About 13.5 percent of all U.S. households were food insecure in 2023, based on the most recent nationwide data from the USDA. That figure climbs higher for specific groups: 18.4 percent of households with children experienced food insecurity in 2024, affecting 6.7 million families and 7.3 million children.
What Food Insecurity Actually Means
The USDA measures food insecurity through a household survey that asks questions about skipping meals, running out of food, not being able to afford balanced meals, and similar experiences over the past year. If a household reports three or more of these conditions, it’s classified as food insecure. This doesn’t necessarily mean someone is going hungry every day. It means that at some point during the year, the household struggled to consistently access enough food because of money or other resources.
Within that category, there’s a more severe tier called “very low food security.” This applies to adult-only households that affirm six or more indicators, or households with children that affirm eight or more. At this level, people are regularly cutting meal sizes, skipping meals entirely, or going whole days without eating.
How Rates Differ by Race and Income
Food insecurity doesn’t fall evenly across the population. Black households experience food insecurity at roughly twice the national rate. Between 2016 and 2021, 21 percent of Black households were food insecure, compared with 11.1 percent of all U.S. households. The gap widens further at the severe end: 8.5 percent of Black households had very low food security, nearly double the 4.3 percent national average.
Among Black households with children under 18, the rate reached 25.1 percent, compared with 14.5 percent for all households with children. And for households earning below 130 percent of the poverty line (roughly $39,000 for a family of four), food insecurity hit 40.2 percent for Black families versus 33.4 percent overall. Income alone doesn’t explain the disparity. Structural factors like neighborhood access to grocery stores, wealth gaps, and employment instability compound the problem.
Older Adults Living Alone Face Higher Risk
In 2022, 9.1 percent of households with at least one adult aged 65 or older were food insecure at some point during the year. That number jumped to 11.4 percent for older adults living alone, a group that often contends with fixed incomes, mobility limitations, and social isolation that makes accessing food more difficult. Very low food security affected 3.4 percent of households with older adults, meaning hundreds of thousands of seniors regularly went without adequate meals.
Urban and Rural Areas Are Both Affected
Food insecurity is sometimes framed as a rural problem, but the data tells a more complicated story. In 2023, households in principal cities (the core urban areas of metro regions) had a food insecurity rate of 15.9 percent, the highest of any geographic category. Rural households were close behind at 15.4 percent. Suburban and exurban areas near cities had the lowest rate at 11.7 percent.
The drivers differ by location. In rural communities, fewer grocery stores, longer travel distances, and lower average wages play major roles. In cities, high housing costs eat into food budgets, and neighborhoods without full-service grocery stores (sometimes called food deserts) force residents to rely on convenience stores with limited fresh options and higher prices.
Food Prices Push More People Into Insecurity
Rising food costs are one of the most direct triggers of food insecurity. Research from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations found that a 10 percent increase in food prices is associated with a 3.5 percent rise in moderate or severe food insecurity globally, holding all other factors constant. In the U.S., grocery prices rose sharply between 2020 and 2023, and food insecurity rates climbed in tandem.
The effect is especially harsh for children. Across low- and middle-income countries, a 5 percent increase in real food prices raised the likelihood of child wasting (dangerously low weight for height) by 9 percent and severe wasting by 14 percent among children under five. While the U.S. has stronger safety nets than many of these countries, the underlying mechanism is the same: when food costs more, the most vulnerable people eat less or eat worse.
How SNAP and Other Programs Help
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest federal effort to reduce food insecurity. Research using rigorous statistical methods has confirmed that receiving SNAP benefits reduces the likelihood of being food insecure or very food insecure. Household food security tends to deteriorate in the days leading up to a SNAP payment and improves afterward, a cycle that reflects how tightly many families’ food access is tied to the timing of benefits.
Past increases to SNAP benefit amounts reduced food insecurity among low-income households. When those temporary increases expired, food spending dropped and rates of food insecurity and very low food security rose again. This pattern makes clear that benefit levels matter: even modest changes in the dollar amount of assistance can shift whether a family has enough to eat at the end of the month.
Households With Children Are Hit Hardest
The 18.4 percent food insecurity rate for households with children is significantly higher than the national average. Within those 6.7 million households, 7.3 million children lived in situations where the children themselves, not just the adults, were directly affected by insufficient food. Parents in food-insecure homes often shield children by eating less themselves, but in millions of cases that buffer isn’t enough.
Childhood food insecurity carries consequences that extend well beyond hunger in the moment. Children who don’t get consistent, adequate nutrition are more likely to have trouble concentrating in school, experience developmental delays, and develop chronic health problems later in life. For families hovering near the threshold, a single financial shock like a car repair, a medical bill, or a lost shift at work can tip the balance from managing to not having enough food in the house.