Teacher Burnout Statistics: What the 2026 Data Shows

In RAND’s 2026 State of the American Teacher survey, 57% of K-12 public school teachers reported experiencing burnout, compared with 36% of similar working adults. That gap — teachers running roughly one and a half times the burnout rate of comparable professionals — is the single most consistent finding in educator well-being research. It has appeared in every year RAND has surveyed since 2021, and it shows up in independent Gallup data as well. Below are the numbers most often cited about teacher burnout, what each one actually measures, and where the data is more complicated than the headlines suggest.

The Headline Numbers (2026)

The most current national figures come from the 2026 State of the American Teacher survey, fielded by the RAND Corporation in January and February 2026 with funding from the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers:

• 57% of teachers reported burnout, against 36% of similar working adults
• 55% reported frequent job-related stress, against 34% of similar working adults
• 15% reported difficulty coping with job-related stress, down from 21% in 2025
• 18% said they were likely to leave their job by the end of the 2025-26 school year
• About one in four said they plan to stay in teaching as long as they are able

One detail is worth pausing on. Burnout (57%) is reported at a higher rate than frequent job-related stress (55%). These measure different things: stress is the pressure itself, while burnout is what accumulates when that pressure goes unrelieved for long enough. Our guide to what burnout is explains why the two are not interchangeable.

How Teaching Compares With Other Professions

RAND compares teachers with demographically similar working adults. Gallup approached the question differently, comparing industries against each other across its national workforce panel. In research published in June 2022, K-12 education came out ahead of every other industry in the country:

• 44% of K-12 workers said they always or very often feel burned out at work — the highest rate of any U.S. industry
• 52% of teachers specifically, the most burned out group within K-12
• 35% of college and university workers, the next-highest industry
• 30% of workers in all other industries combined

Gallup also tracked how the gap widened. In March 2020, 36% of K-12 workers reported frequent burnout against 28% of all other workers — an eight-point difference. By mid-2022 that gap had grown to fourteen points. Two research organizations, using different methods and different comparison groups, arrive at the same conclusion: burnout in education is not simply a reflection of general workplace stress.

The Trend Since 2021: Stress Down, Burnout Flat

Because RAND has run this survey annually since 2021, it supports something most burnout statistics cannot: a trend line. And the trend is genuinely encouraging in one respect and stubborn in another.

• Frequent job-related stress has fallen steadily — 78% of teachers in 2021, 62% in 2025, 55% in 2026
• Difficulty coping fell from 21% in 2025 to 15% in 2026
• Intentions to leave declined from 23% in 2022-23 to 16% in 2025 and 18% in 2026
• Burnout has not moved with them — 54% in 2021, 53% in 2025, 57% in 2026

Acute pandemic-era pressure has eased. What has not eased is the accumulated depletion underneath it. This fits what is understood about how burnout develops: it builds over long stretches and unwinds slowly, so a year of lower stress does not automatically produce a year of lower burnout. Our guide to burnout recovery covers why rest alone rarely resolves it.

Who Is Most Affected

National averages hide meaningful differences between groups. RAND has found a consistent gender gap since 2021 — in 2026, 59% of female teachers reported frequent job-related stress compared with 44% of male teachers. Gallup found the same split in burnout specifically: 55% of female teachers against 44% of male teachers.

The NEA’s reporting on the 2025 survey data also documented differences by race and ethnicity in the 2024-25 school year: 66% of Hispanic/Latino teachers and 56% of Black teachers reported frequent job-related stress, with burnout at 58% and 59% respectively. Reported symptoms of depression were 25% among Black teachers, 25% among Hispanic teachers, and 18% among white teachers. Intentions to leave followed a similar pattern — 28% of Black teachers and 23% of Hispanic teachers, against 14% of white teachers.

Role matters as well. Special education teachers face documented pressures — caseload size, paperwork burden, and staffing shortages — that sit on top of the demands every teacher carries. We cover that in special education teacher burnout.

What Teachers Say Is Driving It

The 2026 survey recorded a notable shift in what teachers name as their leading stressor. Managing student behavior was cited by 52% of teachers, moving ahead of low pay, which had led in prior years. Administrative work outside of teaching has consistently ranked among the top sources as well.

Financial strain remains part of the picture even where it is no longer the top-cited stressor. The 2026 survey put average teacher base salary at roughly $75,600, found that close to a third of teachers held work outside their teaching job, and recorded average out-of-pocket spending on classroom supplies of about $665.

What these drivers share is that they are features of the job rather than deficits in the people doing it. That is consistent with how the World Health Organization classifies burnout: an occupational phenomenon arising from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed — not a medical condition, and not a personal failing.

How to Read These Numbers

Burnout statistics are widely quoted and frequently flattened. A few things are worth keeping in mind before citing any of the figures above:

• These are self-reports, not diagnoses. Survey respondents describe their own experience. Burnout is not a clinical diagnosis in the first place, so no percentage here represents a diagnosed population.
• Question wording changes the answer. Gallup asks whether someone feels burned out “always or very often.” RAND asks differently. This is a large part of why 52% and 57% can both be accurate.
• Comparison groups matter. RAND’s comparison is with demographically similar working adults, which is a more demanding benchmark than the general population and makes the persistent gap more striking.
• Intent to leave is not attrition. Teachers who say they may leave often stay. These figures measure expectation at one point in time.
• Averages conceal ranges. A national figure says little about a specific school, subject, grade level, or district.

What the Statistics Do Not Capture

A percentage records that something is widespread. It does not record what it is like — the Sunday evening dread, the guilt about having less to give students than you used to, the slow narrowing of a job you chose on purpose. Knowing that 57% of teachers report burnout can be genuinely useful, because it makes clear that this is a condition of the profession rather than evidence that you are handling it worse than your colleagues. But being part of a majority does not make the experience lighter.

If you are trying to work out where you stand, our guides to the signs of burnout and teacher burnout causes and responses are a more practical starting point than the national numbers. For the wider workforce context, see why teachers are leaving. This article is educational and is not a clinical assessment; a licensed counselor who knows your situation is the right person to help you judge it.

If you are in crisis or having thoughts of harming yourself, please reach out now rather than waiting. Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7, or call 911 if you are in immediate danger. Our crisis resources page lists additional immediate support. The National Institute of Mental Health treats reaching out for professional help as a normal part of caring for your mental health.

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