Food affordability is closely connected to whether households have enough money or resources for adequate food. In 2024, 13.7% of U.S. households—18.34 million households—were food insecure, while 86.3% were food secure throughout the year. These USDA measures describe access to food, not grocery prices alone, so affordability is best understood alongside household income, food spending, prices, and use of assistance programs.
Contents
- How many households faced food affordability pressure?
- How household composition changes food insecurity
- Income and poverty thresholds
- Differences by race, place, and region
- Weekly food spending and the Thrifty Food Plan
- Food assistance and food affordability
- Food prices and household budgets
How many households faced food affordability pressure?
The USDA Economic Research Service reported that 13.7% of U.S. households experienced food insecurity in 2024. That represented 18.34 million households. The same report found that 8.3% of households experienced low food security and 5.4% experienced very low food security. Very low food security affected 7.202 million households.
Food security varied substantially among households with children. During 2024, 9.1% of households with children had food-insecure children or adults, equal to 3.3 million households with children. A smaller 0.9% of households with children experienced very low food security among children and adults.
These figures come from Household Food Security in the United States in 2024, based on the December 2024 Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement. USDA food insecurity is a measure of insufficient money or resources for adequate food; it is not a direct index of grocery prices. USDA ERS, Household Food Security in the United States in 2024.
How household composition changes food insecurity
Household structure is an important part of food affordability statistics. In 2024, 18.4% of U.S. households with children under 18 were food insecure. The rate was 17.8% among households with children under age 6. By comparison, 11.9% of households without children under 18 were food insecure.
Among family types, 10.9% of married-couple families were food insecure. The rate rose to 36.8% for households headed by a female with no spouse and 23.8% for households headed by a male with no spouse. Households with more than one adult and no children had a food-insecurity rate of 9.4%. Women living alone had a rate of 16.2%.
| Household type | Food-insecurity rate, 2024 |
|---|---|
| Households with children under 18 | 18.4% |
| Households with children under age 6 | 17.8% |
| Married-couple families | 10.9% |
| Female householder, no spouse | 36.8% |
| Male householder, no spouse | 23.8% |
| More than one adult, no children | 9.4% |
| Women living alone | 16.2% |
The figures describe groups rather than individual households, and they do not establish why one household type has a higher rate than another. They do show that the number and ages of household members are relevant when considering the resources needed to buy adequate food.
Income and poverty thresholds
Food affordability pressure was more common below the federal poverty threshold. In 2024, 39.4% of households below 100% of the federal poverty threshold were food insecure. The rate was 38.3% for households below 130% of the threshold and 32.8% for households below 185%. Among households at or above 185% of the poverty threshold, 7.9% were food insecure.
The federal poverty line for a family of four was $31,812 in 2024. Households below 185% of the poverty threshold made up 50.3% of food-insecure households, while households at or above 185% made up 33.9%. The categories do not account for every food-insecure household in the same way, so these shares should be read as the ERS-reported distribution rather than added as a complete household profile.
The relationship between income and food spending also appears in the ratio of household spending to the Thrifty Food Plan. In 2024, the median ratio was 0.94 for households below the poverty line. A ratio below 1.00 means median reported food spending was below the benchmark used in that comparison; it does not measure the nutritional adequacy of each household’s actual diet.
Differences by race, place, and region
Food-insecurity rates differed by the race and ethnicity of the household reference person in 2024. The rate was 10.1% for households with a White, non-Hispanic reference person, 24.4% for households with a Black, non-Hispanic reference person, and 20.2% for households with a Hispanic reference person.
Place also mattered. Households in principal cities had a food-insecurity rate of 16.0%, compared with 11.9% in metropolitan areas outside principal cities and 15.9% outside metropolitan areas.
Among the four census regions, the South had the highest reported rate at 15.0%. The Midwest followed at 13.3%, the West at 12.9%, and the Northeast at 12.2%.
| Geography or reference group | Food-insecurity rate, 2024 |
|---|---|
| White, non-Hispanic reference person | 10.1% |
| Black, non-Hispanic reference person | 24.4% |
| Hispanic reference person | 20.2% |
| Principal city | 16.0% |
| Metropolitan area outside principal city | 11.9% |
| Outside metropolitan area | 15.9% |
| Northeast | 12.2% |
| Midwest | 13.3% |
| South | 15.0% |
| West | 12.9% |
These are descriptive U.S. estimates for 2024. They identify differences between groups and locations, but the statistics alone do not identify the causes of those differences.
Weekly food spending and the Thrifty Food Plan
The typical U.S. household spent a median $75.00 per person per week on food in 2024. That was 1.18 times its December 2024 Thrifty Food Plan cost. ERS spending includes food at home, food away from home, and free food, whereas the Thrifty Food Plan benchmark covers food consumed at home.
Households with children under 18 spent a median $60.00 per person per week, or 1.05 times their Thrifty Food Plan cost. Households with at least one child under age 6 spent $53.33 per person per week, or 1.06 times the benchmark. Households without children under 18 spent $83.33 per person per week, or 1.22 times the benchmark.
People living alone had higher per-person median spending in this comparison: women living alone spent $100.00 per week, or 1.44 times the benchmark, while men living alone spent $100.00, or 1.39 times the benchmark. Households at or above 185% of poverty spent $82.50 per person per week, or 1.28 times their benchmark. Outside metropolitan areas, the median was $70.00, or 1.07 times the benchmark. In the West, it was $80.00, or 1.22 times the benchmark.
A family of four with two adults aged 20–50 and children aged 6–8 and 9–11 had a December 2024 Thrifty Food Plan cost of $228.00 per week. The spending table excluded 7.4% of households because of nonresponse or reported zero usual spending, an important limitation when comparing these figures.
Food assistance and food affordability
Participation in food assistance programs appeared alongside substantial food insecurity among lower-income households in the 2024 ERS comparisons. Among households below 130% of poverty that received SNAP during the previous 12 months, 51.1% were food insecure and 22.9% had very low food security.
Among households below 185% of poverty with school-age children that received free or reduced-price school lunch during the previous 30 days, 42.0% were food insecure and 15.7% had very low food security. Among households below 185% of poverty with children under age 5 that received WIC during the previous 30 days, 43.7% were food insecure and 12.6% had very low food security.
Looking across food-insecure households, 58.9% received SNAP, the National School Lunch Program, WIC, or at least one of those programs during the month before the December 2024 survey. SNAP participation was 43.4%, and WIC participation was 7.9%.
The time windows differ: SNAP participation in the lower-income comparison covers the previous 12 months, while NSLP and WIC participation covers the previous 30 days. Food-security status is generally measured over 12 months. These are associations, not causal estimates; participation rates cannot show how much food insecurity a program prevented or reduced.
Food prices and household budgets
Food takes a larger share of income for lower-income households. In 2023, the lowest-income U.S. household quintile had average after-tax income of $16,171 and average food spending of $5,278, equal to 32.6% of income. The middle-income quintile had average after-tax income of $66,606 and food spending of $8,989, or 13.5% of income. The highest-income quintile had average after-tax income of $211,042 and food spending of $16,996, or 8.1% of income. USDA ERS, U.S. households that earn less spend a higher share of income on food.
Total U.S. food prices increased 5.8% in 2023, compared with 4.1% overall inflation. Food-at-home prices increased 5.0%. Per-capita food spending by U.S. consumers, businesses, and government entities reached $7,672 in 2023, while spending on food away from home increased 12%. USDA ERS, U.S. consumers spent 11.2 percent of disposable personal income on food in 2023.
More recent CPI-U figures provide a separate price measure. In the U.S. city average, the food index rose 2.7% from August 2025 to August 2026, while food at home rose 2.2%. The August 2026 CPI-U relative-importance weights were 8.232% for food at home and 5.307% for food away from home; the weights reported for August used July 2026 weights. These are U.S. city-average index statistics, not household-specific affordability measures. BLS, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: U.S. city average, by detailed expenditure category.