College students continue to report poor mental health, with more than one in three students saying they experience moderate anxiety or depression.

Data from the most recent Healthy Minds Survey, published Tuesday, found that only 36 percent of college students are thriving—reporting high levels of success in relationships, self-esteem, purpose and optimism—down slightly from 38 percent the previous year.

But in some areas, the data shows slight improvement since the COVID-19 pandemic, with fewer students reporting anxiety, self-harm and suicidal ideation than in 2021–22. Student usage of mental health resources also continues to climb; 37 percent of all respondents said they’d accessed therapy or counseling in the past 12 months, compared to 30 percent in 2018–19.

“We should be encouraged that we’re seeing some signs of a positive trend, but we also should keep in mind that the levels are very high,” said Daniel Eisenberg, the study’s lead author and a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The 2024–25 Health Minds Study includes data from over 84,000 undergraduate and graduate students at 135 colleges and universities, collected between September 2024 and May 2025. The annual study provides a snapshot of student well-being across various institution types, sizes and degree programs.

The report also underscores the relationship between student well-being and academic success; 68 percent of respondents indicated their mental or emotional difficulties had impacted their academic performance at least one day that month, while 17 percent said they felt the impact six or more days.

A new normal: During the COVID-19 pandemic, students reported high levels of emotional distress, anxiety and depression, sparking discussions about a student mental health crisis and the lack of available resources.

One potential explanation for this year’s decline in reported anxiety and depression could be a return to more in-person instruction and “a sense of normalcy that things are improving,” Eisenberg said. But mental health, like many public health issues, is not likely to ever be completely solved.

“[Student mental health] is always an important issue and probably always will be. It’s a normal part of life that large sums of people experience distress,” Eisenberg said. “This is a long-term agenda we should have to create the most supportive environment we can to prevent as many people as we can from reaching high levels of distress and to support as many people as we can.”

Health and well-being: Twenty-eight percent of respondents screened positive for disordered eating this year. During the survey cycle, researchers used a slightly different instrument to evaluate eating disorder symptoms than in years past, Eisenberg said. The new scale is more inclusive of different behaviors, resulting in higher numbers than years past and perhaps revealing an underrepresented population of students who need assistance with eating habits or body image.

More young people are discussing eating and nutrition online, but many of these conversations can be harmful, including a focus on how to be skinny. Eating disorders spiked for young people during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when many of today’s traditional-age college students were in middle school, said Eric Woods, director of counseling services at Texas Christian University.

“We were expecting a jump [in eating disorders] as this cohort started college, and maybe [this data] is the first indication of that,” Woods said.

A significant number of college students also reported long-term mental health conditions, with over half of respondents indicating they had received a lifetime diagnosis of a mental disorder; the most frequent diagnoses were anxiety (40 percent) or depression (35 percent), followed by an intellectual disability (17 percent).

National surveys have shown fewer young people drink alcohol compared to previous generations, and the Healthy Minds data affirmed this trend. Sixty-one percent of respondents said they had not drunk alcohol in the past two weeks, and an additional 17 percent said they had not engaged in binge drinking. Twenty-two percent of students said they had used marijuana in the past month, but 76 percent of respondents said they didn’t use any drugs during that time.

Belonging and social support: Colleges continue to battle an epidemic of loneliness. One in five students reported prevalent feelings of loneliness, indicating that they often feel left out or they lack companionship. One in four students said they “often” feel isolated from others; an additional 40 percent said they feel isolated some of the time. Those numbers were down slightly from 2022–23, when 26 percent of students said they often felt left out and 30 percent often felt isolated from others.

If they need help, over half (55 percent) of students said they know where to access mental health resources on campus. Just under half of respondents said they agree or strongly agree with the statement “I currently need help for emotional or mental health problems such as feeling sad, blue or anxious.”

Students said they primarily receive emotional support from their friends (42 percent) or family members (39 percent).

For Woods, the data points to a need to stay hypervigilant about the concerns of young people and should push colleges and universities to invest more in supports for them.

“There’s no other health-care system in the world that has this level of access to this demographic, and I think it’s being underutilized,” Woods said.

In a survey of faculty and staff members, 47 percent indicated they’d had a one-on-one conversation with a student about their mental or emotional health, and 59 percent reported feeling comfortable having those conversations.