Key Takeaways

• About 37% of American adults are currently undergoing in-person one-on-one therapy (95.5 million people).
• In-person one-on-one therapy is the most popular method used by 77.5% of Americans undergoing therapy in 2021.
• About 16.67% of adults in the US started seeing a therapist for the first time in 2020.

Introduction

• The surge in mental health issues due to the COVID-19 outbreak led to an increase in the number of people undergoing therapy in the US. However, despite a similar growth in remote technologies and telehealth, in-person one-on-one therapy remains the most popular/used therapy method in the US. This report provides statistics for people undergoing one-on-one therapy in the US.

One-On-One Therapy Statistics - The US

• The total population in the US is 331.4 million people, 258.3 million of whom are adults aged 18 years or older.
• According to a survey of 2,000 adults in the US, 31% of American adults continued or returned to therapy in 2020.
• However, one in six (16.67%) of the US adult population started seeing a therapist in 2020, placing the current percentage of Americans undergoing therapy at 47.67% (calculated from 31% + 16.67%).
• Before the pandemic, only "9.5% of people sought counseling or therapy from a mental health professional." As such, this increment in therapy consultations can be attributed to the surge in mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Subsequently, the total number of American adults currently undergoing therapy is 123.2 million (47.7% of 258.3 million adults).
• In-person one-on-one therapy is the most popular therapy method (77.5%) among people currently undergoing therapy in 2021, ahead of live chat online therapy (33.1%), text message/phone call therapy (30.1%), remote video therapy (25%), and in-person group therapy (15.4%)
• Considering that 77.5% of Americans undergoing therapy seek/use in-person one-on-one therapy, about 95.5 million people currently use in-person one-on-one therapy (calculated from 77.5% of 123.2 million people). This number accounts for 37% of the total US adult population.

Research Strategy