Depression has become increasingly common among American teenagers \u2013 especially teen girls, who are now almost three times as likely as teen boys to have had recent experiences with depression.<\/p>\n
In 2017, 13% of U.S. teens ages 12 to 17 (or 3.2 million) said they had experienced at least one major depressive episode in the past year, up from 8% (or 2 million) in 2007, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n One-in-five teenage girls \u2013 or nearly 2.4 million \u2013 had experienced at least one major depressive episode (the proxy measure of depression used in this analysis) over the past year in 2017. By comparison, 7% of teenage boys (or 845,000) had at least one major depressive episode in the past 12 months.<\/p>\n The total number of teenagers who recently experienced depression increased 59% between 2007 and 2017. The rate of growth was faster for teen girls (66%) than for boys (44%).<\/p>\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n NEW: Depression has become increasingly common among U.S. teenagers \u2013 especially teen girls, who are now almost three times as likely as teen boys to have had recent experiences with it. https:\/\/t.co\/zR3Bsrj9Su<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) July 12, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n