After living through a pandemic, you’d think we’ll all be handwashing experts by now, but new research shows we’ve definitely got some room for improvement. The Bradley Company’s annual Healthy Handwashing Survey has just come out, revealing Americans’ habits and behaviors when it comes to keeping our hands clean.
For the 2025 edition, Bradley polled 1,032 American adults and found:
- Overall, 93% believe washing their hands is important for their health.
- But during cold and flu season, 79% say they’re washing their hands more often or thoroughly to avoid getting sick.
- While people say they wash their hands an average of 7.5 times a day, they’re not always doing a good job.
- Nearly half (45%) admit they just rinse with water and skip the soap.
- Men are more guilty of not sudsing up than women (53% compared to 38%).
- People claim to be more diligent about washing their hands when out in public (37%) than when at home (20%), but those in the bathroom with them disagree.
- While 81% say they always wash their hands after using a public restroom, 77% of respondents say they frequently see other people leave public restrooms without washing up.
- Kids are not always the best when it comes to personal hygiene, and a lot of parents know their kids are taking handwashing shortcuts.
- Over a third (38%) of parents don’t think their kids wash their hands enough and only 25% think their kids actually wash their hands when they’re told to.
Source: Bradley Corp
