PHY4.A Lead in the blood of children: Selected blood lead levels of children ages 1–5, selected years 1976–1980 through 2017–March 2020

Characteristic	1976–1980	1988–1994	1999–2002	2003–2006	2007–2010	2013–2016	2017–March 2020^a
Percent of children with blood lead level = 3.5 µg/dL	—	43.0	18.5	10.4	6.1	2.2	1.4
50th percentile (µg/dL)	15.0	3.0	1.9	1.6	1.3	0.7	0.6
95th percentile (µg/dL)	29.0	10.8	6.3	4.6	3.9	2.5	2.1
—Not available.
^a The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) program suspended field operations in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, data collection for the 2019–2020 cycle was not completed. Therefore, data collected from 2019 to March 2020 were combined with data from the 2017–2018 cycle to create a 2017–March 2020 pre-pandemic file. This file covers 3.2 years of data collection. For more information, see: https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/continuousnhanes/overviewbrief.aspx?Cycle=2017-2020.
NOTE: The reference level of 5 µg/dL was the 97.5th percentile of blood lead levels for children ages 1–5 in 2005–2008. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lowered this reference level to 3.5 µg/dL in 2021 to identify children with elevated blood lead levels.
SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics