36.6%
Illicit substance use, past month	26.3%	20.9%
Binge drinking, past 2 weeks	38.3%	24.1%
MH impaired academics, 6+ days in last 4 weeks	21.9%	30.5%

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Release date

July 2020

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

From Fall 2019 to Spring 2020

Number of respondents

18,764 respondents

Supplementary notes

Notes: There were 32 campuses in HMS in fall 2019 and 7 campuses in March-May 2020. Depression is a score of >10 on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), which measures the 9 core symptoms of a major depressive episode over the past 2 weeks. Suicidal ideation over the past 2 weeks is one item from the PHQ-9, defined as having “thoughts that you would be better off dead or of hurting yourself in some way.” Anxiety is a score of >10 on the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-scale, which measures symptoms of generalized anxiety over the past 2 weeks. Flourishing (positive mental health) is a score of >48 on the Flourishing Scale. MH impaired academics is defined as >6 days in the last 4 weeks when mental or emotional health negatively impacted academic performance.

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