Gallup reported that Americans' self-assessments of their mental and physical health have reached their lowest levels in the polling organization's 24-year tracking history, representing a continuation of a decade-long decline that began around 2013 and accelerated dramatically with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
According to Gallup's latest annual health survey, conducted from November 6 to 20, 2024, in partnership with West Health, only three-quarters of U.S. adults rated their mental health (75%) and physical health (76%) as "excellent" or "good." These figures marked significant declines from historical highs of 89% for mental health in 2012 and 82% for physical health in 2003.
The percentage of Americans rating their health as "excellent" decreased substantially—falling to 31% for mental health and 24% for physical health—accounting for most of the overall decline.
"The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have been a turning point in Americans' perceptions of their mental and physical health, compounding declines already underway," stated the report authors.
The most striking finding from the survey was the precipitous drop in mental health ratings among young women. By combining data across multiple years to analyze smaller demographic subgroups, Gallup found that just 15% of women aged 18 to 29 years polled from 2020 to 2024 reported excellent mental health—a 33-point collapse from the 48% reporting excellent mental health from 2010 to 2014. This represented a decline nearly twice as severe as that seen among men in the same age group, who experienced a 20-point drop (from 53% to 33%) over the same period.
The report authors noted: "Most of this decline has occurred in the latest period, since 2015 [to] 2019."
While mental health ratings declined across all demographic groups, the effect was most pronounced among younger populations. "The percentage of 18- to 29-year-olds reporting excellent mental health has dropped 27 points to 24%, and the percentage among 30- to 49-year-olds is down 16 points to 30%. This contrasts with single-digit declines among the older groups, those 50 to 64 [years] (down six points to 37%) and those 65 [years] and older (down four points to 40%)," the report authors emphasized.
Physical health ratings also declined but showed different demographic patterns. The decreases were more evenly distributed across populations, with excellent physical health ratings showing relatively little differentiation in declines since 2010 to 2014.
The changes ranged from a 10-point drop among young men to 3-point drops among young women and men aged 50 to 64 years. Notably, older women aged 65 years and older were the only demographic to report an improvement, with their excellent physical health ratings increasing from 17% to 21%.
Gallup suggested several possible explanations for the continued downward trend in self-reported health, particularly in mental health metrics: "The shift in how [individuals] perceive their mental health since the pandemic could reflect several dynamics: heightened anxiety brought on by the COVID-19 crisis, heightened public and medical attention to mental health during this period, and a lessening of the stigma around admitting mental health challenges."
Supporting the anxiety hypothesis, Gallup's National Health and Well-Being Index documented "a sharp increase in clinical diagnoses of depression among Americans since 2019."
Regarding physical health, the report cited "a significant increase in Americans' self-reports of being obese since before the pandemic, increasing 6 percentage points between 2019 and 2023, as well as a reduction in healthy eating."
Despite the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration in 2023 and the subsiding of pandemic-related disruptions, Americans' health perceptions have not rebounded, suggesting these trends may represent lasting changes in public health.
The survey findings reflect data from Gallup's annual November health polling, which has tracked Americans' self-reported health status since 2001.
