Teacher Burnout Statistics: Why Teachers Quit in 2026
By Devlin Peck · Updated
Part of the Teacher Career Change guide
In 2026, 57% of U.S. public school teachers report feeling burned out, compared with 36% of similar working adults, and 18% intend to leave their jobs, according to RAND's 2026 State of the American Teacher survey. Burnout among teachers has ranged from 53% to 60% since 2021, consistently far above similar working adults.
This page collects the most current teacher burnout statistics, with every figure dated and sourced. It is also a common starting point for teachers researching alternative jobs for former teachers, so the final section covers what burned-out teachers do next.
The top 10 teacher burnout statistics of 2026
Here are the headline numbers. Every one comes from a named source, and every source is linked in the Sources section at the bottom of this page.
57%
of teachers reported burnout in 2026 (RAND)
18%
of teachers intended to leave their jobs in 2026 (RAND)
55%
of teachers report frequent job-related stress (RAND, 2026)
- 57% of U.S. teachers reported burnout in 2026, versus 36% of similar working adults (RAND, 2026)
- 18% of teachers intended to leave their jobs in 2026 (RAND, 2026)
- Managing student behavior is the #1 source of teacher stress, cited by 52% of teachers (RAND, 2026)
- 77% of teachers say their job is frequently stressful, and 68% say it is overwhelming (Pew Research Center, 2024)
- 78% of teachers have thought about quitting since the pandemic (University of Missouri, 2025)
- 74% of public schools struggled to fill at least one teaching vacancy for the 2024-25 school year (NCES)
- K-12 teachers were the most burned-out profession in Gallup's most recent occupational ranking, at 52% (Gallup, 2022)
- About 8% of public school teachers leave the profession each year (NCES)
- Teachers worked an average of 49 hours per week in 2025, about 10 more than they were contracted for (RAND, 2025)
- UK education staff wellbeing hit its lowest level since 2019, with 78% reporting workplace stress (Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025)
| Statistic | Figure | Source (Year) |
|---|---|---|
| Teachers reporting burnout, vs. similar working adults | 57% vs. 36% | RAND (2026) |
| Teachers intending to leave their jobs | 18% | RAND (2026) |
| Teachers citing student behavior as a top stressor | 52% | RAND (2026) |
| Teachers who say the job is frequently stressful | 77% | Pew Research Center (2024) |
| Teachers who have thought about quitting since the pandemic | 78% | University of Missouri (2025) |
| Public schools that struggled to fill a teaching vacancy for 2024-25 | 74% | NCES (2024) |
| Teacher burnout in Gallup's most recent occupational ranking | 52% | Gallup (2022) |
| Public school teachers who leave the profession each year | ~8% | NCES |
| Average hours teachers worked per week | 49 | RAND (2025) |
| UK education staff reporting workplace stress | 78% | Teacher Wellbeing Index (2025) |
Need a specific stat to make your case to a school board, a policymaker, or your own family? Pick your situation and get a copyable shortlist:
Teacher Burnout Stat Finder
Pick what you are trying to show and who you need to convince. You get a ranked shortlist of this page's stats, with sources, years, and links to each numbered section.
What is teacher burnout?
The National Education Association defines teacher burnout as "a condition in which an educator has exhausted the personal and professional resources necessary to do the job." Researchers typically measure it across three dimensions: exhaustion, detachment or cynicism toward the work, and a reduced sense of accomplishment.
In practice, burnout shows up as chronic fatigue, anxiety or low mood, sleep problems, appetite changes, physical symptoms like headaches, and the inability to enjoy time off. Left unaddressed, it can develop into depression and serious health problems, and it spills over onto students, who lose the attention and energy a well teacher would give them.
How common is it? Estimates vary widely by study and measure. A 2022 scoping review of the teacher burnout research found prevalence estimates ranging from 25% to 74% across studies. And educator burnout reaches beyond the classroom: school leaders and support staff report high stress levels too, as the UK data later on this page shows.
What is the teacher burnout rate in 2026?
In 2026, 57% of U.S. public school teachers reported feeling burned out, compared with 36% of similar working adults, according to RAND. Here are the current rate statistics in detail.
1. 57% of teachers feel burned out, versus 36% of similar working adults
(RAND, 2026)
RAND's 2026 State of the American Teacher survey found that 57% of K-12 public school teachers reported burnout, a rate roughly 20 percentage points above that of comparable working adults. This gap, not the raw number alone, is what makes teaching stand out.
2. Teacher burnout has hovered around 55% every year since 2021
(RAND, 2026)
Burnout was 54% when RAND began tracking it in 2021 and 57% in 2026, peaking at 60% in 2024 and dipping to 53% in 2025. In other words, burnout is neither exploding nor getting solved. It has plateaued at a level far above the general workforce.
3. 55% of teachers report frequent job-related stress, versus 34% of comparable working adults
(RAND, 2026)
More than half of teachers said they experience frequent job-related stress in 2026. Comparable working adults reported this at a rate 21 points lower.
4. K-12 workers have the highest burnout rate of any U.S. industry, with teachers at 52%
(Gallup, 2022)
In Gallup's occupational burnout ranking from 2022, still its most recent, K-12 workers topped every other U.S. industry at 44%, and teachers specifically came in at 52%. Treat this as the historical anchor that put teacher burnout on the national radar rather than a current rate; the RAND figures above are the freshest numbers available.
5. 77% of teachers say their job is frequently stressful, and 68% say it is overwhelming
(Pew Research Center, 2024)
Pew's survey of 2,531 U.S. public K-12 teachers found stress and overwhelm far outpacing the positives: only 56% said the job is frequently fulfilling, and 53% said it is enjoyable.
6. UK education staff wellbeing hit its lowest level since 2019, with 78% reporting workplace stress
(Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025)
Burnout is not only an American problem. Education Support's Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025 found UK education staff wellbeing at its lowest point since tracking began in 2019, with 76% of staff stressed, 86% of senior leaders reporting high stress, and 29% of staff having actively taken steps to change or leave their roles.
How many teachers quit because of burnout?
About 8% of U.S. public school teachers leave the profession each year, and 18% said in 2026 that they intend to leave their jobs. The full picture of why teachers quit involves pay, workload, and student behavior on top of burnout itself. Here are the numbers.
7. 18% of teachers intended to leave their jobs in 2026
(RAND, 2026)
Nearly one in five teachers said they were likely to leave their current job by the end of the 2025-26 school year. The counterweight: about one in four teachers plan to stay in teaching as long as they are able.
8. Intention to leave fell from 22% in 2024 to 16% in 2025 before ticking back up
(RAND)
RAND's year-over-year data shows intention to leave dropped sharply from 2024 to 2025, then rose two points to 18% in 2026. Fewer teachers plan to quit than at the 2024 peak, but the pressure has not lifted.
9. About 8% of public school teachers leave the profession each year
(NCES)
Federal data puts annual teacher attrition at roughly 8%. Education Next's 2026 analysis of data from 2015 to 2024 lands even lower, at 7.6% per year, and finds the rate has stayed stable over time.
10. 78% of teachers have thought about quitting since the pandemic
(University of Missouri, 2025)
A University of Missouri survey of 468 teachers, published in the journal School Mental Health in 2025, found that more than three in four had thought about leaving the profession since the 2020 pandemic. Thinking about quitting and actually quitting are different things, but this number shows how widespread the strain is.
11. 74% of public schools struggled to fill teacher vacancies for the 2024-25 school year
(NCES)
NCES School Pulse Panel data shows public schools averaged six teaching vacancies each heading into 2024-25, and 74% had difficulty filling at least one of them. For the state-by-state picture, see these teacher shortage statistics.
12. Half of public school leaders say their school is understaffed
(NCES, December 2024)
In the October 2024 School Pulse Panel, 50% of public school leaders reported feeling that their school is understaffed at current staffing levels. Understaffing feeds burnout directly, because the remaining staff absorb the extra work.
What causes teacher burnout?
Managing student behavior is now the #1 source of teacher stress, ahead of pay. This is a shift from earlier surveys, where compensation led the list. One more thing the research has made clear: some experts argue "demoralization" describes the problem better than burnout, because burnout language locates the problem in the teacher while the data locates it in the job. I agree with the second framing. I do not blame teachers for burning out. The system is producing this outcome.
13. Managing student behavior is the top stressor, cited by 52% of teachers
(RAND, 2026)
More than half of teachers ranked managing student behavior among their top three sources of job-related stress in 2026, making it the most cited stressor. For comparison, only 3% ranked physical safety or job security among their top three.
14. Low salary (33%), hours beyond contract (32%), and administrative work (32%) round out the top stressors
(RAND, 2026)
Pay and workload sit just behind student behavior. Teachers reported an average base salary of $75,599 in 2026, compared with slightly more than $105,000 for similar working adults.
15. Teachers worked 49 hours per week on average in 2025, about 10 hours more than they were contracted for
(RAND, 2025)
This was down from 53 hours per week in 2024, but still far above contracted hours. Those extra 10 hours come out of evenings, weekends, and sleep.
16. Poor work-life balance and job intrusion are the factors most correlated with poor teacher well-being
(RAND, October 2025)
RAND's dedicated 2025 work-life balance report found that a lack of job flexibility and the intrusion of work into home life were each highly correlated with poor well-being, and that teachers face both at higher rates than similar working adults.
Which teachers are most at risk of burnout?
Female teachers, Black teachers, and, contrary to the rookie-burnout stereotype, experienced teachers show the highest risk markers in recent data.
17. Female teachers have reported more frequent job-related stress and burnout than male teachers every year since 2021
(RAND, 2025)
The gender gap in teacher well-being has been consistent across every year of RAND's State of the American Teacher surveys. Female teachers report both more frequent stress and more burnout than their male colleagues.
18. Black teachers are significantly more likely than White teachers to intend to leave
(RAND, 2025)
This finding held in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Black teachers also report lower pay than their White colleagues, which compounds the retention problem in a workforce where teachers of color are already underrepresented.
19. Veteran teachers are seriously considering leaving, not just new hires
(University of Missouri, 2025)
In the University of Missouri's post-pandemic survey, seasoned educators with more than five years of experience were more likely to consider leaving than their newer colleagues. Burnout is not just a first-year survival problem; it is wearing down the teachers schools can least afford to lose.
Is teacher burnout getting better or worse?
Slightly better than the 2024 peak, but plateaued. Burnout has hovered near 55% since 2021, and intention to leave has fallen from 22% in 2024 to 18% in 2026. The trend table below breaks down RAND's annual State of the American Teacher surveys, which ask the same well-being questions every year.
| Year | Teachers reporting burnout | Teachers intending to leave |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 60% | 22% |
| 2025 | 53% | 16% |
| 2026 | 57% | 18% |
20. Teacher burnout dropped from 60% in 2024 to 53% in 2025, then rose to 57% in 2026
(RAND)
The 2024-to-2025 drop looked like the start of a recovery. The 2026 uptick suggests stabilization at a high level instead, and RAND notes that responses have been relatively consistent since 2023.
21. Teacher morale jumped from -13 to +18 in 2025, then slipped to +13 in 2026
(EdWeek Research Center)
The EdWeek Research Center's Teacher Morale Index, scored from -100 to +100, debuted at -13, climbed to +18 for the 2024-25 school year, then settled at +13 in 2026. Morale is better than its post-pandemic bottom, but the 2026 dip shows the recovery is fragile.
22. Teachers still report worse well-being than similar working adults on every measured indicator, a pattern unbroken since 2021
(RAND, 2026)
Across frequent job-related stress, burnout, difficulty coping, and symptoms of depression, teachers have trailed comparable working adults in every survey year since 2021. Whatever progress individual measures show, the teacher well-being gap itself has not closed.
What are schools doing to reduce teacher burnout?
The interventions with the best evidence target working conditions, not coping skills. RAND's October 2025 work-life balance report found that fewer than half of teachers said their school or district was making efforts to help with work-life balance, even though job intrusion is one of the strongest predictors of poor well-being. The levers that come up again and again in the 2024 to 2026 data: reduce workload and after-hours intrusion, give teachers real support on student behavior, close the pay gap, and fill vacancies so the remaining staff stop absorbing extra duties. Wellness webinars and self-care reminders do not move any of those levers.
What do burned-out teachers do next?
Many leave for adjacent careers that use their teaching skills: instructional design, curriculum development, corporate training, and other learning and development roles. Instructional design in particular has become the go-to path, because it applies the same core skill (designing experiences that help people learn) in corporate settings with better pay, remote work options, and a saner workload. If you want the full picture of the path, start with this guide on moving from teaching to instructional design.
This video covers why instructional design tends to be the strongest fit for former teachers:
Full disclosure: helping people make this exact transition is my day job. Peck Academy is my licensed career school, built for career changers who want structure and support on the way into instructional design, and former teachers are the largest group of our current students. One recent example is Jonny Park, whose transition into the field is featured in our showcase.
And if you are still deciding whether to leave at all, this piece on what to do when you hate teaching is the better starting point. Burnout is a system problem, but what you do about it is still your call, and the data on this page should help you make it with clear eyes.
Read more: Top online learning statistics
Sources
- RAND, Teacher Well-Being, Pay, and Intentions to Leave in 2026
- Pew Research Center, What's It Like To Be a Teacher in America Today?
- University of Missouri, Study Reveals Why Teachers Are Leaving the Classroom in the Post-Pandemic Era
- NCES School Pulse Panel, Hiring Challenges for the 2024-25 Academic Year
- Gallup, K-12 Workers Have Highest Burnout Rate in U.S.
- NCES, Teacher Turnover indicator
- RAND, Teacher Well-Being, Pay, and Intentions to Leave in 2025
- Education Support, Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025
- National Education Association, Getting Serious About Teacher Burnout
- Teacher burnout scoping review (PMC, 2022)
- Education Next, Are Teachers Abandoning Teaching?
- NCES, December 2024 School Pulse Panel press release
- RAND, Supporting Teachers' Well-Being Through Work-Life Balance
- EdWeek Research Center, Teacher Morale Is on the Upswing (2025)
- EdWeek Research Center, How Has Teacher Morale Changed Over Time? (2026)