College students are reporting less depression. Researchers think they know why

For the third year in a row, data from the national Healthy Minds Study shows an improvement in college students’ mental health. Results show reports of severe depression dropped to 18% in 2025 from 23% in 2022, and suicidal thoughts decreased to 11% this year from 15% three years ago.

“That matters because … it seems that some of the concerted efforts to improve support for students and other populations seems to be working,” said Daniel Eisenberg, a co-principal investigator on the Healthy Minds Study and a public health researcher at UCLA.

Greater availability of mental health care, therapy and medication for college students, he said, coupled with more efforts to prevent mental health problems from getting worse, appear to be helping. And that underlines that just as important as the results, he said, is continuing to provide college students these mental health supports.

The other important survey results

The study’s been conducted for nearly 20 years. This year’s survey gathered nearly 85,000 responses from 135 colleges and universities across the country. The identity of the institutions is confidential, but Eisenberg said California campuses are part of the study results. Most of the respondents were enrolled in four-year schools, but more than a quarter attended community colleges.

Other key results:

• Moderate to severe depressive symptoms dropped from 44% in 2022 to 37% in 2025.
• Moderate to severe anxiety symptoms fell from 37% in 2022 to 32% in 2025.
• Students reporting high levels of loneliness decreased from 58% in 2022 to 52% in 2025.

Researchers say 2022’s survey results were the highest reporting of negative mental health indicators in the survey’s nearly 20 years. The pandemic’s detrimental effects, they said, were behind those results.

Here’s what may be working

Student mental health has been a growing concern among educators for more than 20 years. Policymakers have increased funding for various programs on campuses.

Eisenberg said the following resources, among others, appear to be improving college students' mental health:

• More campus therapists
• More mindfulness programs
• Therapy made more convenient through telehealth
• Texting services, such as Crisis Text Line, used in the California community colleges

Eisenberg praised the Screening & Treatment for Anxiety & Depression (STAND) program at UCLA, which uses an online tool to match college students with mental health resources and monitors students’ moods and symptoms along the way.

And then there are the detrimental effects of digital media on mental health.

“I think maybe that the negative impacts of social media and digital media, maybe those have plateaued,” Eisenberg said.

In other words, the messages from studies that show a correlation between high use of social media and anxiety are reaching young people and leading them to cut their use.