When people ask how mental health differs by race and ethnicity in the United States, they usually expect the story to be about prevalence — which groups have more mental illness. The data tell a different, and more important, story. Several racial and ethnic minority groups have similar or even lower diagnosed rates of mental illness than White Americans, yet they are far less likely to receive treatment when they need it. The gap is not in how often people get sick. It is in who gets care.
That distinction matters, because framing minority mental health as a problem of higher illness misreads the evidence and can deepen stigma. The clearer and better-documented divide is access: among adults with any mental illness, White adults are roughly one-third more likely to receive treatment than Black, Hispanic, or Asian adults. The HHS Office of Minority Health frames these disparities as products of structural barriers — cost, insurance coverage, provider shortages, language, and stigma — rather than differences in need (OMH, 2024).
This article lays out the prevalence data by race first, so it is on the table, then centers the access gap that is the real headline. It closes with uninsurance and suicide-rate differences, which help explain both why care is harder to reach and where the consequences fall hardest. Every figure below comes from federal sources — NIMH, the CDC, SAMHSA, and the Office of Minority Health.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7.
Prevalence by Race and Ethnicity
Past-year prevalence of any mental illness (AMI), serious mental illness (SMI), and major depressive episode (MDE) varies across groups — but not in the direction many assume. Adults reporting two or more races have the highest rates on every measure, while Asian adults consistently have the lowest. Several of the largest minority groups sit at or below the national average.
| Race / ethnicity | AMI (2022) | SMI (2022) | MDE (2021) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall (all adults) | 23.1% | 6.0% | 8.3% |
| Two or more races | 35.2% | 11.8% | 13.9% |
| White | 24.6% | 6.5% | 8.9% |
| Hispanic / Latino | 21.4% | 5.3% | 7.9% |
| Black / African American | 19.7% | 4.7% | 6.7% |
| American Indian / Alaska Native | 19.6% | 7.3% | 11.2% |
| Asian | 16.8% | 4.1% | 4.8% |
| Native Hawaiian / Other Pacific Islander | — | 3.5% | 5.1% |
Sources: NIMH (NIMH, 2022; NIMH, 2021). A dash indicates a figure not separately reported.
Read carefully, the table undercuts the “more mentally ill” narrative. Black adults have a lower rate of any mental illness (19.7%) than White adults (24.6%), and the lowest MDE rate outside of Asian adults. Hispanic adults, too, fall below the national AMI average. Asian Americans report the lowest prevalence on all three measures. The clear exception on the high side is the multiracial population, and American Indian and Alaska Native adults, whose SMI and depression rates run above average — patterns tied to compounded exposure to discrimination, historical trauma, and limited access to care, not to identity.
The Access Gap: The Core Story
Here is where the disparities become impossible to ignore. Among adults who have any mental illness, the share who receive any mental health treatment differs sharply by race — and the groups with lower or comparable prevalence are precisely the ones least likely to be treated.
| Race / ethnicity | Adults with AMI who received treatment (2022) |
|---|---|
| White | 56.1% |
| Two or more races | 56.0% |
| Overall (all adults) | 50.6% |
| Hispanic / Latino | 39.6% |
| Black / African American | 37.9% |
| Asian | 36.1% |
Source: NIMH (NIMH, 2022).
The pattern is consistent: Asian, Black, and Hispanic adults with a diagnosable mental illness are roughly one-third less likely to receive treatment than White adults. Put another way, a Black adult with any mental illness (37.9% treated) and a White adult with the same condition (56.1% treated) are living in two very different systems of care, even though the Black adult is statistically less likely to have the illness in the first place.
The Office of Minority Health quantifies the same gap from a different angle: Black adults are about 36% less likely than U.S. adults overall to receive mental health treatment, and among Black adults specifically, only about 14.7% of all adults received any mental health service in a recent year, compared with 22.9% of adults nationally (OMH, 2024). We examine that population in depth in our Black mental health statistics article.
This is the definition of an access gap rather than a need gap. When prevalence is similar or lower but treatment is dramatically lower, the missing piece is the system: whether care is affordable, reachable, culturally competent, and trusted. Our overview of the mental health treatment gap details the four structural barriers — stigma, cost and insurance, provider shortages, and low recognition — that hit minority communities hardest.
Insurance Coverage: One Engine of the Gap
Uninsurance is one of the most concrete, measurable barriers behind the treatment disparity, and it varies enormously by race. Without coverage, a therapy session can cost $100–$250 out of pocket and psychiatric medication hundreds of dollars a month — a wall that keeps care out of reach regardless of need.
| Race / ethnicity | Uninsured, adults 18–64 (2024) |
|---|---|
| Hispanic / Latino | 24.6% |
| Black, non-Hispanic | 10.5% |
| White, non-Hispanic | 7.9% |
| Asian, non-Hispanic | 5.4% |
Source: CDC/NCHS, 2024 National Health Interview Survey (CDC, 2024).
Nearly one in four working-age Hispanic adults is uninsured — more than three times the rate for White adults. That coverage gap is a direct pipeline to the treatment gap: it is difficult to enter care through a front door that costs a week’s wages to open. Coverage has improved over time — the Black uninsured rate fell from 14.6% in 2020 to 10.5% in 2024 (CDC, 2024) — but the racial ordering has held stubbornly in place.
Provider Representation
Access is also shaped by who is delivering care. A workforce that does not reflect the communities it serves can compound mistrust and cultural mismatch. As of 2022, only about 32% of psychology doctorates were awarded to people from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups combined (APA, 2024). The shortage of providers who share patients’ backgrounds and languages is one reason culturally competent care remains a central goal of federal mental health strategy, and one more layer of the access gap that prevalence figures alone cannot capture.
Suicide Rates by Race and Ethnicity
Suicide is where racial disparities take their most severe form, and the rankings differ from those for overall mental illness. American Indian and Alaska Native people carry by far the highest burden, for both men and women.
| Group | Male rate (2023) | Female rate (2023) |
|---|---|---|
| American Indian / Alaska Native | 35.3 | 12.4 |
| White | 28.0 | 7.4 |
| Black | 15.1 | 3.5 |
| Hispanic | 13.3 | 3.0 |
| Asian / Pacific Islander | 10.3 | 3.7 |
Age-adjusted deaths per 100,000. Source: NIMH/CDC (NIMH, 2025).
American Indian and Alaska Native males have the highest suicide rate of any group at 35.3 per 100,000 — more than triple the rate for Asian/Pacific Islander males — and AI/AN females have the highest female rate. White males follow at 28.0. These gaps reflect a mix of factors including access to care, historical and structural trauma, geographic isolation, and firearm access. For the full national picture of how suicide varies by sex, age, race, and state, see our suicide statistics in the US overview.
It is worth noting that the groups with the lowest overall mental-illness prevalence do not have uniformly low suicide rates, and vice versa — another reason a single “which group is worse off” ranking is misleading. Mental health disparities show up differently across measures, and each one points back to access, stress exposure, and structural context rather than to identity itself.
How Race and Gender Intersect
Race is only one axis of disparity. Within every racial group, women report higher diagnosed prevalence and seek treatment more often, while men die by suicide far more frequently — the so-called gender paradox. Layering these dimensions together sharpens the picture: a minority man, for instance, may sit at the intersection of lower treatment-seeking (a gender pattern) and lower access (a racial pattern). Our companion mental health statistics by gender article breaks down those sex-based differences in detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which racial group has the highest rate of mental illness?
Among the standard federal categories, adults reporting two or more races have the highest past-year rate of any mental illness, at 35.2% in 2022, followed by White adults at 24.6% (NIMH, 2022). Asian adults have the lowest rate, at 16.8%. Importantly, several large minority groups — including Black and Hispanic adults — fall at or below the national average, so higher prevalence is not the defining feature of minority mental health.
Are minority groups more mentally ill than White Americans?
No — that framing is not supported by the data. Black adults (19.7% AMI) and Hispanic adults (21.4%) have lower rates of any mental illness than White adults (24.6%), and Asian adults have the lowest rates of all (NIMH, 2022). The consistent disparity is in treatment access, not in how often mental illness occurs.
How much less likely are minorities to receive mental health treatment?
Among adults who have any mental illness, 56.1% of White adults receive treatment, compared with 39.6% of Hispanic, 37.9% of Black, and 36.1% of Asian adults (NIMH, 2022). That makes those groups roughly one-third less likely to be treated. The Office of Minority Health estimates Black adults are about 36% less likely than U.S. adults overall to receive mental health care (OMH, 2024).
Why is the treatment gap so wide for racial minorities?
The gap reflects structural barriers rather than differences in need: lower insurance coverage (24.6% of working-age Hispanic adults are uninsured versus 7.9% of White adults), fewer providers in minority communities, language barriers, cultural and historical mistrust, and a mental health workforce that does not reflect the populations it serves (CDC, 2024; OMH, 2024; APA, 2024).
Which group has the highest suicide rate?
American Indian and Alaska Native people have the highest suicide rates of any racial or ethnic group. In 2023, the age-adjusted rate was 35.3 per 100,000 for AI/AN males and 12.4 for AI/AN females — the highest for both sexes (NIMH, 2025). White males were next at 28.0.
Sources
- National Institute of Mental Health. Mental Illness. NIMH; 2024 (2022 NSDUH data). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness
- National Institute of Mental Health. Major Depression. NIMH; 2023 (2021 NSDUH data). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression
- National Institute of Mental Health. Suicide. NIMH; 2025 (2023 CDC data). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide
- HHS Office of Minority Health. Mental and Behavioral Health — Black/African Americans. OMH; 2024. https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/mental-and-behavioral-health-blackafrican-americans
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release of Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey. CDC/NCHS; 2025 (2024 NHIS data). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/releases/20250624.html
- American Psychological Association. Psychology degrees and racial diversity. APA; 2024 (2022 data). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2024/11/datapoint-psychology-degrees-racial-diversity