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 3.5 µg/dL was the 97.5th percentile of blood lead levels for children ages 1–5 in 2015–2016 and 2017–2018 cycles of NHANES. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently use this reference level to identify children with elevated blood lead levels.
SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.