Depression hits 9% of adults, worst in South, CDC reports

An estimated 9% of adult Americans currently meet the criteria for clinical depression, federal officials reported Thursday.

Rates of depression vary widely from state to state, ranging from a low of 4.8% in North Dakota to a high of 14.8% in Mississippi, according to researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Overall, more people in the Southeast met the criteria for depression, compared with other parts of the nation, the researchers found.

For the report, researchers collected data on 235,067 people in 45 states, the District of Columbia and two U.S. territories.

They found that besides state-to-state disparities, those more likely to have major depression — the most serious kind of depression — were women, racial and ethnic minorities, those without a high school education, people who were divorced or never married, those unemployed or unable to work, middle-aged people, and those without health insurance.