Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. adults report having or being treated for depression, a share that has steadily increased since the mid-2010s. Depression can impair daily functioning and increase the risk of chronic disease and suicide, making it a major public health concern.

In Chicago, understanding patterns of depression is especially urgent. Suicide rates are rising, particularly among Black and Hispanic Chicagoans, a trend that prior research has linked to issues like historical redlining, residential segregation, community violence, and concentrated poverty. Meanwhile, protective factors like social cohesion, community trust, and strong social networks vary across neighborhoods.^i,ii,iii

Using ChicagoSpeaks^®, a probability-based, representative panel, NORC surveyed 1,147 Chicago adults to study the prevalence of depressive symptoms across Chicago and to contextualize that prevalence for health practitioners seeking strategies to improve mental health. We found that symptoms of depression are more prevalent among younger adults, Black and Hispanic Chicagoans, and Chicagoans living in the South, Southwest, and West areas of the city, suggesting the need for localized strategies. The prevalence of depression across Chicago is associated not only with individual circumstances but also with the social conditions of residents’ daily lives. 

For our study, we evaluated the percentage of ChicagoSpeaks respondents who expressed any anhedonia, the percentage who expressed any low mood, and the percentage who met the threshold for potential clinical depression.

We then examined how these percentages differed by two categories: fixed characteristics (race and ethnicity, sex, and age) and changeable characteristics (region of the city, education, household income, employment status, and marital status).

Across fixed characteristics, we found:

• A significantly lower percentage of White Chicagoans meet the threshold for likely depression than other racial and ethnic groups.
• A slightly higher percentage of males than females in Chicago meet the threshold for likely depression, but this difference was not statistically significant.
• The percentage of Chicagoans meeting the threshold for likely depression declines with age, with 18- to 29-year-olds reporting the greatest percentage (27.2 percent) and those 60 and older reporting the lowest percentage (10.2 percent).

Across changeable social factors, we found:

• Chicagoans on the North Side report less depression. A smaller percentage of Chicagoans living in the North Central and Northwest areas reported depression than those living in the South, Southwest, and West.
• Chicagoans with more education report significantly less depression. Those with a high school degree or less had the highest percentage of depression (33.7 percent), and those with a postgraduate or professional degree had the lowest (10.7 percent).
• Chicagoans with larger household incomes report less depression. Adults with a household income of under $30,000 had the largest percentage of people meeting the threshold for likely depression (32.1 percent), while Chicagoans with a household income of over $100,000 had the smallest percentage (11.2 percent).
• Chicagoans who are employed but concerned about job security report more depression. By employment status, the largest percentage of Chicagoans meeting the threshold for depression is among those who are employed but have concerns they might lose their job in the next year (32.7 percent).

While a smaller percentage of married Chicagoans reported depression than unmarried Chicagoans, this difference was not statistically significant.

The patterns of depressive symptoms by social determinants of mental health across Chicago largely mirror Centers for Disease Control and Prevention national benchmarks and Gallup’s findings with one notable difference: race and ethnicity. In national snapshots, the percentage of Americans reporting depression is roughly equivalent across racial and ethnic groups. In our snapshot, we found significantly fewer White Chicagoans meet the threshold for symptoms of likely depression than Black or Hispanic Chicagoans.

Of note, for the individual indicators of depressive symptoms—anhedonia and low mood—we found that Chicagoans were generally equally likely to express some level of distress. We found some slight differences in significance testing, with Hispanic Chicagoans reporting more anhedonia and low mood than White Chicagoans. But when looking at who meets the screening threshold for likely depression, a smaller proportion of White Chicagoans fall into this category than Black or Hispanic Chicagoans.

How does one make sense of how Chicago differs from national data in racial patterns of depression? The distinction may lie in how participants were asked about depression. Gallup asked a national sample of U.S. adults if they “have or are being treated for depression,” requiring interaction with the medical system and a formal diagnosis. We ask about symptoms but do not use the word “depression” explicitly.

It’s possible that national studies that explicitly ask about depression may reveal that White adults experiencing symptoms are more likely to get diagnosed and seek formal care than Black adults, Hispanic adults, or adults of other races, even when, as our data show, symptoms among adults of color are equally or more severe. Alternatively, Chicago’s social conditions, including segregation and concentrated poverty, may increase the likelihood of depression for Black and Hispanic residents. More locally driven research is needed to disentangle this finding.

These findings show that mental health varies with the social realities of individuals’ lives. Where Chicagoans live, whether their jobs feel secure, their income, and their relationships are all connected to how they describe their mental health.

This points to solutions grounded in that social context. Listening to residents across the city through town halls, community listening sessions, or online discussion forums may help identify neighborhood-specific barriers and locally responsive approaches to addressing depression in Chicago. Pairing community input with neighborhood-level data to map gaps in social, environmental, and economic supports may help direct resources where they are needed most.

Ultimately, depression in Chicago is not merely an individual health issue. It varies with the conditions in which people live, work, and build their lives. Our findings suggest that reducing depression may benefit from approaches grounded in local data and informed by residents’ experiences.

NORC conducted a poll of 1,147 adult residents of Chicago, Illinois, between March 16–23, 2026, using the ChicagoSpeaks^® Quarterly Pulse Survey, a quarterly multi-client survey. ChicagoSpeaks is NORC’s probability-based panel designed to be representative of Chicago residents. The margin of error is +/- 4.08 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level, including the design effect.