Telehealth use in the United States has settled into a clear age pattern. Adults aged 18 to 34 use virtual visits at more than twice the rate of adults 65 and older, and millennials lead every generation at 68%. In 2021 the pattern ran the other way, with older adults reporting the highest use, so the post pandemic shift is one of the biggest stories in the data.
Older adults still use telehealth; they use it differently. Seniors lean on phone calls more than video, report satisfaction above 90%, and count on Medicare flexibilities that now run through December 31, 2027. Children use telehealth less than adults, while teens and young adults drive the heaviest use of virtual mental health care.
In this article, I will share the latest telehealth adoption statistics by age group. I have compiled data from national health surveys, Medicare claims, commercial claims trackers, generational consumer surveys, pediatric studies, digital access data and international figures from the UK, Canada, the EU, India and China.
Contents
- Editor Picks: Calculated Telehealth Age Gaps Statistics
- Telehealth Use by Age Group at a Glance
- Virtual Care Use by Generation
- Seniors and Medicare Telehealth Statistics
- Children and Teen Telehealth Statistics
- Mental Health Telehealth by Age
- Commercial Claims: Which Ages Use Telehealth Most
- Video vs Audio Only Telehealth by Age
- Satisfaction and Preference by Age
- Digital Access Barriers by Age
- Caregivers, Wearables and AI Health Tools by Age
- Telehealth Adoption by Age Outside the US
- Telehealth Outlook: Policy, Market and an Aging Population
- Telehealth by Age FAQs
Editor Picks: Calculated Telehealth Age Gaps Statistics
- Adults aged 18 to 34 used telehealth at 2.2 times the rate of adults 65 and older in 2024 (70% against 32%).
- The gap between adults under 50 and adults 65 and older on live telehealth is 8.4 percentage points (42.3% against 33.9%).
- Older telehealth users rely on phone only visits about 1.6 times as much as adults under 50 (42.7% against 27.4%).
- The share of Medicare fee for service users with a telehealth visit fell 52% from its 2020 peak, from 48% to 23% in 2025.
- About 6.4 million Medicare fee for service beneficiaries still used telehealth in 2025.
- Telehealth use among US children fell 22% in two years, from 18.3% in 2021 to 14.2% in 2023.
- Millennials use virtual care 27 points more than the Silent Generation (68% against 41%).
- Young adults aged 18 to 25 received mental health treatment by telehealth at 2.2 times the rate of adults 50 and older (17.2% against 7.8%).
- Gen Z uses AI chatbots for health information at 3.75 times the rate of baby boomers (45% against 12%).
- About 81 million eSanjeevani teleconsultations in India served people aged 60 and older (16.25% of 500 million).
- UK adults aged 65 and older lack home internet at 3.5 times the rate of the average adult (21% against 6%).
- The share of EU adults aged 65 to 74 booking medical appointments online more than doubled in four years, from 12.8% to 28.2%.
Telehealth Use by Age Group at a Glance
Share of US Adults Using Telehealth by Age
| Age Group | Used Telehealth in Past Year | Survey |
|---|---|---|
| 18 to 34 | 70% | National poll, April 2024 |
| 35 to 44 | 62% | National poll, April 2024 |
| 45 to 64 | 52% | National poll, April 2024 |
| 65 and older | 32% | National poll, April 2024 |
| 18 to 49 | 42.3% (live video or phone) | Federal health information survey, 2022 and 2024 |
| 50 to 64 | 39.1% | Federal health information survey, 2022 and 2024 |
| 65 and older | 33.9% | Federal health information survey, 2022 and 2024 |
| All adults | 38.4% | Federal health information survey, 2022 and 2024 |
- 68% of adults 65 and older reported zero telehealth visits in the past year, against 30% of adults 18 to 34.
- 44% of US adults used telehealth at least once in the past year.
- In 2021, adults 65 and older reported the highest telehealth use at 43.3%, against 29.4% for adults 18 to 29.
- US adult telehealth use fell from 37.0% in 2021 to 30.1% in 2022 as in person care returned.
- 65.2% of adults used a patient portal: 71.6% of adults 18 to 49, 67.7% of adults 50 to 64 and 56.7% of adults 65 and older.
Virtual Care Use by Generation
Virtual Care Use in the Past Year by Generation
| Generation | Used Virtual Care | Latest Visit Was Remote |
|---|---|---|
| Gen Z (18 to 24) | 60% | 30% |
| Millennials (25 to 44) | 68% | 31% |
| Gen X (45 to 64) | About 54% | 20% |
| Baby boomers (65 to 74) | 48% | 6% |
| Silent Generation (75+) | 41% | Lowest |
| All adults | 58% | About 1 in 4 |
Gen Z Telehealth Statistics
- 60% of Gen Z adults used virtual care in the past year.
- One third of Gen Z users chose text based virtual care, the highest of any generation.
- 11% of Gen Z received mental health care through messaging.
- 22% of Gen Z used telehealth for mental health, against 5% of baby boomers.
- 27% of Gen Z used telehealth for urgent care, while every other generation stayed under 18%.
- 33% of Gen Z would switch doctors for virtual visit availability alone.
- 57% of Gen Z trust their primary care doctor, against 85% of baby boomers.
- 71% of college students have used a telehealth service, against 54% of the general population.
Millennial Telehealth Statistics
- 68% of millennials used virtual care in the past year, the highest of any generation.
- Millennials use phone (49%), apps, websites or text (45%) and live video (44%) for virtual care.
- Millennials use virtual care for primary care (29%), mental health (25%) and wellness (24%).
- 43% of millennials would switch doctors for virtual visit availability, the highest of any generation.
- 20% of millennials used telehealth for mental health.
Gen X Telehealth Statistics
- About 54% of Gen X used virtual care in the past year.
- 28% of Gen X users cite shorter wait times as the main reason.
- 8% of Gen X prefer in person care and avoid virtual care, the highest share of any generation.
- 20% of Gen X had a remote latest visit.
Baby Boomer and Silent Generation Telehealth Statistics
- 48% of baby boomers and 41% of the Silent Generation used virtual care in the past year.
- 6% of baby boomers had a remote latest visit.
- 24% of adults 75 and older used phone based virtual care and 23% used apps, text or websites.
- 11% of adults 75 and older skipped telehealth entirely because of discomfort or confusion.
- 7% of baby boomers would switch doctors for virtual visit availability.
Seniors and Medicare Telehealth Statistics
- 23% of Medicare fee for service users had a telehealth visit in 2025, down from 25% in 2024 and 48% in 2020.
- Medicare telehealth use ran at 34% in 2021, 29% in 2022 and 25% in 2023.
- 6,400,135 Medicare fee for service beneficiaries used telehealth in 2025.
- In the first half of 2025, 4.3 million beneficiaries had 11.1 million telehealth visits from 469,487 clinicians.
- Telehealth has stabilized at about 5% of Medicare outpatient visits.
- Medicare beneficiaries under 65, who qualify through disability, use telehealth the most of any Medicare age band.
- 33% of Medicare beneficiaries used telehealth in 2024, against 36% of privately insured adults aged 50 to 64.
- 44% of Medicare beneficiaries want to use telehealth in the future, against 61% of privately insured adults 50 to 64.
- 45.1% of Medicare mental health visits happen by telehealth, against 3.3% of other visits.
- Nearly 1 million Medicare enrollees used remote patient tracking in 2024, with payments above $500 million.
- 73% of adults 50 and older used telehealth in the past year in one national 50+ survey.
- 31% of adults 50 and older say their provider lacks telehealth or they are unsure whether it offers it.
- 87% of adults 50 and older say telehealth should support, and stay secondary to in person care.
- Use of digital health tools among adults 50 and older rose from 35% in 2024 to 46% in 2025.
Children and Teen Telehealth Statistics
Child Telehealth Use by Age (US)
| Age | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to 4 | 18.3% | 14.1% | 12.5% |
| 5 to 11 | 16.7% | 15.2% | 13.5% |
| 12 to 17 | 19.4% | 17.4% | 16.7% |
| All children 0 to 17 | 18.3% | N/A | 14.2% |
- Telehealth made up under 1% of pediatric primary care problem visits in 2019, peaked at 55% in April 2020 and settled at 6% in 2024.
- In 2024, telehealth covered 20% of pediatric endocrinology and obesity visits, 15% of behavioral health visits and 3% of respiratory visits.
- 1 in 14 pediatric primary care visits (7.3%) happened by telehealth in 2023.
- 14.5% of pediatric behavioral health visits used telehealth in 2023.
- 45.3% of teens receiving mental health treatment got some care through telehealth.
- 71.4% of teens in office based specialty mental health care used telehealth.
- Telehealth therapy ranks as the second most common mental health treatment for teens.
Mental Health Telehealth by Age
- 77.6% of outpatient mental health visits among commercially insured patients aged 6 to 64 happened virtually between 2023 and 2025.
- 77.0% of mental health visits for ages 18 to 24 were virtual, against 37.1% for ages 6 to 12.
- The virtual share of mental health visits eased from 79.7% in 2023 to 76.2% in 2025.
- Mental health treatment by telehealth reached 13.8% of teens 12 to 17, 17.2% of adults 18 to 25, 15.4% of adults 26 to 49 and 7.8% of adults 50 and older.
- Mental health is the top telehealth diagnosis category in every age group.
- 52% of telehealth patients had a mental health claim in Q1 2026, including about 27% of children 9 and under and 22% of adults 65 and older.
- Mental health made up more than 26% of telehealth visits in primary care health systems in October 2025.
Commercial Claims: Which Ages Use Telehealth Most
- Patients aged 19 to 30 and 31 to 40 make up the largest age groups of commercial telehealth patients, each about 22% to 24% in 2025.
- Children 0 to 9 and adults 65 and older each make up under 10% of commercial telehealth patients.
- Telehealth reached 5.51% of commercial medical claim lines in Q1 2026, up from 5.01%.
- 18.4% of commercially insured patients had a telehealth claim in Q1 2026.
- Urban patients used telehealth at 18.6% against 10.3% for rural patients.
- Adults 25 to 39 have the highest telehealth share of primary care visits at about 10%, against under 2% for children under 3.
- Telehealth settled at about 6% of all primary care visits in 2025.
Video vs Audio Only Telehealth by Age
Telehealth Mode by Age Among Users
| Age | Video Only | Phone Only | Both |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 to 49 | 50.2% | 27.4% | 22.4% |
| 50 to 64 | 48.8% | 30.8% | 20.4% |
| 65 and older | 36.7% | 42.7% | 20.6% |
- Adults 65 to 74 have 2.13 times higher odds of an audio only visit, and adults 75 and older 3.58 times higher.
- Medicare beneficiaries use audio only telehealth more than video (24% against 18%), while privately insured adults lean to video (26% against 20%).
- Among adults 50 and older lacking telehealth access, 66% would prefer audio only and 48% video.
- 70% of telemedicine visits nationwide use video and 30% audio only.
Satisfaction and Preference by Age
- 92% of Medicare beneficiaries are satisfied with video telehealth and 93% with audio only.
- 90% of telehealth users aged 50 and older are satisfied, and 70% feel comfortable using it.
- Gen Y and Gen Z report the highest telehealth satisfaction, and baby boomers the lowest.
- Younger users scored telehealth 714 out of 1,000 against 671 for boomers and older.
- 65% of telehealth users faced at least one barrier, and 25% cite connectivity problems.
- 65% of users name convenience as the top reason for using telehealth.
- 68% of consumers prefer in person care for dermatology and 62% for chronic care.
- 56% of adults with zero virtual care history prefer in person visits.
Digital Access Barriers by Age
US Digital Access by Age (2025)
| Measure | 18 to 29 | 30 to 49 | 50 to 64 | 65+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home broadband | 71% | 87% | 79% | 70% |
| Smartphone ownership | 97% | 97% | 90% | 78% |
| Online almost constantly | 63% | 54% | 33% | 14% |
| Smartphone only (zero home broadband) | 27% | 11% | 15% | 17% |
- 90% of US adults 50 and older own a smartphone, up from 55% in 2016.
- Three in five adults 50 and older say technology is designed with younger users in mind.
- 21% of UK adults 65 and older and 32% of adults 75 and older lack home internet.
- 83% of UK adults lacking home internet are 65 or older.
- 37% of offline UK adults ask someone else to access online health services for them.
- 13% of adults 65 and older in England, about 1.4 million people, are digitally excluded.
- 49% of digitally excluded older adults in England cite poor IT skills and 30% distrust the internet.
- Adults 85 and older face the steepest hurdles, with hearing, vision and memory issues limiting video visits.
Caregivers, Wearables and AI Health Tools by Age
- 63 million Americans are family caregivers, with an average age of 51.
- 29% of caregivers aged 50 and older use telemedicine, the most used caregiving technology.
- 36% of adults 50 and older own a wearable, against 44% of adults 18 to 49.
- 46% of US adults own a wearable, up from 13% in 2015.
- 59% of wearable owners have discussed their data with a provider.
- 45% of adults 50 and older are interested in AI health tracking devices.
- Generative AI use among adults 50 and older rose from 18% in 2024 to 30% in 2025.
- Gen Z (45%) and millennials (48%) use AI chatbots for health information far more than Gen X (25%), boomers (12%) and the Silent Generation (7%).
- 28% of adults under 30 use AI chatbots for mental health information, against 8% of adults 50 and older.
- 32% of US adults used AI chatbots for health information in the past year, double the prior year.
For broader AI adoption trends, see these ChatGPT statistics.
Telehealth Adoption by Age Outside the US
United Kingdom
- The NHS App passed 42.2 million registrations by July 2026.
- 15.4 million people used the NHS App in July 2026, up 26%, with 80 million logins.
- 3.6 million NHS App users are older than 66, including 256,400 in their 80s and 17,100 aged 90 and over.
- 89% of UK internet users aged 16 to 34 do online health activities, against 53% of those 65 and older.
- Phone contact with GP practices is highest among patients 75 and older, and online contact highest among ages 16 to 54.
- 72.3% of GP appointments are face to face and 25.2% by phone.
Canada
- 37.2% of Canadian health care users had both virtual and in person appointments, and 5.3% used virtual care only.
- Canadians 75 and older combine virtual and in person care at lower rates than ages 15 to 24.
- Adults 35 to 44 have the highest odds of a virtual appointment.
- 51% of Canadians aged 50 and older have used virtual care, and 93% of them say their needs were met.
European Union
- 60% of EU residents searched for health information online in 2025, a record.
- 44.9% of EU adults aged 65 to 74 sought health information online in 2024, up from 24.5% in 2015.
- 28.2% of EU adults aged 65 to 74 booked medical appointments online in 2024, up from 12.8% in 2020.
- 19.2% of EU adults aged 65 to 74 accessed personal health records online in 2024.
India and China
- eSanjeevani passed 500 million teleconsultations by September 2026.
- 40.15% of eSanjeevani consultations served people aged 46 and older, and 16.25% served people 60 and older.
- 57.14% of eSanjeevani patients are women.
- eSanjeevani handles 250,000 to 300,000 consultations a day.
- China has about 393 million to 418 million users of online medical services.
- 53.7% of Chinese adults aged 60 and older use the internet, against 80.1% of the total population.
Australia and Japan
- Telehealth made up about 17% of Medicare subsidized GP services in Australia in 2024, down from a 38% peak in 2020.
- Australia ran more than 118 million Medicare telehealth services between March 2020 and late 2023.
- Japanese adults aged 50 and under are 1.46 to 1.79 times more willing than adults 60 and older to use online care.
Telehealth Outlook: Policy, Market and an Aging Population
- Medicare telehealth flexibilities run through December 31, 2027, covering home visits anywhere, audio only care and delayed in person rules for tele mental health.
- Adults 65 and older made up 18% of the US population in 2024, up from 12.4% in 2004.
- All baby boomers will be 65 or older by 2030.
- Older adults are projected to outnumber children in the US by 2034.
- Older adults already outnumber children in 11 US states and nearly half of US counties.
- The global telehealth market is forecast to grow from $87.7 billion in 2026 to $187.5 billion by 2033.
- Broader telemedicine forecasts reach $1.27 trillion by 2034.
- The US telemedicine market is valued at about $81 billion in 2026.
- Interest in phone based diagnosis (33%) and alert wearables that notify doctors (29%) is rising among adults 50 and older.
Telehealth by Age FAQs
Which Age Group Uses Telehealth the Most?
Adults aged 18 to 34 and millennials lead. 70% of adults 18 to 34 used telehealth in the past year, and 68% of millennials used virtual care.
Do Seniors Use Telehealth?
Yes. About a third of adults 65 and older use telehealth each year, and 6.4 million Medicare fee for service beneficiaries used it in 2025. Seniors rely more on phone visits than video.
How Many Children Use Telehealth?
14.2% of US children used telehealth in 2023, down from 18.3% in 2021. Teens use it most, especially for mental health care.
Which Age Group Uses Telehealth for Mental Health?
Young adults. 77% of mental health visits for ages 18 to 24 happen virtually, and adults 18 to 25 receive telehealth mental health treatment at more than twice the rate of adults 50 and older.
Are Older Adults Satisfied With Telehealth?
Yes. 92% to 93% of Medicare beneficiaries are satisfied with video and audio only telehealth, and 90% of users aged 50 and older report satisfaction.
How Long Will Medicare Cover Telehealth From Home?
Medicare telehealth flexibilities run through December 31, 2027.
