CDC Report Finds 71.5% of U.S. Adults Felt Fatigued in 2024 as Women and Young Adults Lead Rates

WASHINGTON — Nearly three in four U.S. adults said they felt very tired or exhausted on at least some days in a three-month span in 2024, according to a National Center for Health Statistics report released this month, with frequent fatigue highest among women and adults under 35.

The findings, drawn from the 2024 National Health Interview Survey, put overall fatigue at 71.5 percent: 54.9 percent some days, 10.7 percent most days and 5.9 percent every day. Only 28.5 percent said they never felt that way. Researchers defined "frequent fatigue" as most days or every day. That group was 16.6 percent of adults, about one in six.

The survey asked how often people felt very tired or exhausted in the past three months. Authors Natalie A.E. Young, Julie D. Weeks and Nazik Elgaddal wrote that the work describes symptoms in the general population rather than tying them to a single diagnosis. "Despite the association with health and well-being, the frequency of fatigue symptoms in the general U.S. population is an underexplored topic," they said.

Women reported frequent fatigue at 20.0 percent, compared with 13.0 percent of men. The age pattern ran opposite to the usual picture of declining energy in later life. Frequent fatigue was 19.5 percent among adults 18 to 34, 17.4 percent at 35 to 49, 16.0 percent at 50 to 64 and 12.9 percent at 65 and older.

By race and Hispanic origin, American Indian and Alaska Native adults had the highest frequent-fatigue rate at 25.5 percent, followed by White adults at 18.0 percent, Black adults at 17.3 percent and Hispanic adults at 12.9 percent. Asian adults were lowest at 9.1 percent. The report also found higher frequent fatigue among adults with lower family incomes and among those in the South, the Midwest and less urban areas.

Among people with frequent fatigue, 45.3 percent said symptoms lasted some of the day, 34.5 percent most of the day and 20.2 percent all day. Intensity was "a little" for 14.5 percent, between a little and a lot for 46.8 percent and "a lot" for 38.8 percent.

Functioning gaps were large. About half of adults with frequent fatigue reported difficulties in at least three functioning domains, compared with 16.9 percent of adults without frequent fatigue. Seeing difficulty was more common in the fatigue group (29.8 percent versus 15.6 percent). Adults with frequent fatigue were more than three times as likely to report depression symptoms and about twice as likely to report anxiety symptoms or trouble remembering or concentrating. Work limits and cutbacks in social activity tracked with the same pattern. Separate coverage of the report cited work limitations for about 36 percent of those surveyed in connection with fatigue and reduced social activity for about 29 percent.

The survey did not assign causes. It did not test sleep, work hours, caregiving, long COVID, anemia, thyroid disease or medication. It also did not say whether national fatigue has risen or fallen; comparable earlier NHIS snapshots used slightly different age cuts. A 2022 QuickStats brief found 13.5 percent of adults felt very tired or exhausted most days or every day that year, with the same female and younger-adult tilt.

The Washington Post summarized the 2024 numbers on Wednesday. USA Today and other outlets repeated the same NCHS tables. None of those stories replace the PDF: National Health Statistics Reports No. 221, dated Sept. 3, 2026.

Clinicians already treat fatigue as a common primary-care complaint. The new tables give it a population frame. A 20 percent frequent-fatigue rate among women and a 19.5 percent rate among 18- to 34-year-olds is not a diagnosis. It is a signal that tiredness severe enough to be called "most days or every day" is not rare in the groups least expected to report it.

The report's authors stop at description. People whose exhaustion lasts despite sleep or blocks work and daily tasks are told, in secondary coverage, to see a clinician. The government numbers do not name a treatment. They name a scale: 71.5 percent at least some days, 16.6 percent most days or every day, and a gap that runs by sex, age, income, region and race.