How Many Americans Take GLP-1 Drugs: The Numbers

If you have seen the headline “1 in 8 Americans” and also “11% of adults” and also “1 in 5 households,” you have not been misled. You have just seen three different surveys counting three different things.

This page pulls the main US numbers into one place, tells you exactly what each one measures, and flags where the estimates get shaky. Everything here is sourced, and every figure carries the date it was collected.

What percentage of Americans take GLP-1 drugs right now?

There are two numbers worth memorizing.

Gallup, May 28 to June 5, 2026: 11% of US adults currently take a GLP-1 medication for weight loss, and 15% have taken one for weight loss at some point [1]. That survey reached 5,065 adults through Gallup’s probability-based panel, with a margin of error of about ±1.5 percentage points.

KFF, October 27 to November 2, 2025: 12% of US adults currently take a GLP-1 for any reason, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and 18% have ever taken one [2]. That poll reached 1,350 adults with a margin of error of about ±3 points.

Those two findings are not in conflict. Gallup asked specifically about weight-loss use. KFF asked about the whole class, naming Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound, Rybelsus and Trulicity, and counting people taking them for type 2 diabetes or heart disease as well [2].

A useful way to hold both: roughly one in eight US adults is on one of these drugs today, and most of them are taking it at least partly for a chronic condition, not only to lose weight. Among the 18% of adults KFF found who had ever used a GLP-1, seven in ten said they used it to treat a chronic condition (38%) or to do both that and lose weight (32%). Three in ten (30%) said they used it primarily to lose weight [2].

How many people is that in actual numbers?

There are roughly 260 million adults in the United States. At 11% to 12%, that lands somewhere around 29 million to 31 million adults currently taking a GLP-1.

Treat that as an estimate. It is arithmetic on top of a survey percentage, not a count of prescriptions. Prescription-based estimates tend to come out lower, because surveys capture people using compounded products, samples, and drugs obtained outside conventional pharmacy channels.

For comparison, J.P. Morgan Research estimated about 10 million Americans on branded GLP-1s in 2026, and projected more than 30 million US users by 2030 [3]. The gap between “10 million on branded drugs” and “29 million-plus by survey” is mostly compounded products, unclear self-reporting, and definitional differences.

How fast did this happen?

Faster than almost any prescription category in modern American medicine.

Source	What it measures	Field date	Current use	Ever used
Gallup	GLP-1 for weight loss	Feb 2024	3%	6%
KFF	GLP-1, any reason	Apr-May 2024	6%	12%
Gallup	GLP-1 for weight loss	mid/late 2025	12.4%	—
KFF	GLP-1, any reason	Oct-Nov 2025	12%	18%
Gallup	GLP-1 for weight loss	May-Jun 2026	11%	15%

Sources: Gallup 2024, 2025 and 2026 waves [1][4]; KFF May 2024 and November 2025 polls [2][5].

KFF’s current-use figure doubled from 6% to 12% in about 18 months [2]. Gallup’s weight-loss-specific figure went from 3% to 11% in two years [1].

Two caveats on that table. Gallup revised its 2026 estimates on September 8, 2026 after updating its weighting criteria, so figures you see from the original July 7 release may differ slightly [1]. And Gallup’s 12.4% reading from 2025 is higher than its 11% reading in 2026, which is within the range you would expect from survey noise and methodology changes rather than a real decline.

Awareness has moved too. Gallup found 90% of Americans now know about GLP-1 drugs intended for weight loss, up from 80% in 2024 [1].

What do prescription records show?

Surveys ask people. Prescription and health-record data count fills. Both matter.

Epic Research, drawing on the Cosmos database of more than 304 million patient records, found GLP-1 prescriptions rising from 1,884 per 100,000 US adults in the second quarter of 2021 to 8,819 per 100,000 in the first quarter of 2026 - more than a fourfold increase (published May 21, 2026) [6]. The composition shifted too: in 2021 the most prescribed agents were dulaglutide (about 790 per 100,000) and semaglutide (about 680); by early 2026 tirzepatide was the most prescribed at roughly 4,700 per 100,000, with semaglutide at about 3,900 [6].

That last point matters for anyone trying to read the culture. People say “Ozempic,” but the most-prescribed molecule in the US is now tirzepatide, which is a different drug from a different company, sold as Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes and Zepbound for weight management and obstructive sleep apnea.

Separately, FAIR Health data cited by Forbes Health found GLP-1 prescriptions specifically for overweight or obesity grew 586.7% between 2019 and 2024, from 0.3% to 2.05% of adults [7].

Who is actually taking these drugs?

KFF’s late-2025 poll gives the clearest demographic picture [2]:

• By age: current use is 22% among adults 50 to 64, 11% among 30 to 49, 9% among 65 and older, and 4% among 18 to 29. The 65-plus figure likely reflects Medicare’s long-standing statutory bar on covering drugs used specifically for weight loss.
• By diagnosis: 45% of adults who said they had been diagnosed with diabetes were currently using one, along with 29% of those told they have heart disease and 23% of those told they were overweight or obese in the past five years.
• By insurance: 12% of insured adults versus 4% of uninsured adults.
• By gender: women reported higher use than men. Gallup’s 2025 wave put weight-loss use at 15.2% among women and 9.7% among men [4].

KFF also found that 84% of people who had ever used a GLP-1 had been diagnosed with at least one of the conditions these drugs treat - obesity or overweight in the past five years (77%), diabetes (49%) or heart disease (21%) [2]. About 15% of users had none of those diagnoses, though some of them may be treating other approved conditions such as certain liver disease or sleep apnea.

For people with diabetes specifically, the federal benchmark comes from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics: 26.5% of US adults with diagnosed diabetes used GLP-1 injectables in 2024, rising to 33.3% among adults ages 50 to 64 and to 32.4% among those with obesity [8].

How many households are affected, not just individuals?

This is the number that explains why grocery stores and clothing retailers care.

PwC, analyzing Numerator panel data, found that roughly 21% of US households included a current GLP-1 user as of May 2026, up from 9% in January 2025 [9]. PwC also found that 54% of the users it surveyed had been on the drugs for more than a year, up from 38% in 2024 - meaning this is shifting from a burst of new starts to a population of long-term users [9].

One in five households is a very different market signal than one in eight adults. It is why the food, apparel and fitness industries now build product lines around this class of drug.

Is the US obesity rate really going down?

Gallup’s tracking says yes. After peaking at a record 39.9% in 2022, the US adult obesity rate fell to 37.0% in 2025 and 36.8% in 2026 [1][4]. Gallup described the decline as statistically meaningful and noted it “continues to inversely track with increased usage of GLP-1 medicine nationally” [1].

Gallup also reported that 12.8% of adults said they had been diagnosed with diabetes in 2026, the first time the rate has been under 13% since 2022 [1].

Three honest caveats:

1. Self-reported. Gallup calculates BMI from respondents’ own stated height and weight. Gallup itself notes a “vanity effect” that makes its obesity estimates run lower than studies using measured height and weight [1]. The trend line is still useful because the method has been consistent.
2. Correlation, not proof. The timing lines up well with GLP-1 adoption. That is suggestive, not conclusive.
3. Adults only. Childhood obesity has not shown the same decline.

Where do people get GLP-1 drugs, and how are they paying?

KFF found that 76% of people who had taken a GLP-1 got it from a primary care provider or specialist, 17% from an online provider or website, and 9% from a medical spa or aesthetic medical center [2].

On payment, KFF found [2]:

• 70% said insurance covered at least part of the cost (48% part, 22% all)
• 27% had insurance but paid the full cost themselves
• 56% of users said the drugs were difficult to afford, including 25% who said “very difficult”

Gallup’s 2026 wave adds the brand-versus-compounded picture: 66% of current users were on a brand-name drug, 18% on a compounded or custom-mixed version, and 13% were unsure [1]. Among people who switched, movement ran heavily toward compounded products - 36% of compounded users had switched from a brand name versus 11% moving the other way - and 53% of those switching to compounded cited cost or coverage as the main reason [1].

How many people stop?

A lot, and this is the number that most “GLP-1 nation” coverage skips.

Northwestern Medicine clinicians estimate that 50% to 75% of people who start these medications stop within a year [13]. That is an estimate repeated widely in clinical and trade reporting, not a single trial result, and it is worth holding loosely. KFF found that among people who had ever used a GLP-1 and were no longer using one, 14% stopped because of cost and 13% because of side effects, with 5% stopping because their condition improved [2].

That churn shapes everything downstream. Cornell researchers who tracked purchases across about 150,000 US households found that roughly a third of GLP-1 users in their sample quit during the study period, and that their food spending “reverted to pre-adoption levels” [14].

What is likely to change these numbers next?

Three things to watch, all dated and sourced:

• The Medicare GLP-1 Bridge. Starting July 1, 2026 and running through December 31, 2027, eligible Medicare Part D beneficiaries can get certain GLP-1 drugs for a flat $50 copay per prescription. CMS runs it as a demonstration outside standard Part D: the Part D deductible does not apply, and the $50 does not count toward a beneficiary’s out-of-pocket threshold [11]. Since the 65-plus group has the lowest weight-loss-related use of any adult age band, this is the single policy most likely to move the national number.
• Oral GLP-1s. A pill version changes who is willing to start.
• Employer coverage. Coverage expanded through 2025 and began contracting in 2026 as costs landed, which pushes in the opposite direction. Business Group on Health’s 2027 Employer Healthcare Strategy Survey, released August 25, 2026, found large-employer coverage of GLP-1s for weight management down to 60% from 72% a year earlier, with 14% of employers saying they have dropped it or plan to in 2027 [15].

How to read the next headline you see

Three questions will save you from most of the confusion:

1. Weight loss only, or all reasons? Gallup measures the first. KFF measures the second. A four-point gap between two “correct” numbers usually comes down to this.
2. Current use or ever used? These differ by three to six points in every survey.
3. When was it fielded? A survey run in late 2025 and published in 2026 is a 2025 number.

And one habit worth keeping: the word “Ozempic” in a headline almost never means Ozempic specifically. Ozempic is semaglutide approved for type 2 diabetes. Wegovy is semaglutide approved for weight management. Mounjaro and Zepbound are tirzepatide, a different molecule. Most of these surveys count all of them together.

None of this tells you whether a GLP-1 is right for you. That is a conversation for a healthcare provider who knows your history. What the numbers do tell you is that if it feels like this is happening everywhere, that is not an illusion - but the real figure is about one in eight adults, not half the country.

Sources

1. Gallup, “In U.S., GLP-1 Usage Reaches New High” (published July 7, 2026; updated September 8, 2026) — https://news.gallup.com/poll/712157/glp-usage-reaches-new-high.aspx
2. KFF, “KFF Health Tracking Poll: Prescription Drug Costs, Views on Trump Administration Actions, and GLP-1 Use” (November 14, 2025) — https://www.kff.org/public-opinion/kff-health-tracking-poll-prescription-drug-costs-views-on-trump-administration-actions-and-glp-1-use/
3. J.P. Morgan, “How Supply and Demand for Weight Loss Drugs is Playing Out in 2026” (May 12, 2026) — https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/global-research/current-events/obesity-drugs
4. Gallup, “Obesity Rate Declining in U.S.” (September 2025) — https://news.gallup.com/poll/696599/obesity-rate-declining.aspx
5. KFF, “KFF Health Tracking Poll May 2024: The Public’s Use and Views of GLP-1 Drugs” — https://kff.org/health-costs/kff-health-tracking-poll-may-2024-the-publics-use-and-views-of-glp-1-drugs
6. Epic Research, “GLP-1 Use Has More Than Quadrupled Since 2021” (2026) — https://www.epicresearch.org/articles/glp-1-use-has-more-than-quadrupled-since-2021-as-obesity-rates-continue-to-show-signs-of-decline
7. Forbes Health, “Key GLP-1 Statistics & Trends In 2026” (June 4, 2026) — https://www.forbes.com/health/weight-loss/glp-1-statistics
8. CDC / National Center for Health Statistics, “GLP-1 Injectable Use Among Adults With Diagnosed Diabetes: United States, 2024,” NCHS Data Brief No. 537 (August 2025) — https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db537.htm
9. PwC, “GLP-1 consumer trends 2026: The end of more” (June 22, 2026) — https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/consumer-markets/library/glp-1-consumer-trends.html
10. Food Dive, “Food makers warn GLP-1s will have ‘lasting influence’ on sector” (February 25, 2026) — https://www.fooddive.com/news/food-makers-warn-glp-1-drugs-will-have-a-lasting-influence-on-the-sector/812412
11. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, “Medicare GLP-1 Bridge” — https://www.cms.gov/medicare/coverage/prescription-drug-coverage/medicare-glp-1-bridge
12. The Washington Post, “Americans are taking GLP-1 drugs in record numbers” (July 7, 2026) — https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/07/07/americans-are-taking-weight-loss-drugs-record-numbers/
13. Northwestern Now, “Why do 50-75% of people stop taking GLP-1 drugs within a year?” (November 8, 2024) — https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2024/11/why-do-50-75-of-people-stop-taking-glp-1-drugs-within-a-year
14. Cornell Chronicle, “Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy” (December 19, 2025) — https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/12/ozempic-changing-foods-americans-buy
15. Business Group on Health, “How Are Employers Managing GLP-1 Coverage Amid Rising Demand and Costs?” (2026) — https://www.businessgrouphealth.org/topics/blog/how-are-employers-managing-glp-1-coverage-amid-rising-demand-and-costs