Economic Research Report No. (ERR-155) 41 pp

September 2013

Household Food Security in the United States in 2012

An estimated 14.5 percent of American households were food insecure at least some time during the year in 2012, meaning they lacked access to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The change from 14.9 percent in 2011 is not considered statistically significant. The prevalence of very low food security was unchanged at 5.7 percent. Errata:

This report, originally released in September 2013, was reissued with the following corrections:

  • On September 5, 2013, the summary figure was revised with corrected data.
  • On October 31, 2013, Table 4 on page 19 was corrected to include three missing zeroes at the end of each number in the first column of the table.

Keywords: food security, food insecurity, food spending, food pantry, soup kitchen, emergency kitchen, material well-being, SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Food Stamp Program, National School Lunch Program, WIC, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children

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