Brooklyn Mental Health Statistics
At a glance
An estimated 36.3% of Brooklyn adults report loneliness and 16.1% have been told by a health professional that they have depression, according to CDC PLACES estimates for 2023. Federal data also show 666,010 Medicaid-eligible Brooklyn residents living in the 5 areas HRSA designates as short of mental health professionals (file dated 11/11/2026).
In crisis or thinking about suicide? Call or text 988 now (in New York City it reaches NYC 988). If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
Key numbers
- 36.3%of Brooklyn adults report loneliness, and 30.5% lack social and emotional supportCDC PLACES 2025 release, 2023 estimates
- 16.1%of Brooklyn adults have ever been told they have depression; 12.9% had current symptoms of depression in a city surveyCDC PLACES, 2023; NYC Community Health Survey, 2021-22
- 5.3suicide deaths per 100,000 Brooklyn residents a year (age-adjusted), 428 deaths over three years; 8.0 statewideNYS Department of Health, 2019-2021
- 666,010Medicaid-eligible residents live in Brooklyn's 5 federal mental health shortage areasHRSA HPSA file, 11/11/2026
- 252.3licensed therapists per 100,000 Brooklyn residents, compared with 554.7 in ManhattanNYSED license statistics, July 1, 2026
Brooklyn compared with the other boroughs
Each line shows one measure for adults in the five boroughs. The red dot is Brooklyn; grey dots are Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. Exact values for every borough are in the table under "Adults" below.
- Brooklyn
- Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island
Adults: mental health and support
| Measure | Brooklyn | Manhattan | Queens | Bronx | Staten Island |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (ever told by a health professional) | 16.1% (14.3 to 18.0) | 18.5% | 13.7% | 15.8% | 15.3% |
| Frequent mental distress (14 or more poor mental health days a month) | 15.2% (13.5 to 17.1) | 14.5% | 13.6% | 16.4% | 14.6% |
| Loneliness | 36.3% (32.9 to 39.7) | 38.0% | 38.2% | 40.6% | 34.2% |
| Lack of social and emotional support | 30.5% (27.3 to 33.7) | 26.3% | 31.9% | 34.4% | 27.8% |
| No health insurance (ages 18 to 64) | 8.9% (7.2 to 10.9) | 6.8% | 10.6% | 15.6% | 7.6% |
Model-based estimates of the share of adults (crude prevalence), CDC PLACES 2025 release. Brooklyn's 95% range is in brackets. "Depression" counts adults ever told by a doctor, nurse or other health professional that they have a depressive disorder.
| Measure | Period | Brooklyn | Manhattan | Queens | Bronx | Staten Island | New York City |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current depression (PHQ-8 score of 10 or more) | 2021-22 | 12.9% (11.5 to 14.4) | 12.7% | 12.8% | 15.6% | 10.5% | 13.1% |
| Serious psychological distress (Kessler 6 score of 13 or more) | 2019-20 | 5.9% (4.9 to 7.0) | 5.0% | 5.4% | 7.0% | 6.0% | 5.8% |
NYC Health Department estimates from its telephone Community Health Survey, two years pooled, as published on the city's Environment & Health Data Portal (the latest period for each measure). These use symptom questionnaires, so they measure something different from the PLACES "ever told" figure above.
Suicide deaths
An average of 143 Brooklyn residents died by suicide each year from 2019 to 2021. If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call or text 988 at any time; in New York City it reaches NYC 988.
| Area | Deaths (three years) | Rate per 100,000 a year | Age-adjusted rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brooklyn | 428 | 5.5 | 5.3 |
| Manhattan | 383 | 7.9 | 7.0 |
| Queens | 431 | 6.3 | 5.8 |
| Bronx | 223 | 5.2 | 5.1 |
| Staten Island | 99 | 6.8 | 6.5 |
| New York City | 1,564 | 6.2 | 5.8 |
| New York State | 4,964 | 8.4 | 8.0 |
New York State Department of Health, Community Health Indicator Reports (2021 Vital Statistics Data as of July, 2023). Rates are yearly averages over 2019-2021. This is the latest county-level release; it is a few years behind because death records take time to finalize.
Access to care
- Shortage areas. HRSA lists 5 Designated mental health shortage areas in Brooklyn for the Medicaid-eligible population, covering 666,010 residents (file dated 11/11/2026), plus 13 facility designations. Our study maps them: where support is thinnest in Brooklyn.
- Therapists. Brooklyn has 252.3 licensed therapists (clinical social workers, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists and psychologists) per 100,000 residents, about one for every 396 people, against 554.7 in Manhattan and 285.9 statewide (NYSED, July 1, 2026). Details: therapists per 100,000 by borough.
- Health insurance. An estimated 8.9% of Brooklyn adults aged 18 to 64 have no health insurance (CDC PLACES, 2023).
Teens
In 2025, 34.1% of New York City public high school students said they had felt sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more, down from 38.2% in 2021. More in our study of what the latest YRBS shows.
| Indicator | New York City | United States | NYC compared with U.S. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Felt sad or hopeless (two weeks or more, past year) | 34.1% | 33.3% | Similar |
| Seriously considered attempting suicide | 14.7% | 14.5% | Similar |
| Attempted suicide | 11.2% | 6.4% | Higher |
| Mental health not good most of the time or always | 19.6% | 23.3% | Lower |
| Got 8 or more hours of sleep on a school night | 22.6% | 24.3% | Similar |
New York City public high school students and U.S. high school students. Brooklyn-only figures are not published for recent years. Comparisons tested at p < 0.05. Details in our study.
What these numbers mean if you live in Brooklyn
- If you are struggling, you are far from alone. About one in six Brooklyn adults (16.1%) have been told they have depression, and more than one in three (36.3%) report loneliness.
- Support comes in many forms. Friends, family, community groups and peer support all count, alongside professional care when you want it.
- Finding care can take some persistence. If you have Medicaid or another plan and cannot find a provider, our guide to what to do when you cannot find an in-network provider in New York explains your options.
- For parents of teens, our article on teen suicide warning signs explains what to watch for and what to do.
- If things feel urgent, call or text 988 at any time. In New York City it reaches NYC 988, which is free and confidential.
Method, sources and limits
This page gathers the most recent public figures we could find for Brooklyn (Kings County) from government sources, and uses the results of our own three studies, each of which has its own method section. Each table names its source and period. Sources differ in method and year, so compare figures within a table rather than across tables.
A script builds every figure from saved source files (each checked against a SHA-256 hash) and from the studies' results, and refuses to run if a study's own check has failed. A second script checks the figures against different tables: CDC's one-row-per-county edition of PLACES, HRSA's Excel edition of the shortage-area file, the state's trend table for suicide rates, a fresh download of the city's survey data and CDC's YRBS Explorer. All checks matched on November 12, 2026.
We looked for county suicide data in CDC WONDER, but its automated access covers national figures only, so we used the New York State Department of Health's county figures instead.
Sources
- CDC PLACES: Local Data for Better Health, County Data, 2025 release (opens in a new tab). Model-based estimates for 2023.
- NYC Health Department, Community Health Survey, via the Environment & Health Data Portal (opens in a new tab). Depression 2021-22; serious psychological distress 2019-20.
- NYS Department of Health, Community Health Indicator Reports (CHIRS): Latest Data (opens in a new tab). Suicide mortality, 2019-2021.
- HRSA Mental Health HPSA detail file (BCD_HPSA_FCT_DET_MH) (opens in a new tab). File dated 11/11/2026.
- NYSED Office of the Professions, License Statistics (via our therapist supply study) (opens in a new tab). As of July 1, 2026.
- CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2025 Combined Datasets (via our teen study) (opens in a new tab). 2025.
Limits
- PLACES figures are model-based estimates for 2023, not counts. The city survey figures come from telephone interviews pooled over two years. Both carry uncertainty; the tables show ranges for Brooklyn.
- The county suicide figures cover 2019-2021, the latest county-level release from New York State. Small yearly numbers make rates move from year to year, which is why they are averaged over three years.
- Shortage designations cover the Medicaid-eligible population only. Therapist counts follow licensees' mailing addresses and include people who are not seeing clients.
- Teen figures are for New York City public high schools as a whole; recent Brooklyn-only figures are not published.
Cite this page
Mind Body Seven. (2026). Brooklyn Mental Health Statistics. https://www.mindbody7.com/research/brooklyn-mental-health-statistics/
Journalists, researchers and community groups are welcome to quote these figures with a link to this page. The data behind the tables is free to download as a CSV file (brooklyn-mental-health-statistics.csv) under the CC BY 4.0 license: reuse it with credit to Mind Body Seven and a link here. Please also credit the original sources listed above.
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This page reports public population data. It is general information, not medical advice, a diagnosis or a treatment plan, and reading it does not make you a patient of Mind Body Seven.