Resource type
Research, Analysis & Background
Research
Research type
Food Security
This report provides statistics on food security in U.S. households throughout 2022 based on the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement data collected in December 2022.
Key Findings
- An estimated 87.2 percent of U.S. households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2022, with access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households (12.8 percent, statistically significantly higher than the 10.2 percent in 2021 and the 10.5 percent in 2020) were food insecure at least some time during the year, including 5.1 percent with very low food security (statistically significantly higher than the 3.8 percent in 2021 and the 3.9 percent in 2020).
- Very low food security is the more severe range of food insecurity where one or more household members experienced reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns at times during the year because of limited money and other resources for obtaining food. Children and adults were food insecure at times during 2022 in 8.8 percent of U.S. households with children, up from 6.2 percent in 2021 and 7.6 percent in 2020. In 2022, very low food security among children was 1.0 percent, statistically significantly higher than the 0.7 percent in 2021.
- From 2021 to 2022 there were statistically significant increases in food insecurity and very low food security for nearly all subgroups of households described in this report. In 2022, the typical food-secure household spent 15 percent more on food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and household composition.
- About 55 percent of food-insecure households participated in one or more of the three largest federal nutrition assistance programs: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); and the National School Lunch Program during the month prior to the 2022 survey.