How Much Time Do Americans Spend Sitting down?

If you’re reading this, you’re probably sitting down. In fact, American adults will log an average of 6.4 hours parked in their chairs today, an increase of nearly an hour from the last time the Journal of the American Medical Association did a survey of U.S. sedentary lifestyle three years ago. If you’re a teen, the average daily sitting time has jumped from seven hours a day to 8.2 hours. The results of the JAMA surveys are based on self-reported data, so it’s possible that the number of hours we spend watching TV and working online could be even higher.

Get a move on:

• The national survey of 52,000 Americans over age 5 found that 62 percent of children, 59 percent of teens, and 65 percent of adults watch two or more hours of TV every day.
• The study did not include smartphone or tablet use, which would have pushed the sedentary hours even higher.
• Some like to think that working at a standing desk cuts back on our sedentary behavior, but there’s no proof of that. As The New York Times put it: “Standing is not exercise.”