A Gallup survey of more than 1000 American adults, published by Axios, reveals just how much of an impact this year has had on mental health. The proportion of people rating their mental health as "excellent" has fallen by almost 10% across the board.
Overall we were quite surprised by how uniform the impact appears to have been across age groups, race and income. Certain groups of people may have been doing better before COVID-19, but no group has escaped its impact on mental health.
Money... helps
Money may not buy "happiness", but it certainly seems to help your mental health through a pandemic. For household incomes above $100k, the pandemic has worsened mental health, but 45% of that high earner group still rated their mental health as excellent, significantly ahead of the 31% whose households earned between $40k and $99k, and way ahead of the 27% in the lowest earning bracket (<$40k).
Young people... are struggling
The poll found that just 28% of young adults (aged 18-29) rated their mental health as excellent, the lowest of the 4 age groups polled.
