Nearly One in Five American Adults Who Have Had COVID-19 Still Have “Long COVID”

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New data from the Household Pulse Survey show that more than 40% of adults in the United States reported having COVID-19 in the past, and nearly one in five of those (19%) are currently still having symptoms of “long COVID.”

The data were collected from June 1-June 13 by the U.S. Census Bureau and analyzed by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The Household Pulse Survey is an ongoing partnership between the Census Bureau, and CDC and other federal agencies. NCHS recently added questions to the survey to assess the prevalence of post-COVID-19 conditions, sometimes called “long COVID.”

For all U.S. adults, the new data show:

    • Overall, 1 in 13 adults in the U.S. (7.5%) have “long COVID” symptoms, defined as symptoms lasting three or more months after first contracting the virus, and that they didn’t have prior to their COVID-19 infection.
    • Older adults are less likely to have long COVID than younger adults. Nearly three times as many adults ages 50-59 currently have long COVID than those age 80 and older.
    • Women are more likely than men to currently have long COVID (9.4% vs. 5.5%).
    • Nearly 9% of Hispanic adults currently have long COVID, higher than non-Hispanic White (7.5%) and Black (6.8%) adults, and over twice the percentage of non-Hispanic Asian adults (3.7%).
    • Bisexual adults and transgender adults (7.5%) were more likely to have current long COVID symptoms than adults of other sexual orientations and gender identities. 12% of bisexual adults have current long COVID symptoms, compared to 7% of straight and gay and lesbian adults. An estimated 15% of transgender adults have current long COVID symptoms, compared to 5% of cis-gender male adults and 9% of cis-gender female adults.
    • The prevalence of current long COVID symptoms differed between states. The states with the highest percentage of adults who currently have long COVID symptoms were Kentucky (12.7%), Alabama (12.1%), and Tennessee and South Dakota (11.6%). The states with the lowest percentage of adults who currently have long COVID symptoms were Hawaii (4.5%), Maryland (4.7%) and Virginia (5.1%).