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Summary: The non-profit mental health advocacy group Mental Health America (MHA) publishes a yearly report ranking the mental health status of each state, which includes an assessment of how many adults in California had mental illness in the past year.

Key Points:

  • The MHA report gathers data from publicly available sources and ranks the states in the U.S. by how they score on a variety of mental health metrics.
  • Overall, California ranks in the top third of the country for mental health and weighs in as the 6th best state in the nation for people with co-occurring mental health and addiction disorders.
  • Factors such as prevalence of mental illness, access to care, available mental health workforce, and the number of people who need and receive care contribute to the scores that determine overall ranking.

Mental Health in California: How Many People in California Had Mental Illness

Every year, the non-profit group Mental Health America publishes a report called “The State of Mental Health in America.” The new report for 2026 – analyzing data vetted and confirmed through 2024 – ranks each state by assigning a composite score based on 17 mental health metrics for youth and adults. To learn more about the report – and the state-by-state rankings – please navigate to our blog and read this article:

The Year in Review: What Were the Best and Worst States for Mental Health?

In that article, we share the top and bottom five states for mental health in several different categories. In this article, we’ll share information specific to our state, California. We’ll share the prevalence of mental illness in California, the prevalence of addiction in California, and the prevalence of serious thoughts of suicide among adults in California.

For context, we’ll also report the top ten – meaning the states with the lowest prevalences – for each of those three metrics.

First, though, we’ll take a brief moment to talk about the report itself. The authors and advocates at MHA describe the “The State of Mental Health in America” report as follows:

“[We] provide a state-level snapshot of mental health needs, access to care, and outcomes in the U.S. The findings are meant to help inform policy and program planning, analysis, and evaluation, [based on] publicly available data.”

In addition, they identify three primary goals for the report;

  1. Provide a brief snapshot of the current state of mental health in the U.S., with data confirmed through 2024.
  2. Increase awareness of the latest trends in mental health and mental health treatment.
  3. Advocate for, improve, and promote awareness about mental health in the U.S.

Again, this article will focus on California, but include data from other states for context, comparison, and perspective.

Mental Health in California in 2026: How Are We Doing?

We’ll start with the number and percentage of adults in California with “Any Mental lllness,” which refers to a clinical diagnosis of a mental health disorder identified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Volume 5 (DSM-5), the standard diagnostic reference for mental health professionals in the U.S.

Here’s what they found. Spoiler alert: California made the top 10.

Prevalence of Any Mental Illness, By State, Top 10

National Total: 60,080,000

National Average %: 23.12

California: Ranking 8th / Raw total: 6,561,000 / Percentage: 21.63%

  1. New Jersey:
    • Percentage: 18.10%
    • Raw total: 1,318,000
  2. South Carolina
    • Percentage: 19.78%
    • Raw total: 828,000
  3. Hawaii
    • Percentage: 19.82%
    • Raw total: 218,000
  4. Mississippi
    • Percentage: 20.45%
    • Raw total: 451,000
  5. Texas
    • Percentage: 20.73%
    • Raw total: 4,730,000
  6. Florida
    • Percentage: 20.81%
    • Raw total: 3,793,000
  7. North Carolina
    • Percentage: 21.40%
    • Raw total: 1,796,000
  8. California
    • Percentage: 21.63%
    • Raw total: 6,561,000
  9. South Dakota
    • Percentage: 21.83%
    • Raw total: 149,000
  10. New York
    • Percentage: 21.87%
    • Raw total: 3,403,000
From 2021 to 2024, New Jersey reported the lowest percentage of adults with AMI in the U.S.

Next, we’ll share another important metric related to mental health – and public health – in general: the number and percentage of people diagnosed with a clinical substance use disorder (SUD), which includes diagnosis of alcohol use disorder (AUD).

Spoiler alert: California didn’t make the top ten.

Here’s what they found.

Prevalence of Substance Use Disorder, By State, Top 10

National Total: 46,299,000

National Average %: 17.18

California: Ranking – 17th / Raw total: 5,309,000 / Percentage: 17.50%

  1. Utah:
    • Percentage: 15.02%
    • Raw total: 339,000
  2. Hawaii:
    • Percentage: 15.02%
    • Raw total: 165,000
  3. Texas:
    • Percentage: 15.42%
    • Raw total: 3,518,000
  4. New Jersey:
    • Percentage: 20.45%
    • Raw total: 451,000
  5. North Carolina:
    • Percentage: 15.60%
    • Raw total: 1,124,000
  6. Florida:
    • Percentage: 16.32%
    • Raw total: 2,975,000
  7. Virginia:
    • Percentage: 16.33%
    • Raw total: 1,092,000
  8. Maryland:
    • Percentage: 16.56%
    • Raw total: 789,000
  9. Minnesota:
    • Percentage: 16.58%
    • Raw total: 731,000
  10. Nebraska:
    • Percentage: 16.91%
    • Raw total: 251,000

From 2021 to 2024, Utah has reported the lowest percentage of adults with substance use disorder (SUD) in the country.

We’ll close the data section of this article with the prevalence of suicidal ideation nationwide, which refers to instances when individuals report having serious thoughts of suicide. This data doesn’t include suicide planning or suicide attempts. Suicidal ideation, a.k.a. having serious thoughts of suicide – is often used as an indicator of the severity of mental health disorders such as depression, PTSD, borderline personality disorder (BPD), bipolar disorder (BD I&II), and schizophrenia.

Spoiler alert: California made the top five. That’s not a proud “we won a contest” assertion, but rather a confirmation that where suicidal ideation is concerned, what we’re doing in California has had a positive impact on our citizens, in comparison to the rest of the country.

Here’s what they found.

Prevalence of Serious Thoughts of Suicide, By State, Top 10

National Total: 13,580,000

National Average %: 5.22

California: Ranking – 3rd / Raw total: 1,382,000 / Percentage: 4.56%

  1. South Carolina:
    • Percentage: 4.07%
    • Raw total: 170,000
  2. Florida:
    • Percentage: 4.41%
    • Raw total: 805,000
  3. California:
    • Percentage: 4.56%
    • Raw total: 1,382,000
  4. New Jersey:
    • Percentage: 4.61%
    • Raw total: 336,000
  5. Maryland:
    • Percentage: 4.69%
    • Raw total: 224,000
  6. Illinois:
    • Percentage: 4.72%
    • Raw total: 461,000
  7. Minnesota:
    • Percentage: 4.72%
    • Raw total: 208,000
  8. New York:
    • Percentage: 4.75%
    • Raw total: 738,000
  9. Missssippi:
    • Percentage: 4.78%
    • Raw total: 105,000
  10. North Carolina:
    • Percentage: 4.89%
    • Raw total: 410,000

The percentage of adults with serious thoughts of suicide did not increase or decrease significantly between 2021 and 2024.

We’ll discuss these results below.

California: Making Progress, Work Yet to Be Done

Here’s a summary of where California stands, nationwide:

  • AMI: Eighth (8th)
  • SUD: seventeenth (17th)
  • Serious thoughts of suicide: third (3rd)

Given the stressful nature of the past several years, beginning with COVID, moving through a turbulent social, political, and cultural environment, and coming on the heels of a nationwide addiction/drug overdose crisis and a youth suicide crisis, we can assess California objectively: making progress, work to be done.

Based on the information in this report, we can continue our suicide prevention and awareness efforts as we’ve been implementing them. Every suicide is a preventable tragedy, and we’ll work as hard as we can to prevent and reduce the prevalence of suicidality for all Californians.

Where substance use disorder (SUD) is concerned, we can do better, and we know how. We can increase our efforts around education, awareness, advocacy, early detection, stigma reduction, harm reduction, and access to care, until every Californian who needs addiction treatment gets the treatment they need.

Finally, we can also work to improve the support we offer people with clinical mental health disorders. The data indicate we’re doing well, in general, in comparison to the rest of the country. However, well implies room for improvement. Like with addiction, we know exactly what to do.

We can improve everything: education, awareness, advocacy, stigma reduction, and access to evidence-based care for mental health disorders. In California, we know we can lead the way. Our job? Work until every Californian who needs menta health treatment gets the treatment they need.

About Angus Whyte

Angus Whyte has an extensive background in neuroscience, behavioral health, adolescent development, and mindfulness, including lab work in behavioral neurobiology and a decade of writing articles on mental health and mental health treatment. In addition, Angus brings twenty years of experience as a yoga teacher and experiential educator to his work for Crownview. He’s an expert at synthesizing complex concepts into accessible content that helps patients, providers, and families understand the nuances of mental health treatment, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes and quality of life for all stakeholders.