Only about one in three American adults floss daily. CDC researchers analyzing the 2011–2014 NHANES survey found that about 31.6% of adults aged 30 and over reported flossing every day,1 and a 2024 analysis pooling NHANES responses from 2009 through 2020 landed at about 32.7%.2 Because the data is self-reported, the true share is likely lower.
How many people actually floss?
Only about 31.6% of adults aged 30 and over reported flossing every day when CDC researchers analyzed the 2011–2014 responses to NHANES1: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the same national program that tracks obesity, blood pressure, and diabetes.
Maybe that was a blip? A decade of additional data says no. A 2024 analysis in the Journal of the American Dental Association pooled NHANES responses from 2009 through 2020 and landed in almost exactly the same place: about 32.7% of adults reported daily flossing.2 Across more than a decade of measurement, through every public-health campaign and every dentist's reminder, the daily-flossing rate has stayed stuck at roughly one in three.
Roughly a third of adults floss daily. Another third floss occasionally. And about a third say they never floss at all.1
That's the honest headline from the government's own measurement: about two in three American adults don't have a daily flossing habit.
Why is the real number probably lower?
Because all of this data is self-reported. Survey takers ask people how often they floss, and people answer: a caveat that doesn't soften the story, it sharpens it.
Decades of survey research show that people tend to over-report behaviors they know they're supposed to do: exercise, vegetables, and yes, flossing. Nobody wants to tell a health surveyor they haven't touched floss since their last dental visit. Which means the one-in-three figure is best understood as a ceiling, not a floor. The true share of Americans who floss every day is likely lower than what the surveys capture.
Is the flossing gap spread evenly?
It isn't. In the same CDC survey data, nearly half of lower-income adults (about 49%) reported never flossing at all, compared with about 28% of higher-income adults.3
Flossing is one of the cheapest health behaviors that exists, so this is not primarily a question of affording floss. It tracks with access to dental care, with whether anyone ever demonstrated the habit, and with all the ways preventive health advice reaches some communities more than others. We look at this divide more closely in the income flossing gap.
Why did brushing succeed where flossing didn't?
Not because of knowledge, but because of friction, and the contrast with brushing is what makes the flossing number remarkable. Brushing became one of the most successful health habits ever taught. Almost everyone brushes daily: it's automatic, unquestioned, built into mornings and bedtimes. Flossing got the same decades of professional advice, and it stalled at one in three.
The difference isn't knowledge. Virtually every adult has been told to floss by a dental professional, most of them many times. The difference is that flossing is fiddlier, slower to show its benefits, and easy to abandon at the first sign of bleeding gums, which, as it happens, is exactly the moment to keep going. Surveys consistently find most people say they'd floss more if it were simply easier to do. We dig into the reasons people quit, and what actually helps, in a separate article.
Why does this number matter?
The spaces between the teeth are where much of the trouble starts: a peer-reviewed review estimates that brushing alone removes only up to about 60% of plaque, leaving the rest sitting exactly where most gum disease and between-the-teeth decay begin.4 Meanwhile, by the CDC's measurement, about 42% of American adults over 30 have some form of gum disease.5
Those two facts (two-thirds of adults without a daily interdental habit, and gum disease in nearly half of adults over 30) are not a coincidence of separate statistics. They are the national adoption gap and its most plausible consequence, sitting side by side in the government's own data. The rest of this library is, in one way or another, about closing that gap.
Common questions
Is one in three the share of adults who floss at all, or who floss daily?
It counts daily flossing only. Roughly a third of adults report flossing every day, another third floss occasionally, and about a third say they never floss at all. So "one in three" describes the daily group, not everyone who has ever used floss.
Has the daily flossing rate improved over time?
No. CDC researchers analyzing NHANES 2011–2014 found about 31.6% of adults aged 30 and over reported flossing daily,1 and a 2024 analysis pooling NHANES responses from 2009 through 2020 landed at about 32.7%.2 Across more than a decade of public-health campaigns and dental reminders, the rate has stayed at roughly one in three.
If the data is self-reported, why is it still worth using?
Because it is the most consistent national measurement available: NHANES asks the same questions with the same methods across more than a decade. The self-report caveat affects the exact level rather than the trend. Treat one in three as a ceiling on the true daily-flossing rate, not a floor.
What is the most common reason people who start flossing stop?
Seeing blood. People read bleeding gums as a signal that flossing is harming them and quit, when it is usually the moment to keep going (the subject of bleeding when you floss). Beyond that, the barriers are practical: flossing is fiddly, slow to show any visible benefit, and easy to drop.
How does the flossing rate compare with how common gum disease is?
By the CDC's measurement, about 42% of American adults over 30 have some form of gum disease,5 while roughly two out of three adults have no daily interdental habit. Both figures come from the same national data. They sit side by side as an adoption gap and its most plausible consequence, which is an association rather than proven cause and effect.
- Fleming EB, et al. Prevalence of daily flossing among adults by selected risk factors, NHANES 2011–2014. Journal of Periodontology, 2018. CDC authors. PMC6434526. Self-reported survey data. Reports the full split: roughly a third of adults flossed daily, a third on some days, and a third not at all in the prior week.
- Liang L, Aris IM. Minimal changes in daily flossing behavior among US adults from 2009 through 2020. Journal of the American Dental Association, 2024. PubMed 38752966. Self-reported survey data.
- CDC / NCHS, NHANES flossing analysis (Fleming et al.), income-stratified figures. CDC Stacks cdc/77006.
- Ng E, Lim LP. An overview of different interdental cleaning aids and their effectiveness. Dentistry Journal, 2019. PMC6630384. Review estimate: brushing alone may remove only up to ~60% of plaque.
- Eke PI, et al. / CDC. Periodontitis prevalence among US adults, NHANES 2009–2014; NIDCR data pages (2024).