Team outing and workplace event statistics (2026)
Gallup found 31% of US employees engaged at work in the first half of 2026 and just two in 10 with a best friend at work. Among remote-capable US employees, 52% work hybrid, and 54% of US adults drink alcohol.
Below are 29 figures for people who plan team outings or write about them. Each links to the survey, report or government table it comes from. The numbers belong to those publishers; we collected and checked them.
Attendance and RSVPs
In a 2011 field experiment published in PNAS, employees whose mailing prompted them to write down the date and time they planned to get a workplace flu shot had a vaccination rate 4.2 percentage points higher than the control group, whose rate was 33.1%. Asking for the date alone added 1.5 points, which was not statistically significant.
Source: Using implementation intentions prompts to enhance influenza vaccination rates, PNAS. Milkman, Beshears, Choi, Laibson and Madrian, one large US firm. A flu shot clinic, not a social event, but the closest rigorous test of putting a specific date and time in a workplace invite.
Budgets and spending
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey put average spending on food away from home at $3,945 per household (consumer unit) in 2024, a 0.3% change from 2023.
Source: Consumer Expenditures, 2024, US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Released December 19, 2025. The change from 2023 was not statistically significant.
The same 2024 US Bureau of Labor Statistics survey put average household spending on entertainment at $3,609 for the year.
Source: Consumer Expenditures, 2024, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index for food away from home rose 3.5% in the 12 months to September 2026.
Source: Consumer Price Index, September 2026, US Bureau of Labor Statistics. September 2026 CPI release, published October 14, 2026.
The US General Services Administration's standard federal per diem for fiscal year 2027 is $68 a day for meals and incidentals and $113 a night for lodging, for travel from October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027.
Source: Per diem bulletin FTR 27-01, US General Services Administration. The standard rate applies where no higher city or county rate is set; many cities have higher rates.
A 2012 Center for American Progress review of 11 research papers found the typical (median) cost of replacing an employee, for jobs other than executives and physicians, was 21% of that employee’s annual salary.
Source: There Are Significant Business Costs to Replacing Employees, Center for American Progress. Boushey and Glynn. Median of the 27 case studies left after excluding executives and physicians. Older than most figures here; kept because it publishes its studies, unlike most turnover cost estimates.
Engagement and belonging
Gallup found 31% of US employees engaged at work in the first half of 2026, unchanged from 2025, and 18% actively disengaged.
Source: Employee Engagement Remains Flat as AI Adoption Accelerates, Gallup. 43,262 US employees surveyed February 4 to 19 and May 6 to 20, 2026; published July 21, 2026.
Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 report found global employee engagement at 20% in 2025, down from a peak of 23% in 2022, and manager engagement down from 27% to 22% between 2024 and 2025.
Source: State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report, Gallup. 263,810 respondents (141,444 employed) for the 2025 data.
Gallup reported in 2022 that just two in 10 US employees have a best friend at work.
Source: The Increasing Importance of a Best Friend at Work, Gallup. Patel and Plowman, updated January 2024. The most recent survey listed is June 13 to 23, 2022, with 16,586 employees.
Gallup reports that only one in three US workers strongly agree they received recognition or praise for good work in the past seven days (article updated 2024).
Source: The Importance of Employee Recognition: Low Cost, High Impact, Gallup. Gallup adds that workers who do not feel adequately recognized are twice as likely to say they will quit in the next year.
In 2021, Gallup reported that only 25% of US employees believe their organization recognizes team achievements.
Source: Add Team Praise to Your Employee Recognition Toolkit, Gallup.
Gallup's 2024 Q12 meta-analysis of 183,806 business and work units found median differences of 78% in absenteeism and 23% in profitability between units in the top and bottom quarters for engagement.
Source: The Relationship Between Engagement at Work and Organizational Outcomes (Q12 Meta-Analysis, 11th Edition), Gallup. 11th edition, 3,354,784 employees. These are associations across units, not proof that engagement causes the difference.
The US Census Bureau and AmeriCorps reported in 2024 that 28.3% of people 16 and older, over 75.7 million, formally volunteered through an organization between September 2022 and September 2023.
Source: Civic Engagement and Volunteerism, US Census Bureau. Current Population Survey Civic Engagement and Volunteering Supplement.
Remote and hybrid teams
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey found that in 2025, 35% of employed people did some or all of their work at home on days they worked.
Source: American Time Use Survey, 2025 results, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Microsoft's 2022 Work Trend Index found that 38% of hybrid employees say their biggest challenge is knowing when and why to come into the office.
Source: Work Trend Index 2022: Great Expectations, Making Hybrid Work Work, Microsoft. 31,102 workers in 31 markets, surveyed January 7 to February 16, 2022.
In the same 2022 Microsoft survey, 43% of leaders said relationship-building is the greatest challenge in hybrid and remote work.
Source: Work Trend Index 2022: Great Expectations, Making Hybrid Work Work, Microsoft.
Microsoft researchers reported in 2021 that firm-wide remote work at Microsoft cut the share of collaboration time employees spent with cross-group connections by about 25% from pre-pandemic levels.
Source: The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers, Microsoft. Yang et al., published in Nature Human Behaviour. Figure from Microsoft Research’s summary of the paper.
A 2022 study in Nature found that pairs working over video produced fewer creative ideas than pairs working in person, in a lab study and a field experiment across five countries, with no evidence that video groups were worse at choosing which idea to pursue.
Source: Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation, Nature. Brucks and Levav.
Food, dietary and accessibility
Gallup found in 2023 that 4% of US adults say they are vegetarian and 1% vegan.
Source: In U.S., 4% Identify as Vegetarian, 1% as Vegan, Gallup. 1,015 adults, July 3 to 27, 2023.
The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics reported that 6.2% of US adults 18 and over had a food allergy in 2021.
Source: Diagnosed Allergic Conditions in Adults: United States, 2021, National Center for Health Statistics. National Health Interview Survey; NCHS Data Brief 460, January 2023.
The FDA lists nine major food allergens: milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans and sesame. Sesame became the ninth on January 1, 2023 (page current as of 2026).
Source: Food Allergies, FDA.
The NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) says about 1% of people worldwide, and about 2 million people in the United States, have celiac disease (page checked 2026).
Source: Definition & Facts for Celiac Disease, NIDDK.
The CDC reported in 2024 that more than 1 in 4 US adults, over 70 million people, reported having a disability in 2022.
Source: CDC Data Shows Over 70 Million U.S. Adults Reported Having a Disability, CDC. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Among adults 65 and older the rate was 43.9%.
Gallup found in 2026 that 54% of US adults say they drink alcohol, a record low for the second year.
Source: Americans' Drinking Remains at Record Low, Gallup. 1,200 adults, July 1 to 19, 2026; published August 20, 2026.
Holiday parties
In the same 2024 Challenger, Gray & Christmas survey, 4.5% of companies planned a virtual celebration, up from 3.9% in 2023.
Source: 2024 Rate of Parties on Par with 2023, but with Lower Budgets, Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, published in 2025, found 62% of US adults identify as Christian, 29% as religiously unaffiliated and 7.1% with other religions.
Source: Religious Landscape Study: Religious identity in the United States, Pew Research Center. Published February 26, 2025. Useful context when naming a December party or choosing its date.
How to cite this page
TeamOutings. "Team outing and workplace event statistics (2026)." Last reviewed October 19, 2026. https://www.teamoutings.io/resources/team-outing-statistics
When you quote a number, cite the original publisher linked beside it, and link here if this page helped you find it. Please quote the figure and its year as the source gives them.
Methodology
We included a figure only when we could open the primary source (the survey report, government release or peer-reviewed paper) and find the number on it. We skipped numbers that only appear in blogs, listicles or vendor pages, and numbers credited to sources we could not open. Each figure is quoted as published, with its year and, where it matters, the sample or method.
Several figures are older than 2025 because they are the latest edition their publisher has released; the year is in each sentence. Last reviewed: October 19, 2026. Spotted an error or a newer edition? Tell us and we will check it.
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