Shortly after the outbreak of COVID-19, the Census Bureau launched a vast initiative to measure the effects of the disease on Americans. It is called the Household Pulse Survey. So far, the results have been released in three phases, which began with the first study that was in the field starting April 23, 2020. The data is released by week.

Each weekly report actually covers about two weeks of information gathered by the Census Bureau and other federal agencies. Among the questions asked each week is whether any adult in the respondent’s household “teleworks,” which is the study’s term for working from home or a site other than the office. Telework, to qualify, must be due to needs created by the COVID-19 pandemic. It can be done for “some” or “all” of their work time.

Current data also covers Week 25 and includes the results of questions about income loss, the percentage of Americans who work from home, food scarcity, food insecurity, chances of eviction or foreclosure, difficulty in paying household expenses, whether people have received a COVID-19 vaccine and whether those not vaccinated plan to be.

The work is done in partnership with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Housing and Urban Development, National Center for Education Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, Social Security Administration and USDA Economic Research Service.

Data come from the 50 states, the District of Columbia and America’s largest metro areas.

There have been several major studies about the extent to which people work from home. The wide range of outcomes happens, to some extent, because of the wording of the question. Pew Research found that 71% of people in its poll, done in December, currently were working from home. A Stanford study, done much earlier, in June found that 42% of people worked full time from home. It also found that, from its sample, 33% were not working.

The Household Pulse Survey shows that the U.S. figure for telework was 38.4%. The state with the highest number was Utah at 49.6%. Higher still, the number for the District of Columbia was 70.5%. Massachusetts (49.1%) and Maryland (47.1%) followed Utah.

The Household Pulse Survey does not draw a relationship between telework and income. However, the District of Columbia’s residents have a higher median household income than any of the states do. Maryland is first among all states, and Massachusetts is fourth.

The state with the lowest telework percentage is Mississippi at 23.1%, followed by South Dakota (23.3%), Alabama (24.6%) and West Virginia (25.5%). These states tend to have low median household incomes.

Among cities, the percentage of people who fall into the telework category is led by Washington, D.C., at 59.5%, then San Francisco at 54.4% and Boston at 53.3%.

The States Where the Most People Work From Home

State	Working From Home
Utah	52.7%
Maryland	50.2%
Massachusetts	49.5%
New Jersey	49.4%
Connecticut	49.1%
Colorado	48.1%
Virginia	46.8%
Washington	44.4%
Minnesota	43.5%
California	43.2%
Vermont	41.7%
New Hampshire	41.2%
New York	40.9%
Arizona	40.6%
Pennsylvania	39.7%
United States	38.8%
Illinois	38.4%
Rhode Island	38.3%
Texas	38.1%
North Carolina	38.0%
Alaska	37.8%
Georgia	37.6%
Nebraska	37.5%
Oregon	37.5%
Kansas	37.3%
Maine	37.0%
Ohio	36.6%
New Mexico	36.5%
Michigan	36.1%
Delaware	35.8%
Wisconsin	35.3%
Missouri	34.6%
Hawaii	34.4%
Kentucky	33.8%
Idaho	33.6%
Tennessee	33.1%
Indiana	32.9%
Florida	32.7%
Montana	32.3%
Arkansas	31.7%
Oklahoma	31.7%
South Carolina	31.4%
Iowa	30.9%
South Dakota	29.4%
Alabama	28.4%
Louisiana	27.5%
Nevada	27.5%
North Dakota	26.3%
West Virginia	26.3%
Wyoming	26.0%
Mississippi	23.7%

Click here to see the state where people worry most about losing income.

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