How Denver-Area Teens Feel: Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, 2019 to 2025
Key finding
In fall 2025, 19.4% of Denver high school students said they had felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more that they stopped some usual activities. That is down from 35.6% in 2021, a drop larger than the survey’s margin of error. Across Colorado, the share fell from 39.6% to 21.8%.
In crisis or thinking about suicide? Call or text 988 now (in Colorado it reaches the 988 Colorado Mental Health Line). If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
Key numbers from the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey
- 19.4%of Denver high school students felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in the past year that they stopped some usual activities. In 2021 it was 35.6%.Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (CDPHE), fall 2025, Denver County
- 21.8%of Colorado high school students said the same, down from 39.6% in 2021 and 25.7% in 2023.Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (CDPHE), statewide
- 18.0%of Denver high school students said their mental health was poor most of the time or always in the past 30 days, against 23.1% statewide.Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (CDPHE), fall 2025
- 79.4%of Denver high school students have an adult to go to for help with a serious problem, up from 73.0% in 2021.Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (CDPHE), Denver County
- 26.4%of Denver high school students would contact a crisis line if they were worried about their own or someone else’s mental health (21.2% in 2023).Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (CDPHE), Denver County
Source: Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, CDPHE dashboard (high school, all students). Each area is a CDPHE health statistics region; see Method.
Are Denver teens doing better than in 2021 and 2023?
Compared with 2021, yes, on most of what the survey measures. Of the nine measures CDPHE reports for Denver in both 2021 and 2025, seven moved in the better direction by more than the margin of error. Persistent sadness fell from 35.6% to 19.4%, self-harm from 15.6% to 7.9%, and seriously considering suicide from 11.3% to 6.3%. The share who said their stress feels manageable most days rose from 55.7% to 62.8%.
Bullying is the exception. Bullying at school (5.5% in 2021, 9.2% in 2025) and electronic bullying (6.2% in 2021, 6.4% in 2025) were higher in 2025 than in 2021, but by less than the margin of error.
Compared with 2023, the picture is less certain. Ten of the eleven Denver measures moved in the better direction again, and suicide attempts stayed the same (3.5%). Of those, just poor mental health most of the time changed by more than the margin of error, from 21.3% to 18.0%. Persistent sadness went from 23.6% to 19.4%, within the margin of error for an area of Denver’s size.
Statewide, where the sample is much larger, CDPHE reports that persistent sadness or hopelessness, poor mental health most of the time, stress that feels manageable, seriously considering suicide and having an adult to go to for help all changed for the better from 2023 to 2025 by a statistically significant amount, and that suicide attempts did not change.
| Measure | 2019 | 2021 | 2023 | 2025 | 2025 margin of error (95% range) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felt sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more (past year) | 31.8% | 35.6% | 23.6% | 19.4% | 15.9–22.9 |
| Poor mental health most of the time or always (past 30 days) | – | – | 21.3% | 18.0% | 15.4–20.6 |
| Stress level is manageable most days | – | 55.7% | 58.0% | 62.8% | 59.2–66.4 |
| Hurt themselves on purpose without wanting to die (past year) | – | 15.6% | 9.4% | 7.9% | 5.7–10.0 |
| Seriously considered suicide (past year) | 14.2% | 11.3% | 8.9% | 6.3% | 4.6–7.9 |
| Made a suicide plan (past year) | 10.2% | 9.5% | 7.0% | 5.2% | 4.0–6.3 |
| Attempted suicide (past year) | – | 5.8% | 3.5% | 3.5% | 2.5–4.5 |
| Bullied on school property (past year) | 12.3% | 5.5% | 10.5% | 9.2% | 7.2–11.3 |
| Bullied electronically (past year) | 8.9% | 6.2% | 8.1% | 6.4% | 5.3–7.5 |
| Have an adult to go to for help with a serious problem | 72.2% | 73.0% | 74.5% | 79.4% | 76.4–82.5 |
| Would contact a crisis line if worried about their own or a friend's mental health | – | – | 21.2% | 26.4% | 22.2–30.7 |
Percent of high school students. – = not in CDPHE’s dashboard for that year. Source: Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, CDPHE.
| Measure | 2019 | 2021 | 2023 | 2025 | 2025 margin of error (95% range) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felt sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more (past year) | 34.7% | 39.6% | 25.7% | 21.8% | 20.5–23.1 |
| Poor mental health most of the time or always (past 30 days) | – | – | 28.4% | 23.1% | 22.1–24.1 |
| Stress level is manageable most days | – | 53.2% | 57.7% | 61.0% | 59.9–62.1 |
| Hurt themselves on purpose without wanting to die (past year) | – | 20.3% | 13.1% | 11.2% | 10.3–12.1 |
| Seriously considered suicide (past year) | 17.5% | 17.1% | 11.1% | 9.6% | 8.8–10.4 |
| Made a suicide plan (past year) | 13.4% | 13.2% | 9.3% | 7.4% | 6.8–8.0 |
| Attempted suicide (past year) | – | 7.2% | 5.5% | 4.6% | 4.1–5.2 |
| Bullied on school property (past year) | 16.6% | 11.1% | 12.2% | 12.8% | 12.1–13.5 |
| Bullied electronically (past year) | 13.3% | 10.3% | 9.5% | 8.8% | 8.4–9.3 |
| Have an adult to go to for help with a serious problem | 72.7% | 73.5% | 75.4% | 77.7% | 76.5–79.0 |
| Would contact a crisis line if worried about their own or a friend's mental health | – | – | 22.9% | 26.3% | 24.4–28.1 |
Percent of high school students. – = not in CDPHE’s dashboard for that year. Source: Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, CDPHE.
How Denver compares with Colorado and the metro area
In 2025, Denver’s figures were lower than the statewide figures on all eight measures in this study where a lower figure is better, and lower by more than the margin of error on six: poor mental health most of the time, self-harm, seriously considering suicide, making a suicide plan, bullying at school and electronic bullying. For persistent sadness or hopelessness and suicide attempts, the gap is within the margin of error.
Across the six metro areas, persistent sadness in 2025 ranged from 19.3% in Douglas County to 23.3% in Adams County. Every area’s margin of error overlaps the others, so the survey does not show a clear difference between them. In Arapahoe County, where our Greenwood Village office is, the figure was 23.1%.
| Measure | Denver | Arapahoe | Adams | Jefferson | Boulder & Broomfield | Douglas | Colorado |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felt sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more (past year) | 19.4% | 23.1% | 23.3% | 22.9% | 20.0% | 19.3% | 21.8% |
| Poor mental health most of the time or always (past 30 days) | 18.0% | 23.5% | 23.3% | 25.8% | 22.8% | 21.7% | 23.1% |
| Stress level is manageable most days | 62.8% | 59.3% | 59.0% | 60.2% | 60.9% | 65.4% | 61.0% |
| Hurt themselves on purpose without wanting to die (past year) | 7.9% | 11.5% | 10.6% | 11.6% | 12.2% | 11.2% | 11.2% |
| Seriously considered suicide (past year) | 6.3% | 9.8% | 8.4% | 9.7% | 9.0% | 10.0% | 9.6% |
| Bullied on school property (past year) | 9.2% | 13.2% | 12.9% | 12.0% | 12.5% | 12.2% | 12.8% |
| Have an adult to go to for help with a serious problem | 79.4% | 75.8% | 71.2% | 79.5% | 78.7% | 82.2% | 77.7% |
| Would contact a crisis line if worried about their own or a friend's mental health | 26.4% | 25.4% | 20.1% | 28.6% | 30.0% | 30.0% | 26.3% |
Areas are CDPHE health statistics regions: Denver County, Arapahoe County, Adams County, Jefferson County, Boulder and Broomfield counties, and Douglas County. Each figure has its own margin of error, in the CSV download.
What the survey does not tell us about anxiety
None of the measures in the Mental Health section of CDPHE’s dashboard asks about anxiety, so this study cannot say whether anxiety among Denver teens has gone up or down. The closest measures are poor mental health in the past 30 days and whether stress feels manageable most days. Both moved in the better direction in Denver: poor mental health from 21.3% in 2023 to 18.0%, and manageable stress from 55.7% in 2021 to 62.8%.
What this means for Denver-area parents
- Better averages do not mean every teen is fine. About one in five Denver high school students (19.4%) still described two weeks or more of sadness or hopelessness that got in the way of usual activities. If your teen seems that way, a calm, direct conversation is a good place to start.
- Know who your teen would go to. 79.4% of Denver high school students said they have an adult to go to for help with a serious problem, which leaves 20.6% who did not say so. It is fine to ask your teen who that person is for them.
- Save 988 together. 26.4% of Denver high school students said they would contact a crisis line if they were worried about their own or a friend’s mental health. Putting 988 in your phone and your teen’s makes it easier to reach if it is ever needed.
- If you are worried, you do not have to sort it out alone. Survey figures describe all students together and say nothing about any one teen. Your teen’s doctor, a school counselor or a therapist can help you understand what is going on. Our Denver mental health resources page lists local options.
Method
- Data: high school results from the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, run by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), for all students (demographic “Total”) in the six Denver-metro areas below and statewide, for the 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025 surveys. We downloaded them from the data download view of CDPHE’s public dashboard on November 12, 2026.
- The survey: in the fall of 2025, CDPHE surveyed 134,431 young people at 362 middle and high schools. CDPHE says its results represent youth who attend public middle and high schools in Colorado. This study uses the high school results.
- Areas: CDPHE reports local results by health statistics region. The ones used here are Region 20 (Denver County), Region 15 (Arapahoe County), Region 14 (Adams County), Region 21 (Jefferson County), Region 16 (Boulder and Broomfield counties) and Region 3 (Douglas County). “Denver” on this page means Denver County.
- Margin of error: CDPHE publishes a 95% confidence interval for each figure. We call a change or a gap “more than the margin of error” when the two intervals do not overlap, and not otherwise. That is stricter than a formal significance test, so a few changes CDPHE reports as significant are not called clear here; for example, CDPHE reports a statewide decrease in seriously considering suicide, from 11.1% to 9.6%, which our test does not flag.
- Figures are shown to one decimal place, as on CDPHE’s dashboard, and changes are in percentage points between those figures. Before publishing, a separate script re-read every figure on this page from CDPHE’s interactive dashboard (a different view of the same data) and compared the statewide figures with CDPHE’s 2025 results page.
Limits
- These are students’ own anonymous answers to survey questions. They are not diagnoses, and they describe groups of students, not any one teen.
- Local figures rest on smaller samples than the statewide ones, so their margins of error are wider, and some real changes may not show up as clear. CDPHE’s download gives percentages and confidence intervals but not the number of students behind each figure.
- Some questions changed over time. In 2019 the survey asked whether students had “actually attempted” suicide (6.6% in Denver, 7.6% statewide), so 2019 is left out of the attempts trend. Some measures start in CDPHE’s dashboard in 2021 or 2023.
- The 2021 survey was taken during the pandemic, which may affect comparisons with that year.
If these numbers bring up worries about your own teen or yourself, the crisis lines below are free, confidential and open all day and night.
Cite this study
Suggested citation:
Mountainside Behavioral Health. (2026). How Denver-area teens are feeling: Healthy Kids Colorado Survey results for Denver and Colorado. https://mountainsidebh.com/research/colorado-teen-mental-health-hkcs-2025/Download the data (CSV). The data behind this page is free to reuse, including commercially, with credit to Mountainside Behavioral Health and a link to this page (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (opens in a new tab)).
Sources
- Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), Healthy Kids Colorado Survey dashboard (high school results) (opens in a new tab): 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025 surveys.
- CDPHE, Healthy Kids Colorado Survey dashboard, data download view (used for this study) (opens in a new tab): downloaded November 12, 2026.
- CDPHE, 2025 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey Results (opens in a new tab): fall 2025 survey.
Worried about your teen?
Mountainside Behavioral Health works with teens and their parents, in Greenwood Village or by telehealth across Colorado. A free consultation is a chance to ask questions and see whether the fit is right.
Research pages describe whole populations from public data. They are general information, not medical advice, a diagnosis or a treatment plan, and they do not create a therapist-client relationship. Figures checked against the sources above on November 12, 2026.