Any mental health disorder or disease is a fairly new phenomenon in our modern world and age because the psychological details of these diseases are just coming out.
An increasing amount of people, use of social media, and other things that make people see other’s perfect life on social media are not helping people to feel better about their mental health.
In addition to increasing mental health disorders in the world, not many people seem to know the effects of bad mental health and what can actually cause these disorders.
Among these disorders, depression is probably one of the most frequent mental health problems people face.
Many things contribute to depression, financial worries, working from home due to COVID, and many other things.
It is important to know how depression affects the US, one of the biggest countries in the world.
National Institute of Mental Health holds statistics for any mental health disorder, including depression, and we will take a look at the US depression statistics in this article.
Demographics of Depression
When we are looking at any statistics, it is important to know the details of these statistics and not just look at the pure numbers.
Knowing who suffers more from depression could help to understand the situation better.
As the National Institute of Mental Health statistics says, about 7% or 17 million American adults have a major depressive disorder that is challenging them.
Among the 17 million adult Americans, women are more prevalent than men with depressive disorder.
The National Institute of Health states that of the 17 million American adults, about 65% of them have a greater risk of having coronary artery disease.
This shows that mental health, especially depression, does not just increase the number of mental health disorders but it also creates fatal diseases in your body.
It is not just adults who are going through depression. Children under the age of 18 also suffer from depression, and in the United States, about 2 million children have been diagnosed with depressive disorder, which then creates other health problems in the future since stress and depression put a burden on your physical body.
To put it into context, 25% of cancer patients1 have depression either before or after, which makes the condition worse to heal or creates major damage.
Both children and adults neglect to visit a professional as physician office visits on the medical records are around 11%.
Read: US Population Statistics
US Depression Statistics by Year
| Year | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 4.93% |
| 2010 | 4.93% |
| 2011 | 4.91% |
| 2012 | 4.87% |
| 2013 | 4.83% |
| 2014 | 4.78% |
| 2015 | 4.75% |
| 2016 | 4.74% |
| 2017 | 4.74% |
| 2018 | 4.73% |
| 2019 | 4.73% |
Us Depression Statistics by Gender
| Year | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 3.66% | 6.15% |
| 2010 | 3.66% | 6.15% |
| 2011 | 3.64% | 6.13% |
| 2012 | 3.6% | 6.09% |
| 2013 | 3.56% | 6.04% |
| 2014 | 3.52% | 5.99% |
| 2015 | 3.5% | 5.96% |
| 2016 | 3.49% | 5.94% |
| 2017 | 3.48% | 5.94% |
| 2018 | 3.49% | 5.93% |
| 2019 | 3.5% | 5.92% |
Read: US Crime Statistics
The Verdict
To conclude, depression is a major problem for any country, and it is increasing at an alarming rate in every country, including the United States, where the use of digital devices and social media is one of the highest.
Depression does not just stay with your mental health; it also affects and hurts your physical body, creating more problems that are hard to fix.
In addition to people being in depression, about 90% of all people with depressive disorder neglect to see a professional, as only 11% of all depressive people see a professional on a continuous basis.
Shefali Jain is a Content Writer & Editor at USWorkforce.org
After completing her graduation in hospitality, Shefali decided to follow her passion and started writing. Shefali has been writing for two years now and contributes to our website as a skilled editor and content writer with strong research skills. Writing product and service reviews, biographies, and book reviews are some of her key areas, among many others in which she specializes. In her time at the organization, she has written and edited content on a range of topics, including employment law, human resources, and business management.
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