For the third year in a row, college students are reporting lower rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, according to the nation’s largest survey of student mental health.
The 2024-2025 Healthy Minds Study, conducted annually by the Healthy Minds Network based at the University of Michigan, received responses from more than 84,000 students from 135 colleges and universities and 9,000-plus faculty and staff members from 22 institutions—the second year of surveying campus employees.
Students’ results showing continuing declines include severe depression dropping to 18% in 2025 from 23% in 2022 and suicidal thoughts decreasing to 11% this year from 15% three years ago.
“These sustained reductions tell me this is not a blip. Whether it’s distance from the pandemic, better institutional support or something else driving the change, I think this is a promising counternarrative to what seems like constant headlines around young people’s struggles with mental health,” said Justin Heinze, associate professor of health behavior and health equity at U-M’s School of Public Health and a co-principal investigator of the study.