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2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Analysis: Where Does U.S. Teen Mental Health Stand? National Survey Shows Improvements, but Disparities Persist

November 10, 2026 – 7 min read

By AFSP

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November 10, 2026 

 From 2023-2025, U.S. high school students reported broad mental health improvements, with some indicators of distress showing historic declines in the 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and Youth Health in Focus report from the CDC. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the largest private funder of suicide prevention research, recognizes these improvements as encouraging but cautions that distress rates remain high: 33% of high school students report experiencing persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness and amongst these students, 29% reported an unmet need for counseling or therapy, with greater impacts for some groups by sex, race, and ethnicity. These findings underscore the need to continue prioritizing youth mental health research, awareness, and advocacy and to strengthen public health, community, and interpersonal supports for all youth, particularly those disproportionately affected. In 2025, the question about transgender identity was eliminated from the survey despite evidence that transgender youth experience disproportionately greater suicide risk associated with stigma, discrimination, and other adverse experiences. 

The 2025 YRBS survey examined two- and 10-year trends. This nationally representative survey of U.S. high school students has run since 1991.  The student sample decreased by nearly half (47%) from 20,103 students in 2023 to 10,710 in 2025 raising the question of whether these findings fully reflect the experiences of all U.S. high school students. Other federally funded studies support the findings.  

What areas of youth mental health and suicide behavior are improving? 

From 2023 to 2025, all six mental health and suicide-related indicators were reported improved: 

  • Persistent sadness or hopelessness: Declined from 40% to 33%, the largest two-year decrease since 1999 

  • Poor mental health: Declined from 29% to 23%  

  • Seriously considered attempting suicide: Declined from 20% to 14%  

  • Made a suicide plan: Declined from 16% to 12%, the largest two-year decrease since the survey’s inception 

  • Suicide attempts: Declined from 9% to 6%, the largest two-year decrease since the survey’s inception  

  • Suicide attempts that required medical treatment: Declined from 2% to 1% 

From 2015 to 2025, the percentage of students reporting a suicide attempt requiring medical treatment declined from 3% to 1%, while persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness rose from 30% to 33%. Suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts increased from 2017 to 2021 before declining. 

What helps protect youth's mental health and prevent suicide? 

Protective factors support mental health and reduce suicide risk. The 2025 YRBS data reports improvements over 2023 with students feeling greater school connectedness and support from caring adults.  

  • Feel close to people at their school: increased from 55% to nearly two-thirds (63%). 

  • An adult in their household tried hard to make sure their basic needs are met: increased from 86% to 89%. 

  • Parents or other adults in their family know where they are going or with whom they will be with: increased from 84% to 87%. 

Findings from the 2023 YRBS data showed that students reporting greater school connectedness were less likely to report suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts, consistent with prior research. 

Which youth stand out in their mental health and suicide-related outcomes? 

The YRBS demographic categories including sex, sexual identity, grade level, race and ethnicity. The survey also looked at the intersection of race and sex, but excluded the question on gender identity, meaning data for transgender and non-binary youth is unavailable for 2025. In this survey, female students report higher levels of poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors than males. LGB and some ethnic and racial groups, namely American Indian /Alaska Native (AI/AN), also report higher rates of mental health and suicide distress, with Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islanders (NH/OPI) reporting the highest rates along with the greatest increases of any ethnic and racial group. Younger high schoolers reported higher rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors compared to older students.  

Female Students 

  • In 2025, females were more likely than males to report:  

  • Persistent feeling of sadness or hopelessness: 43% vs. 24%  

  • Poor mental health: 31% vs. 16%  

  • Seriously considering suicide: 18% vs. 11%  

  • Making a suicide plan: 15% vs. 10%  

  • Attempting suicide: 8% vs. 5%  

  • Attempt requiring medical treatment: 2% vs. 1%  

  • Intersection of race and sex between 2023 and 2025:  

  • American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) females: declined from 70% to 47%. 

  • Multi-racial females: seriously considering suicide declined from 33% to 21%; those reporting having made a plan declined from 31% to 18%. 

  • Black females: seriously considering suicide declined from 28% to 16%; were 13 percentage points higher than Black males on seriously considering suicide and by 2025, the gap was down by six percentage points (16% vs.10%). 

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual (LGB) Students 

LGB youth continued to report higher rates of sadness and hopelessness, considering suicide, making a plan, and attempting suicide than their heterosexual counterparts. However, rates for these indicators also decreased among LGB high school students. In 2025, self-reported rates for LGB students considering suicide decreased from 48% in 2021 to 32% in 2025, yet this rate remains high with one in three considering suicide compared to more than one in 10 (11%) of heterosexual students, for example. Sexual identity data was available starting in 2021.  

Race and ethnicity: Most racial and ethnic groups saw substantial decreases in suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts between 2023 and 2025. However, there are disparities. 

American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) Students 

While still high, rates of persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, seriously considering suicide, and attempted suicide decreased slightly as reported by AI/AN students. However, more than one in four (27%) AI/AN students reported making a suicide plan in 2025, consistent with 2023 findings, whereas this indicator decreased for White students, with 17% reporting making a plan in 2023 compared to 12% in 2025. 

Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Island (NA/OPI) Students  

NH/OPI saw the largest increases of adverse mental health and suicide related outcomes between 2023 and 2025. Persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness rose from 26% to 41%, serious consideration of suicide rose from 16% to 31%, suicide planning rose from 11% to 28%, and suicide attempts rose from 15% to 22%.  

Black and Hispanic or Latino Students 

All four mental health and suicide-related indicators decreased for Black and Hispanic or Latino students from 2023 to 2025, consistent with high school students overall. Some indicators stand out. Black students who said they considered making a suicide plan decreased from 16% in 2023 to 11% in 2025. Hispanic or Latino students who reported making a suicide attempt decreased from 11% in 2023 to 8% in 2025. Still, both groups reported higher rates of sadness or hopelessness and suicide attempts than White students.  

Grade  

Ninth and 10th graders were more likely than 11th or 12th graders to report making a suicide plan and report a suicide attempt in 2025, consistent with previous years’ findings.  

Do all schools participate in the YRBS survey? 

The YBRS overall response rate declined from 60.3% in 2019 to 30.6% in 2025. The 2025 student sample included 10,710 students, compared with 20,103 in 2023. In 2025, 40 states participated; Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming did not. State participation declined from 47 states in 2015 to 40 in 2025, reaching a low of 39 in 2023.  

Reasons for nonparticipation vary and may include reliance on separate statewide youth surveys and misinformation about youth surveys and data use.  The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report supplements note that: “Nonpublic schools and schools below the median poverty level were less likely to participate, whereas schools in cities were more likely to participate.” Although the YRBS has been an important source of nationally representative data on youth mental health, its findings may not fully reflect the experiences of all U.S. high school students. 

What advocacy and policies are helping youth mental health and suicide prevention? 

This data informs AFSP’s research, advocacy, and public education efforts. As revealed in the YRBS, 29% of students who reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness also reported an unmet need for mental health services (indicating they wanted help but were unable to access it due to cost, uncertainty about where to go or how to seek help, or other barriers), and 42% reported no perceived need for mental health services. In 2023, 29% of high school students reported they have ever lived with a parent or guardian who had severe depression, anxiety, or another mental illness, or was suicidal. This data was not available in 2025. When parental mental health is supported, so is youth mental health.  

The YRBS also found that 31% of high school students had access to a loaded gun that is ready for them to fire without parental or adult permission or supervision. Promoting secure firearm storage through federal and state policies is a key AFSP advocacy priority, recognizing its potential to save lives by reducing access to firearms among youth experiencing a suicidal crisis. 

Through efforts such as AFSP’s Advocacy Action Days, AFSP Volunteer Advocates across the nation will meet with state lawmakers and their staff from January through May to highlight the critical need for suicide prevention programs in K-12 schools, advocate for comprehensive crisis services, including the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, and promote lethal means safety policies as lifesaving measures. Learn more about AFSP’s public policy priorities that support both youth and adults here. 

What can I do to help support youth mental health and prevent suicide? 

AFSP and The Jed Foundation intend to merge in January 2027, and youth mental health and suicide prevention will continue to be a high priority. While this report points to encouraging improvements across certain groups, progress is still needed so that youth mental health support is experienced equally across all groups. Take action! Sign up to become an AFSP Volunteer Advocate, join your local AFSP chapter, bring AFSP’s It’s Real or JED’s high school programs to a school near you, learn about AFSP funded research and findings related to youth, and learn the suicide warning signs, risk factors, and protective factors.