Mental Health in Oakland County, Michigan: Statistics

A one-page reference of public figures on mental health in Oakland County and Michigan. Each figure names its source and the period it covers. Some come from the practice's own data studies, which have more detail; the rest come from federal surveys and the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Oakland County adults

CDC's PLACES project estimates health measures for every county and town from a national telephone survey. In 2023, 14.8% of Oakland County adults reported frequent mental distress, meaning their mental health was not good on 14 or more of the past 30 days, lower than Wayne County (19.7%). 20.8% had ever been diagnosed with depression, against 24.3% in Wayne County. Within the county, frequent mental distress ranged from 11.1% in Bloomfield Hills to 20.7% in Pontiac among the places below. The town-by-town study has the 95% intervals and more places.

Michigan: mental illness and depression

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), run by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), produces state estimates; it does not report counties. In 2023-2024, 23.6% of Michigan adults had a diagnosable mental illness in the past year, about 1.9 million people, close to the U.S. figure of 23.1%. Among adolescents aged 12 to 17, 16.7% had a major depressive episode in the past year, against 8.5% of adults.

988 in Michigan

In September 2026, 11,453 calls to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline were routed to Michigan's crisis centers. 10,310 (90%) were answered by a center in Michigan, 1,127 callers hung up before an answer, and 16 went to the national backup network. Answered calls were picked up in 22.4 seconds on average. From July through September 2026, Michigan centers answered 90.5% of 34,089 routed calls.

Cancer and access to care in Oakland County

• About 7,852 new cancer cases are diagnosed in Oakland County each year (2019 to 2023 average), about 150 a week. Cancer in Oakland County has rates, trends and sites.
• 1,660 psychologists list a primary practice address in Oakland County, 128.8 per 100,000 residents against 72.4 for Michigan (NPI data through November 2, 2026).
• Low-income residents of Pontiac (30,173 people) are a federally designated mental health shortage population, with a shortage score of 17 of 25. Psychologists and shortage areas has the county comparison.

What this means if you are thinking about therapy

• Struggling with your mental health is common. These are not small groups: in Michigan, mental illness in a given year touches about 1.9 million adults.
• Teenagers are not exempt. If you are a parent, the adolescent figures are a good reason to check in with your teen about how they are doing.
• Help in a crisis is a phone call or text away: 988 answers around the clock, and most Michigan calls are answered by a center in the state.
• For help finding care, the resources page lists local and national services.

Method and sources

Figures from the practice's three studies are copied from those studies' data files, so they always match. PLACES figures are crude (not age-adjusted) estimates for adults. NSDUH figures are SAMHSA's 2023-2024 state small area estimates, read from the percent and totals tables (CSV); the Michigan figures were checked a second time against SAMHSA's Michigan state tables. The 988 figures are the Michigan rows of the 988 Lifeline In-State KPI reports for July through September 2026 (September 2026 was the newest report published when this page was compiled); in each report the Michigan totals add up (calls routed = answered + hung up + sent to backup). Sources were downloaded on November 12, 2026.

• CDC PLACES: Local Data for Better Health, County Data, 2025 release: data.cdc.gov/d/swc5-untb
• CDC PLACES: Local Data for Better Health, Place Data, 2025 release: data.cdc.gov/d/eav7-hnsx
• SAMHSA, State data tables and reports from the 2023-2024 NSDUH: www.samhsa.gov/data/data-we-collect/nsduh-national-survey-drug-use-and-health/state-releases/2023-2024
• 988 Lifeline In-State KPI Report, September 2026: 988lifeline.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/September-2026-988-In-State-Monthly-Report.pdf
• 988 Lifeline In-State KPI Report, August 2026: 988lifeline.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/August-2026-988-In-State-Monthly-Report.pdf
• 988 Lifeline In-State KPI Report, July 2026: 988lifeline.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/July-26-988-In-State-Monthly-Report.pdf
• NCI/CDC State Cancer Profiles: statecancerprofiles.cancer.gov/
• CMS NPPES downloadable data files: download.cms.gov/nppes/NPI_Files.html
• HRSA mental health HPSA detail file: data.hrsa.gov/DataDownload/DD_Files/BCD_HPSA_FCT_DET_MH.csv

Limits

• PLACES town and county figures are model-based estimates from survey answers, not counts of diagnoses. Neighboring places can have overlapping intervals.
• NSDUH reports states, not counties, so the Michigan figures may not match Oakland County. Its mental illness measures are based on survey answers, not clinical exams.
• 988 figures cover calls only (not texts or chats) and are counted by the state the call is routed to. One person can call more than once.
• The figures describe groups of people and different years; they are not a measure of any one person or of any treatment.