Overview of Household Food Security in 2009
- 85.3 percent of U.S. households were food secure throughout the year in 2009. They had consistent access to adequate food for all household members.
- The remaining 14.7 percent were food insecure (17.4 million households). Food-insecure households had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources.
- About a third of food-insecure households (6.8 million, or 5.7 percent of U.S. households) had very low food security, a severe range of food insecurity in which the food intake of some household members was reduced and normal eating patterns were disrupted due to limited resources.
- Children were food insecure at times during 2009 in 4.2 million households (10.6 percent of households with children). Although children are usually shielded from disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake, children along with adults experienced instances of very low food security in 469,000 households (1.2 percent of households with children) in 2009.
- Rates of food insecurity were substantially higher than the national average among households with incomes near or below the Federal poverty line, households with children headed by single parents, and Black and Hispanic households.
- Food insecurity was more common in large cities than in rural areas and in suburbs and other outlying areas around large cities.
- The typical (median) food-secure household spent 33 percent more for food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and composition in 2009.
- Fifty-seven percent of food-insecure households in the survey reported that in the previous month they had participated in one or more of the three largest Federal food and nutrition assistance programs.
Overview of Trends
- The food security of U.S. households, when measured over the entire year (the statistics described above), remained essentially unchanged from 2008 to 2009, with the prevalence of food insecurity at both levels of severity remaining at the highest percentage observed since nationally representative food security surveys were initiated in 1995.
- During the final 30-day period covered by the 2009 survey—from mid-November to mid-December—fewer households had very low food security (3.3 percent) than during the corresponding period in 2008 (3.6 percent). Improvements were most notable for low-income households, households with children, Black non-Hispanic households, and households in the Northeast Census region.
Prevalence of food insecurity and very low food security in U.S. households, 2000-09
Source: Calculated by USDA, Economic Research Service based on Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement data.
How Was the Study Conducted?
Data for the ERS food security reports come from an annual survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau as a supplement to the monthly Current Population Survey. USDA sponsors the annual survey, and USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) compiles and analyzes the responses. The 2009 food security survey covered about 46,000 households comprising a representative sample of the U.S. civilian population of 118 million households. The food security survey asked one adult respondent in each household a series of questions about experiences and behaviors that indicate food insecurity, such as being unable, at times, to afford balanced meals, cutting the size of meals because they lacked enough money for food, or being hungry because they lacked enough money for food. The food security status of the household was assigned based on the number of food-insecure conditions reported.
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