Depression symptoms among U.S. college students have steadily increased over the past 15 years — particularly among women, minorities and students experiencing financial stress — according to a new study that analyzed health survey data from more than 560,000 college students.

The study, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center along with McDaniel College and University of Maryland and other academic institutions in Maryland, specifically found that the rate of self-reported depression symptoms continued to grow over the 15 years of the analysis period (2007–2022), extending a trend reported by many researchers for the past two decades.

First author Carol Vidal, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Children’s Center, notes that thoughts of suicide, or “suicidal ideation,” increased across all demographic groups regardless of race, age, gender or financial stress, while reports of other symptoms — such as restlessness and lack of concentration — rose most steeply among female, financially distressed and minority students.

Vidal says that some minority students and those experiencing financial stress are considered vulnerable populations, and are more likely to encounter both acute life events and chronic stressors that can lead to psychological and physiological changes, including elevated stress hormones.

The findings, published in Journal of Affective Disorders, highlight growing mental health disparities among college students. And the growth of suicide ideation across all groups signals an urgent need for prevention and targeted support strategies on college campuses, Vidal says.