Mental health statistics

One in four American adults — almost 58 million individuals — experience some type of mental disorder every year, including 900,000 Oklahomans.

Published: May 25, 2008 Comment on this article

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One in four American adults — almost 58 million individuals — experience some type of mental disorder every year, including 900,000 Oklahomans.

Twenty-five percent of Oklahoma’s 3.6 million residents has some form of mental illness and 11.4 percent of the population — about 420,000 individuals — are considered to have a serious mental illness.

Fewer than one-third of American adults and 50 percent of children with a diagnosable mental disorder receive any level of treatment in any given year.

On average, it takes 4 ½ years from the time an individual’s mental illness is diagnosed to get the correct therapy and be on the road to recovery.

Mental illness is the leading cause of disability in the United States, Canada and Western Europe. Alcohol and drug use disorders are the second leading cause of disability, topping cancer, heart disease, diabetes and respiratory diseases.

At least 20 percent of Oklahoma’s prison population has some type of severe mental illness and 72 percent of female inmates in Oklahoma have a mental illness.

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