Key Findings
- Up to 56 million meetings are held daily in the US
- 65% of people feel they regularly waste time in meetings
- Workplace distractions cost the USE $65 billion annually – and meetings are the worst culprit
- Executives spend up to 23 hours a week in meetings
- 70% of meetings prevent workers from being productive elsewhere
- 79% of workers say that a clear agenda creates more productive meetings
Note: The COVID-19 pandemic wildly skewed meeting statistics during 2020 and 2021. This was due to the massive increase in remote work and the need for virtual meetings. To provide a more realistic overview, we have avoided statistics from this period.
Top Meeting Statistics for 2025
Between 36 and 56 million meetings are held in the US daily. (Lucid)
That’s a lot.
Moreover, it is estimated that ineffective meetings cost the US $37 billion per year.
These figures are based on extensive calculations performed by Lucid in 2022. The most commonly cited number of daily meetings was and still is 11 million.
However, after the study was completed, this number was found to be wildly inaccurate, and 36+ million is more likely the amount.
In 2022, people wasted (on average) 91 minutes per day on tasks and meetings that weren’t important to their role. (Acuity)
Of the people surveyed:
- 39% of people spend less than an hour per day on these things
- Over 10% spent more than a third of their time languishing in pointless meetings and on irrelevant tasks
It was also found that most time management techniques did not help in these areas with the exception of timeboxing.
It would appear that we’re still wasting plenty of time in meetings:
In 2024, 65% of people feel they regularly waste time in meetings. (Project.co)
This percentage has risen by 5% since last year, so it would seem that meetings are becoming less productive.
Meetings are ineffective 72% of the time. (Atlassian)
According to an extensive survey conducted by Atlassian, there are several reasons why people think this:
- Not getting a word in: Meetings are dominated by a handful of assertive individuals so others struggle to contribute.
- Lack of clarity: Many people leave meetings without a clear idea of what the next steps are.
- Repetitive information: A lot of the time, meetings simply rehash what has already been said.
- No agenda: Without a clear agenda, meetings stray off course and lack focus.
- Should have been emailed: People sometimes hold meetings for things that could be summed up in an email.
With this in mind, the same survey concluded that:
77% of workers say that they frequently attend meetings that end in a decision to schedule another meeting.
This means that meetings are not achieving the desired outcomes and 54% of workers are leaving them without any idea of what to do next or who has ownership of the tasks.
Also, workers found meetings to be ineffective for:
- Connecting with colleagues (70%). In fact, 50% of workers say they are lonely at work, despite attending frequent meetings.
- Brainstorming new ideas (75%)
- Making collaborative decisions (75%)
- Advancing work (67%)
- Creating goal clarity (72%)
- Status updates (70%)
Meetings for the sake of meetings without any clear purpose are a serious time drain. Video meetings are not immune, either.
32% of workers say that video calls take up more time compared to a year ago. (Asana)
Other workplace get-togethers are also demanding extra time:
- 26% of workers have seen an increase in in-person meetings
- 22% spend more time on audio calls compared to last year.
Ahh, meetings! Meetings about meetings about other meetings.
Are they necessary? Or, will a quick email or instant message suffice?
Actually, these also waste time…
In total, the average employee spends 57% of their time communicating in meetings, email, and chat). (Microsoft)
That’s only 43% of the day left over for productive tasks.
The same study also found that 68% of people say that, thanks to frequent meetings and communication, they don’t have enough uninterrupted focus time during the workday.
Among those surveyed, the top 25% of meeting users were spending 7.5 hours per week in them.
Since February 2020, Microsoft has observed that its users are attending three times more Teams meetings than before.
That’s a massive increase of 192%!
Workplace distractions cost US businesses an estimated $650 billion annually. (Workamajig)
Contributing to those distractions are meetings and emails with 10% of workers citing them as the biggest culprit.
Almost 9% of employees also revealed that instant messaging notifications from Slack, Google Chat, and Microsoft Teams also cause them to lose focus.
Those working in marketing are particularly affected by meetings, with 32.9% saying they’re their largest distraction.
In 2017, Executives said they spent almost 23 hours a week in meetings. (Harvard Business Review)
This has more than doubled since the 1960s, when executives only spent around 10 hours per week in meetings.
That’s 1,196 hours in total spent annually in meetings!
It’s a colossal amount of time, especially when you consider that the average US citizen works 1,799 total hours annually. (Our World in Data).
Okay, so this data is pretty old now. Have things actually improved since the pre-pandemic days?
Not especially.
In 2024, executives spend 18 extra days in meetings annually compared with the average worker (Clockwise)
They last longer, too.
On average, the meetings executives attend are 12.3% longer than the average meeting length for other employees.
The more senior your role in an organization, the more likely you are to spend most of your time in meetings.
The size of the organization matters, too. According to the same study,
Smaller companies (less than 100 employees) have 12 meetings per person per week on average.
In contrast, organizations of 500+ employees hold 18 meetings per person per week.
However, smaller companies tend to have meetings that go on for 5% longer than larger company meetings averaging 42.5 minutes vs. 40 minutes at larger companies.
52% of fully remote leaders spend three or more hours a day in virtual meetings. (Zoom)
However, their preferred methods of collaboration are:
- Instant messenger, project management software, in-person meetings
- Employees also prefer instant messenger and in-person meetings but also favor email
- Baby Boomer leaders strongly prefer in-person meetings
- Gen Z leaders prefer project management software
27% of managers are distracted by unproductive meetings. (Economist)
This is compared with 21% for general staff.
Managers also attend more meetings:
- 91% of managers attend 1 - 5 meetings per day
- Around 7% attend more than five meetings
- About 60% of general staff only attend one meeting or less per day
55% of meetings in the US are between 30 minutes and one hour long. (Doodle)
And, 40% of meetings drag on for more than an hour.
This is more appealing than findings from Europe, though. 67% of meetings based in European countries go on for longer than an hour.
Virtual meetings are the method of choice for American organizations.
Rather than meeting in person, workers prefer to use the following methods of communication:
- 42% of meetings take place online using technology like Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
- Hybrid meetings (in-person and remote) account for 38%
- Europeans prefer in-person meetings with 44% being held face-to-face
The data from this study also revealed some interesting things:
- The later the invitation, the shorter the meeting. Last-minute get-togethers last less than an hour on average
- Meetings at physical locations last longer (over an hour)
- Meetings with more than 10 people are more likely to last longer than an hour
- 85% of meetings with only two people last less than an hour
Folks in Georgia spend the most time in meetings – 8.39 hours per week on average. (Deputy)
In contrast, Nevada spends the least amount of time sitting in meetings at just 2.28 hours per week. Overall, the national average is 4.48 hours per week.
The top stressor for meetings is the preparation of reports. (Deputy)
28.6% of people dislike this task the most and find it stressful. Followed by:
- Delivering bad news (23.8%)
- Participating in discussions (23.7%)
- Scheduling meetings (13.7%)
- Getting to the meeting on time (10.4%)
Overall, women like participating in discussions the least while men dislike preparing reports.
80% of workers experience lost time due to technical difficulties during online/hybrid meetings. (Owl Labs)
However, only 37% of organizations decided to invest and upgrade their video meeting technology in 2023.
Larger businesses were more likely to invest in better meeting technology than smaller ones:
- 28% of companies with less than 250 employees) upgraded their meeting tech
- 42% of larger companies (over 250 employees) upgraded their tech
88% of hybrid workers said their meetings have at least one remote participant.
This indicates the very real need to ensure that virtual meetings use appropriate and up-to-date technology for the purpose.
79% of employees state that a clear agenda leads to more productive meetings. (Atlassian)
It pays to be organized. Create a clear list of topics to cover and stick to it. You’ll get more out of it and in less time.
Therefore, learn good facilitation skills and let everyone have their say in equal measures.
Final Thoughts
Meetings will always remain a staple of the working day. But, with some careful thought and planning, we can reduce the number of meetings and make sure the time spent in them is worthwhile.
To get a hold of how much time goes to meetings, try using time-tracking software. By analyzing how long you are spending in them and why, you can look for ways to reduce the number of them and explore other methods of communication.
Sources
- Lucid: 55 million
- Acuity Training: Time Management Study 2022
- Project.co: Communication Statistics 2024
- Atlassian: Meet the #1 barrier to productivity
- Asana: The Anatomy of Work Global Index 2023
- Microsoft: 2023 Work Trend Index: Annual Report
- Workamajig: Top distractions at work killing productivity in 2023
- Harvard Business Review: Stop the Meeting Madness
- Our World in Data: Working hours
- Clockwise: What We’ve Learned About Meetings in 2024
- Zoom: Collaboration Workplace Report 2024
- Economist Impact: Search of Lost Focus 2023
- Doodle: State of Meetings Report 2023
- Deputy: How Much Time Americans Spend in Meetings
- Owl Labs: State of Hybrid Work 2023
