How Common is Fatigue Among U.S. Adults?

Summary

A data story from the National Center for Health Statistics

Author: Brian Tsai

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How Common is Fatigue Among U.S. Adults?

A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) looks at how common fatigue is among adults age 18 and older. Fatigue was measured by asking people how often they felt very tired or exhausted in the past three months; feeling very tired or exhausted most days or every day during the three-month period was considered "frequent fatigue." The report uses data collected in the 2024 National Health Interview Survey.

Quick summary of the findings

• Nearly 3 in 4 U.S. adults felt very tired or exhausted at least some days in the past three months.
  • 28.5% never felt very tired or exhausted.
  • 54.9% felt very tired or exhausted "some days."
  • 10.7% felt very tired or exhausted "most days."
  • 5.9% felt very tired or exhausted "every day."
• About 1 in 6 adults experienced frequent fatigue, defined as feeling very tired or exhausted "most days" or "every day."

Who is most likely to experience frequent fatigue

• Women were more likely than men to report frequent fatigue (20% vs. 13%).
• American Indian and Alaska Native adults had the highest rate of frequent fatigue (25.5%), followed by White adults (18%), Black adults (17.3%), and Hispanic adults (12.9%), with Asian adults having the lowest rate of frequent fatigue (9.1%).
• Younger adults were more likely to report frequent fatigue: frequent fatigue was highest among those ages 18–34 years (19.5%) and the lowest rate among adults ages 65 and older (12.9%).

How long and how intense are fatigue symptoms

• Among adults with frequent fatigue:
  • 45.3% said their fatigue symptoms lasted some of the day.
  • 34.5% said symptoms lasted most of the day.
  • 20.2% said symptoms lasted all day.
• In terms of intensity of fatigue symptoms:
  • 14.5% of those with frequent fatigue described their level of fatigue as "a little".
  • 46.8% said their level of fatigue was "between a little and a lot."
  • 38.8% described their level of fatigue as "a lot."

Other functioning difficulties that co-occur with fatigue

• People with frequent fatigue commonly reported other functioning difficulties: For example, 69.6% reported symptoms of anxiety, 46.1% reported cognition difficulty, and 45.0% reported symptoms of depression.
• Compared with adults without frequent fatigue, those with frequent fatigue were:
  • More than three times as likely to have symptoms of depression.
  • More than twice as likely to have cognition difficulty.
  • Twice as likely to have symptoms of anxiety.
• Communication difficulty was the least common co-occurring functioning difficulty, reported by 11.1% of adults with frequent fatigue vs. 4.7% of adults without frequent fatigue.
• Overall, 89.1% of people with frequent fatigue had at least one other difficulty in functioning, and 50.9% had three or more.

Impact on work and social life

• Work limitations: Reported by 36.0% of adults with frequent fatigue vs. 15.3% of adults without frequent fatigue.
• Difficulty with social activities:
  • 16.2% of adults with frequent fatigue reported some difficulty with social activities, vs. 5.3% of adults without frequent fatigue.
  • 12.8% of adults with frequent fatigue reported a lot of difficulty with social activities or said they could not engage in social activities at all, vs. 2.6% of adults without frequent fatigue.