Healthy food statistics show a gap between eating some fruit or vegetables and meeting recommended intake levels. They also show that food access and affordability shape what healthy eating can look like. The figures below cover U.S. adults, U.S. high school students, U.S. households, and global diet affordability across several measurement periods.
Contents
- Fruit and vegetables among U.S. adults
- Fruit and vegetables among high school students
- Breakfast and water patterns
- Adults meeting federal recommendations
- Food security and access in U.S. households
- The global cost of a healthy diet
Fruit and vegetables among U.S. adults
The CDC’s Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Among Adults: United States, August 2021–August 2023 measured whether adults aged 20 and older consumed selected foods on a given day. In that period, 69.9% of U.S. adults consumed fruit, while 93.3% consumed vegetables. The measures describe daily consumption on the survey day, not whether people met a recommended amount.
Fruit consumption varied by sex. Among men, 66.1% consumed fruit on a given day, compared with 73.5% of women. For citrus, melons, or berries, the corresponding figures were 27.2% for men and 35.2% for women. Whole fruit other than citrus, melons, or berries was consumed by 47.0% of men and 52.9% of women.
Vegetable categories also differed by sex. Dark green vegetables were consumed on a given day by 33.7% of men and 41.8% of women. These figures represent the share consuming the food category at least on that measured day; they do not report serving sizes or frequency across a full week.
Income differences were substantial in the same CDC report. Fruit was consumed by 56.9% of adults with family income below 130% of the federal poverty level, compared with 76.5% of adults with family income at least 350% of the federal poverty level. For citrus, melons, or berries, the figures were 19.6% and 38.0%, respectively. Vegetables were consumed by 88.5% of adults in the below-130%-of-poverty group.
Source: CDC, Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Among Adults: United States, August 2021–August 2023.
Fruit and vegetables among high school students
The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report for Dietary, Physical Activity, and Sleep Behaviors: 2013–2023 uses a different measure: food or beverage consumption at least once per day during the previous seven days. In 2023, 55% of U.S. high school students ate fruit or drank 100% fruit juice at least once per day. The percentage was 52% among female students and 58% among male students.
The same fruit measure was 59% among Hispanic students and 51% among LGBTQ+ students. These subgroup estimates should be read as survey results for the stated population and year, not as universal expectations for every student.
Vegetable consumption at least once per day was reported by 58% of high school students in 2023. The percentage was 59% among female students and 56% among male students. By race and ethnicity, the reported figures included 71% among Asian students and 49% among Black students.
The student results and the adult results are not directly interchangeable. The student survey asks about behavior during the previous seven days, whereas the adult report records consumption on a given day. Both nevertheless indicate that eating fruit or vegetables at least sometimes is more common than consistently meeting formal intake recommendations.
Breakfast and water patterns
In 2023, only 27% of U.S. high school students reported eating breakfast every day during the previous seven days. The rate was 32% among male students and 22% among female students. Among Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students, 14% reported eating breakfast every day.
Plain-water intake was more common than daily breakfast. Overall, 54% of students drank plain water at least three times per day during the previous seven days. The figures were 51% for male students and 56% for female students, while 73% of Asian students met this survey measure.
| 2023 high school student measure | All students | Selected subgroup figures |
|---|---|---|
| Ate breakfast every day | 27% | Male: 32%; female: 22% |
| Drank plain water at least three times per day | 54% | Male: 51%; female: 56%; Asian: 73% |
| Ate fruit or drank 100% fruit juice at least daily | 55% | Male: 58%; female: 52% |
| Ate vegetables at least daily | 58% | Male: 56%; female: 59%; Asian: 71% |
These measures capture reported patterns, not the nutritional quality of a student’s full diet. Breakfast frequency, water frequency, fruit, and vegetable frequency each describe a specific behavior in the survey period.
Adults meeting federal recommendations
Meeting a federal recommendation is a stricter benchmark than consuming a food category on a particular day. In the CDC’s 2019 analysis, 12.3% of U.S. adults met federal fruit recommendations and 10.0% met federal vegetable recommendations. Median daily frequencies were 1.0 for fruit and 1.6 for vegetables.
The state-level figures below show how the share meeting recommendations varied in 2019. They are presented as reported, without assuming that differences reflect one single cause.
| Location | Met fruit recommendation | Met vegetable recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 10.3% | 6.7% |
| Connecticut | 16.1% | 14.1% |
| New York | 15.3% | 14.2% |
| Kentucky | 8.8% | 5.6% |
| Oregon | 12.9% | 12.2% |
| California | 13.6% | 11.3% |
| District of Columbia | 14.5% | 12.8% |
Among these locations, Connecticut had the highest reported shares in both columns, while Kentucky had the lowest. The recommendation data are from 2019 and should not be treated as a measurement of current intake.
Source: CDC, Adults Meeting Fruit and Vegetable Intake Recommendations — United States, 2019.
Food security and access in U.S. households
Healthy eating statistics also need to account for whether households can obtain enough food. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2024 estimates found that 86.3% of U.S. households were food secure throughout the year, meaning they had consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. The remaining 13.7%, or 18.3 million households, were food insecure at some time during the year.
Within the 2024 household estimates, 8.3%, or 11.1 million households, had low food security. Another 5.4%, or 7.2 million households, had very low food security. These categories describe household food access, not a direct nutritional score for meals.
Households with children experienced different rates. In 2024, 18.4% of households with children were food insecure. Food insecurity among children affected 9.1% of households with children, representing about 3.3 million households. Among households with income below the official poverty line, 39.4% were food insecure, compared with 7.9% of households at or above 185% of the poverty line. Food insecurity affected 36.8% of households with children headed by a female without a spouse.
The pattern places diet choices in an economic context: the ability to select healthy foods depends partly on reliable access to enough food in the first place.
Sources: USDA Economic Research Service, Food Security in the U.S. — Key Statistics & Graphics and Household Food Security in the United States in 2024.
The global cost of a healthy diet
The Food and Agriculture Organization and partner reporting provide a global affordability perspective. In 2024, the global average cost of a healthy diet was 4.46 purchasing-power-parity dollars per person per day. About 2.6 billion people worldwide could not afford a healthy diet, and food insecurity affected 28% of the global population. The global cost of a healthy diet rose 3.7% in 2024.
Africa faced particularly broad unaffordability: more than 1 billion people there could not afford a healthy diet, equivalent to about two-thirds of the continent’s population. These are global estimates for 2024, expressed using purchasing-power-parity dollars rather than ordinary market exchange rates.
For an earlier comparison, FAO reported that in 2022, 35.4% of the world’s population, or 2.826 billion people, could not afford a healthy diet. The regional shares were 64.8% in Africa, 35.1% in Asia, and 27.7% in Latin America and the Caribbean. The reported 2022 global average cost was 3.96 purchasing-power-parity dollars per person per day, ranging from 5.34 dollars in Eastern Asia to 2.96 dollars in Northern America.
| Global healthy-diet affordability measure | 2022 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Average cost per person per day | $3.96 PPP dollars | $4.46 PPP dollars |
| People unable to afford a healthy diet | 2.826 billion | About 2.6 billion |
| Share affected by food insecurity | Not supplied in this comparison | 28% of the global population |
The 2022 and 2024 figures come from different FAO publications and should be interpreted within their stated measurement years. They provide context for cost and affordability, not a personal food budget or a forecast of future prices.
Sources: FAO, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025 and FAO, Healthy diets remain unaffordable for a third of the world’s population.