Anxiety by State.
State-level data on mental distress, workforce, and access to anxiety care. Citations on every number.
Anxiety burden and access to care vary widely by state. The cleanest comparable state measure is the CDC's frequent mental distress indicator, the share of adults reporting their mental health was not good on 14 or more of the past 30 days. Access is shaped by workforce: a large share of the country lives in a designated mental health professional shortage area, and telehealth has become a major channel for psychiatric visits.
Key numbers at a glance
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State by state
Every state and the District of Columbia, with the measures that travel best across state lines: the CDC's frequent mental distress indicator, the share of adults with any mental illness, the count of federally designated mental health professional shortage areas, and Mental Health America's access-to-care ranking (1 is best access, 51 is worst). Each state name links to a full state page with sources, context, and where to find care.
| State | Frequent mental distress | Any mental illness | MH shortage areas | MHA access rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 18% | 24.1% | 67 | 51 |
| Alaska | 15.7% | 25% | 340 | 34 |
| Arizona | 14.2% | 23.3% | 274 | 45 |
| Arkansas | 19.9% | 23.9% | 96 | 40 |
| California | 14.9% | 22.2% | Not reported | 37 |
| Colorado | 15.2% | 26.3% | 83 | 14 |
| Connecticut | 13.9% | 21.1% | 50 | 9 |
| Delaware | 16.1% | 20.9% | 15 | 26 |
| District of Columbia | 13.3% | 26.6% | 10 | 6 |
| Florida | 15.6% | 20.4% | 249 | 44 |
| Georgia | 16.1% | 22.5% | 92 | 46 |
| Hawaii | 12.7% | 21.5% | Not reported | 18 |
| Idaho | 15.6% | 28% | 65 | 41 |
| Illinois | 13% | 22% | 234 | 13 |
| Indiana | 16.9% | 24.4% | 110 | 25 |
| Iowa | 14.9% | 26.7% | 182 | 11 |
| Kansas | 15.9% | 24.4% | 117 | 31 |
| Kentucky | 18.4% | 23.8% | 219 | 16 |
| Louisiana | 19.8% | 24.3% | 180 | 32 |
| Maine | 16.4% | 24.1% | 66 | 2 |
| Maryland | 14.2% | 22.4% | 51 | 30 |
| Massachusetts | 13.3% | 23.2% | 52 | 3 |
| Michigan | 17% | 22.9% | 265 | 15 |
| Minnesota | 14% | 24.7% | 149 | 29 |
| Mississippi | 13.6% | 22.2% | 87 | 48 |
| Missouri | 17.5% | 26.5% | 264 | 24 |
| Montana | 16.3% | 27.1% | 104 | 28 |
| Nebraska | 13.5% | 25.7% | 91 | 35 |
| Nevada | 18.1% | 24.6% | 57 | 47 |
| New Hampshire | 15% | 23.1% | 21 | 4 |
| New Jersey | 13.2% | 19.4% | 43 | 27 |
| New Mexico | 18.2% | 25.7% | 96 | 17 |
| New York | 14.2% | 21.1% | 204 | 8 |
| North Carolina | 14.7% | 22.2% | 230 | 38 |
| North Dakota | 12.6% | 25.9% | 78 | 36 |
| Ohio | 17% | 24.5% | 138 | 12 |
| Oklahoma | 18.6% | 25.9% | 129 | 23 |
| Oregon | 19% | 27.5% | 132 | 7 |
| Pennsylvania | 16% | 23.2% | 131 | 5 |
| Rhode Island | 14.5% | 24.7% | 15 | 10 |
| South Carolina | 15.2% | 22.4% | Not reported | 49 |
| South Dakota | 13.8% | 24.9% | 63 | 39 |
| Tennessee | Source pending | 25.5% | Not reported | 42 |
| Texas | 15.7% | 21.9% | 402 | 50 |
| Utah | 15.5% | 29.2% | 63 | 33 |
| Vermont | 15.1% | 26.8% | 12 | 1 |
| Virginia | 15.7% | 22.3% | 128 | 19 |
| Washington | 16.3% | 27.1% | 233 | 20 |
| West Virginia | 19.3% | 26.3% | 124 | 22 |
| Wisconsin | 17.2% | 23.7% | 174 | 21 |
| Wyoming | 15.4% | 27.4% | 29 | 43 |
Sources: CDC BRFSS frequent mental distress (2024); SAMHSA NSDUH any mental illness (2021-2022); HRSA mental health professional shortage area designations (2026); Mental Health America access-to-care ranking (2025). Full citations appear on each state page.
Prefer a map? The interactive state map shows the same data for all 50 states and DC.
Source by source
CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
A continuous state-level telephone survey. Its frequent mental distress measure, near 15.9 percent nationally in 2022, allows state-to-state comparison of recent mental health burden, with meaningful variation across states.
HRSA shortage-area data
Designates mental health professional shortage areas and reports that well over 100 million people live in them, with only about a quarter to a third of estimated need met by the existing workforce.
AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey
Tracks how care is delivered. Recent estimates show a large share of psychiatrist and other mental health visits delivered by telehealth, a shift that changes access especially in underserved areas.
What the data isn't
- ·Frequent mental distress is a symptom-screen measure, not a diagnosis, and it covers all mental health distress rather than anxiety specifically.
- ·Shortage-area designations describe supply relative to a population threshold; they do not capture quality, insurance acceptance, or actual wait times directly.
- ·Telehealth-share figures vary by data source and time window, and a high share does not by itself prove improved access for the people who need it most.
- ·State rankings can shift with small sampling differences, so close gaps between states should be read with caution.
Sources
How to cite
Anxiety by state, AnxietyResearch.org, drawing on CDC BRFSS frequent mental distress data, HRSA shortage-area data, and AHRQ MEPS telehealth estimates. Accessed 2026-06-24. https://anxietyresearch.org/statistics/state-statistics
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