--- title: More Than Half The Children in the U.S. Are Dehydrated, Study Shows description: A new study shows that more than half of children and adolescents in the United States are not drinking enough water. canonical: https://time.com/3917989/children-united-states-dehydrated/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-11T20:00:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:08:10.647Z article:section: Health og:title: More Than Half The Children in the U.S. Are Dehydrated og:description: American kids just don't drink enough water, study finds og:url: https://time.com/3917989/children-united-states-dehydrated/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: More Than Half The Children in the U.S. Are Dehydrated twitter:description: American kids just don't drink enough water, study finds twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Half of U.S. Kids Don't Drink Enough Water, Study Says  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jun 11, 2015 8:00 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jun 11, 2015 8:00 PM UTC A new study shows that more than half of children and adolescents in the United States are not drinking enough water. —Boys were 76% more likely to be dehydrated than girls, and non-Hispanic blacks were 34% more likely to be dehydrated than non-Hispanic whites. “The good news is that this is a public health problem with a simple solution,” senior author Steven Gortmaker, professor of the practice of health sociology, [said in a release](http://www.eurekalert.org/emb%5Freleases/2015-06/hsop-sfi060915.php). “If we can focus on helping children drink more water–a low-cost, no-calorie beverage–we can improve their hydration status, which may allow many children to feel better throughout the day and do better in school.” The researchers looked at data from 2009-2012 from more than 4,000 children and adolescents ages 6 to 19, examining urine concentration to determine hydration. The data was from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an annual study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3917989/children-united-states-dehydrated/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3917989/children-united-states-dehydrated/"},"headline":"Half of U.S. Kids Don't Drink Enough Water, Study Says","datePublished":"2015-06-11T20:00:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:08:10.647Z","description":"A quarter said they drank no plain water at all","url":"https://time.com/3917989/children-united-states-dehydrated/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3917989/children-united-states-dehydrated/","name":"Half of U.S. Kids Don't Drink Enough Water, Study Says"}}]}] ```