Maryland ranks No. 1 overall for mental health, a measure that combines rates of mental illness and access to care, while Nevada ranks last, according to Mental Health America’s “State of Mental Health in America 2026” report.
The nonprofit ranked all 50 states and the District of Columbia on 17 measures. Seven measure prevalence, including adult and youth rates of mental illness, substance use disorder and serious thoughts of suicide. The other 10 measure access to care, including insurance coverage, treatment rates and mental health workforce availability.
Most of the data comes from federal surveys conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the CDC and the Health Resources and Services Administration, as well as from the Education Department. Most measures reflect data collected through 2024. Every measure carried equal weight. For each state, the organization converted its rate on every measure into a standardized score, then added the 17 scores together to set the overall ranking.
States ranked 1-13 have lower rates of mental illness and better access to care. States ranked 39-51 have higher rates and worse access. Maryland’s top spot was driven mostly by two access measures. It had the lowest share of adults with mental illness who were uninsured, at 1.4%, and the lowest share whose private insurance did not cover mental health treatment, at 3.7%. Nevada has ranked last three years in a row.
Here is how all 50 states and the District of Columbia ranked overall:
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Vermont
- Minnesota
- New Jersey
- New York
- Pennsylvania
- Illinois
- North Carolina
- Hawaii
- District of Columbia
- Delaware
- Rhode Island
- California
- Wisconsin
- Connecticut
- Kentucky
- Michigan
- Alaska
- Washington
- Ohio
- Louisiana
- Virginia
- Indiana
- North Dakota
- South Carolina
- Nebraska
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Missouri
- Iowa
- Oklahoma
- Maine
- New Hampshire
- Utah
- Kansas
- Oregon
- Mississippi
- Colorado
- Idaho
- Florida
- Arkansas
- West Virginia
- New Mexico
- Georgia
- Arizona
- Montana
- Wyoming
- Alabama
- Nevada
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