By Americans’ views of their mental and physical health are at the lowest point in nearly 25 years, a downturn that accelerated at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued since, according to a Gallup survey published Thursday.
The poll found that some three-quarters of Americans said their mental health (at 75 percent) and physical health (at 76 percent) were “excellent” or “good.”
The number of respondents who described their mental health as “excellent” shrunk to 31 percent. Regarding physical health, those characterizing it as “excellent” went down to 24 percent, Gallup found.
The highest number of Americans who gave their mental health a positive rating was 89 percent in 2012. For physical health, the peak was in 2003, at 82 percent.
The survey marked a low in 2022, when the number of Americans who said their mental health rating was “excellent” dropped to 31 percent. The lowest figure for physical health was in 2023 at 24 percent.
Gallup noted those numbers remained fairly level into 2024, a year after the federal government announced the COVID-19 health emergency was over.
Americans’ perception of their mental health has seen a decline across all major racial, education, income, religious, gender and age groups, but a notable drop off has been among younger adults, particularly young women, according to Gallup.
Comparing the results in five-year groupings from 2010-14 and 2020-24, respondents aged 18-29 who reported their mental health was excellent dropped by 27 points. For those between ages of 30 and 49, the rating for excellent mental health dropped by 16 points.
The perception of mental health quality among young women was at 29 percent, down 15 points over the decade through 2024.
Declines in mental health appear smaller in older age groups. For those aged 50-64, it dropped 6 points and hovered around 37 percent, according to the survey. For those aged 65 and above, the drop off was 4 points and was at 40 percent.
The poll was conducted Nov. 6-20 last year among 1,001 adults. The margin of error was 4 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.