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 ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The Household Pulse Survey is an ongoing partnership between the Census Bureau, and ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø 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%).