--- title: Only 23% of Americans Get Enough Exercise, a CDC Report Says description: A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics says just 23% of Americans are meeting all federal physical activity guidelines. canonical: https://time.com/5324940/americans-exercise-physical-activity-guidelines/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-28T15:13:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:43:08.692Z article:section: Health og:title: Only 23% of Americans Get Enough Exercise, a New Report Says og:description: According to a new report og:url: https://time.com/5324940/americans-exercise-physical-activity-guidelines/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95ea28e151daf36f/698878c7ab6d7709df6a7f07/weighs-2-fitness-exercise-strength-health-betterment-body-image.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2500 og:image:height: 1406 og:image:alt: Weighs-2-fitness-exercise-strength-health-betterment-body-image-motto-stock og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Only 23% of Americans Get Enough Exercise, a New Report Says twitter:description: According to a new report twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95ea28e151daf36f/698878c7ab6d7709df6a7f07/weighs-2-fitness-exercise-strength-health-betterment-body-image.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Only 23% of Americans Get Enough Exercise, a New Report Says > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jun 28, 2018 3:13 PM UTC  Molly Cranna for TIME  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jun 28, 2018 3:13 PM UTC Less than a quarter of Americans are meeting all national physical activity guidelines, [according to a new report](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr112.pdf) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Federal physical activity guidelines recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week, in addition to [muscle-strengthening activities](http://time.com/4803697/bodybuilding-strength-training/) at least twice a week. But according to the new NCHS report, which drew on five years of data from the National Health Interview Survey, only about 23% of adults ages 18 to 64 are hitting both of those marks. Another 32% met one but not both, and almost 45% did not hit either benchmark. Those numbers fluctuated somewhat depending on gender, occupation and home state. More men (roughly 27%) than women (almost 19%) met both guidelines, and both genders saw slightly higher percentages among working adults (almost 29% and 21%, respectively). The authors also added that people working in managerial or “professional” positions were more likely than individuals in production roles, such as assembly and manufacturing, to meet the standards. However, the report looked only at leisure-time physical activity, so adults who log exercise through active jobs or commutes were not included in the findings. Some states saw adherence rates well above the national average, while others were well below. Colorado led the pack, with 32.5% of adults meeting both federal exercise guidelines. In Mississippi, just 13.5% of adults reported meeting both exercise guidelines. With some exceptions, states on the West Coast and in the Northeast tended to have higher percentages of residents meeting the guidelines than states in the South. Residents of states in the Southeast had particularly low rates. High levels of unemployment and disability or poor health in a state were correlated with lower rates of meeting exercise guidelines, the researchers found. In all, the results suggest that most Americans should try to squeeze more exercise into their time off, given its well-established connections to everything from [chronic disease prevention](http://time.com/5285426/exercise-heart-health-aging/) to [mental](http://time.com/5271079/resistance-training-depression/) and [cognitive health benefits](http://time.com/5294493/exercise-healthy-brain-aging/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5324940/americans-exercise-physical-activity-guidelines/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5324940/americans-exercise-physical-activity-guidelines/"},"headline":"Only 23% of Americans Get Enough Exercise, a New Report Says","datePublished":"2018-06-28T15:13:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:43:08.692Z","description":"Rates varied widely by state and gender","url":"https://time.com/5324940/americans-exercise-physical-activity-guidelines/","keywords":["Exercise & Fitness","onetime","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95ea28e151daf36f/698878c7ab6d7709df6a7f07/weighs-2-fitness-exercise-strength-health-betterment-body-image.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95ea28e151daf36f/698878c7ab6d7709df6a7f07/weighs-2-fitness-exercise-strength-health-betterment-body-image.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Weighs-2-fitness-exercise-strength-health-betterment-body-image-motto-stock","caption":"Weighs-2-fitness-exercise-strength-health-betterment-body-image-motto-stock","creditText":"Molly Cranna for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/exercisefitness/","name":"Exercise & Fitness"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5324940/americans-exercise-physical-activity-guidelines/","name":"Only 23% of Americans Get Enough Exercise, a New Report Says"}}]}] ```