Gyms are packed with young people, as are the nutrition aisles that have teens reaching for hydration packets and creatine gummies. They practice self-care regimens, often shared on social media, wear Oura rings to track recovery and have countless meditation and therapy apps at the ready.
They are, undoubtedly, more open about mental health than any previous generation. On paper, they’re doing everything right and have become the most wellness-literate consumers in the market.
The industry has taken notice. Gen Z and Millennials drive more than 41% of U.S. wellness spending despite making up just 36% of the adult population, according to a 2025 McKinsey report. Nearly 30% say they’re prioritizing wellness more than they were a year ago, and the United States’ $2 trillion global wellness economy is increasingly being built to capture their dollars.
So why are they so damn depressed?
Welcome to the wellness industry’s paradox. Current depression rates have more than doubled over the past decade among adults under 30, from 13% in late 2017 to 28% thus far in 2026.
That’s according to recent Gallup findings, which also note depression rates have climbed 15 points since 2017 among those in households earning less than $24,000 a year, from 22.1% to 37.4% today.
Daily loneliness is another area of concern. Gallup found that one in five Americans reports experiencing significant loneliness — a strong link, it says, to depression.
Young men are feeling it the worst. U.S. men aged 15 to 34 are 67% more likely to experience significant loneliness on any given day than their peers in OECD nations (a group of 38 mostly high-income countries including Canada, the U.K., Japan and Germany). Women of the same age group are just 13% more likely than their OECD counterparts.
But what can get lost in such grim data is that it wasn’t always like this. In 2012, 48% of U.S. adults described their mental health or emotional well-being as “excellent,” per Gallup. By 2025, the number had dropped to 29%.
To their credit, they’re taking action: the share of adults who report visiting a mental health professional at least once in the past 12 months has more than doubled, from 10% in 2001 to 24% today.
Though Gallup stops short of diving into the “why,” the findings are hard to look away from. Young people have everything the wellness industry is selling, and are still not well.
The Early-Movers
When it comes to fitness operators, some are taking action. Last fall, UAE-based chain GymNation stripped all the weights from its gym floors for World Mental Health Day and hosted drop-in “mental fitness” classes at select locations, pairing movement with mental health talks and Q&As, in partnership with regional mental health organization Sage.
In the U.S., boutique fitness franchise Pvolve launched a campaign earlier this year with brand ambassador Jennifer Aniston to promote its partnership with mental health app Headspace, giving members 30 days of free access to Headspace and its guided meditations, stress-support tools and mindset resources.
Elsewhere in the app space, Brain-Body Therapy — which launched last fall — combines counseling with exercise in 45-minute hybrid sessions for those suffering from anxiety and depression.
“The evidence supporting exercise as a mental health intervention is overwhelming,” founder Rio Wilson told Athletech News at launch. “Yet it remains vastly underused in traditional care.”
Perhaps therein lies an opportunity in the “movement is medicine” era. While AI is personalizing workouts, wearables and mattresses are scoring sleep and biomarker testing is turning up at the gym, mental health is the piece the industry hasn’t cracked — yet.
For the most wellness-invested consumers, the solutions can’t come soon enough.
