An official website of the United States government
QuickStats: Percentage* of Children† Aged 2–17 Years With >2 Hours of Screen Time Per Weekday,§ by Sex and Age Group — National Health Interview Survey,¶ United States, 2020
Weekly / January 21, 2022 / 71(3);106
* With 95% CIs indicated by error bars.
† Children are defined here as children and adolescents (i.e., persons aged 2–17 years).
§ Based on a response to the question, “On most weekdays, does (child’s name) spend more than 2 hours a day in front of a TV, computer, cellphone, or other electronic device watching programs, playing games, accessing the Internet, or using social media?” Respondents were instructed not to include time spent for schoolwork.
¶ Estimates are based on household interviews of a sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized U.S. population.
Overall, 65.7% of boys and 64.6% of girls aged 2–17 years spent >2 hours of screen time per weekday, in addition to screen time spent for schoolwork. Among both boys and girls, the percentage of children who spent >2 hours of screen time increased with increasing age group from 47.5% for those aged 2–5 years to 80.2% for those aged 12–17 years.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, National Health Interview Survey, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/index.htm
Reported by: Amanda E. Ng, MPH, qkd2@cdc.gov, 301-458-4587; Lindsey I. Black, MPH.
Suggested citation for this article: QuickStats: Percentage of Children Aged 2–17 Years With >2 Hours of Screen Time Per Weekday, by Sex and Age Group — National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2022;71:106. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7103a6.
MMWR and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report are service marks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.
References to non-CDC sites on the Internet are
provided as a service to MMWR readers and do not constitute or imply
endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. CDC is not responsible for the content
of pages found at these sites. URL addresses listed in MMWR were current as of
the date of publication.
All HTML versions of MMWR articles are generated from final proofs through an automated process. This conversion might result in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users are referred to the electronic PDF version (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr) and/or the original MMWR paper copy for printable versions of official text, figures, and tables.
Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to mmwrq@cdc.gov.