How Many Americans Take a GLP-1? What Gallup's Surveys Actually Say
Published: November 4, 2026 · 3 min read · By Grey Peptides News Desk · ✓ Sourced
A chart now being shared says 12.4% of US adults take a GLP-1 drug, against 5.8% in early 2024. Those are real Gallup numbers, but they come from a release published in October 2025. Gallup's newest survey, run in May and June 2026 and re-weighted in September, found that 11% of adults were currently taking a GLP-1 for weight loss and 15% had taken one at some point. Both are self-reported survey estimates, not prescription counts.
Where the 12.4% comes from
Gallup asks about GLP-1 medicines in its National Health and Well-Being Index, a set of web surveys of the Gallup Panel, a group of adults recruited at random so that, once weighted, the answers stand for the US population. In a release on October 28, 2025, Gallup reported that 12.4% of adults said they were taking a GLP-1 drug for weight loss in 2025, up from 5.8% when it first asked, in early 2024. The 2025 figure came from two surveys, run from May 27 to June 4 and from August 26 to September 3, 2025. Use was higher in women (15.2%) than in men (9.7%), and highest among people aged 50 to 64 (17.0%).
Gallup's newest figure
Gallup surveyed 5,065 adults again from May 28 to June 5, 2026. In a release dated July 7 and revised on September 8 after Gallup changed how it weights its samples, it reports:
- 11% of adults currently take a GLP-1 for weight loss, against 3% in 2024 on the revised basis.
- 15% have taken one for weight loss at some point.
- Among current users, 66% say they take a brand-name drug such as Wegovy or Ozempic, 18% a compounded version, and 13% are not sure which.
The overall margin of error is 1.5 percentage points. Gallup asks people whether they have ever taken weight-loss medicines such as semaglutide, liraglutide or tirzepatide, and then whether they take them now.
Why the numbers do not line up
The 2026 release gives 3% for 2024 where the 2025 release gave 5.8%, and it does not say which earlier estimates the re-weighting changed. So the 12.4% of 2025 and the 11% of 2026 should not be read as a fall: they rest on different weighting. Each release's own trend is the fair comparison, and both show use rising steeply since 2024.
What the figures can and cannot tell you
- Self-reported. People say what they take; no prescriptions are counted. The question is about weight loss, so some people taking these drugs only for diabetes may not be counted.
- Brand and compounded only, as people describe them. The survey does not separate out grey-market vials sold as research chemicals, and one in eight users did not know what kind of product they had.
- Estimates, not counts. Smaller groups, such as users of compounded drugs, carry much wider margins of error.
Related on Grey Peptides
The three routes people take, the first weeks, and what happens on stopping. Semaglutide encyclopedia entry
Wegovy and Ozempic: the trials, the label and the risks. Tirzepatide encyclopedia entry
Zepbound and Mounjaro: the trials, the label and the risks. Track 2: a compounded GLP-1
What compounding is, and what FDA has said about it.
Gallup - In U.S., GLP-1 Usage Reaches New High (July 7, 2026; updated September 8, 2026)
Gallup's own releases, read on November 4, 2026: the linked July 2026 release (revised September 8) and the October 28, 2025 release 'Obesity Rate Declining in U.S.', which is the source of the 12.4% figure. Every figure here is Gallup's; the surveys are self-reported.