Didn't have enough to eat
8% in 2025, about the same as 2024's 7%
How many adults didn't have enough to eat?
8% of U.S. adults said their household sometimes or often didn't have enough to eat in the past month in 2025.
How the share of adults who didn't have enough to eat has moved since 2023
Didn't have enough to eat changed little over the past year
Share of U.S. adults whose household sometimes or often didn't have enough to eat in the past month: 8% in 2025. Annual, 2023–2025.
What the share of adults who didn't have enough to eat measures
The share is U.S. adults who said their household sometimes or often didn't have enough to eat in the past month. The Federal Reserve asks this once a year in its Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking and calls it food insufficiency.
It counts adults, and it asks about one month. So it shows how many adults said their household was short of food in the month before the survey, not how many ran short at any point in the year.
It's a different measure from U.S. Department of Agriculture's household food insecurity rate, which counted households over a full year with a longer set of questions and ended after 2024.
A higher rate is worse for households.
Share of adults who didn't have enough to eat by year, 2023 to 2025
| Year | Rate (%) | Change from a year earlier (percentage points) |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | +1 |
| 2024 | 7 | 0 |
| 2023 | 7 | — |
Annual · Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED)
Counties with the highest safety net and buffer scores
There's no county figure for this measure, so this list uses the safety net and buffer part of our County Distress Index.
| Rank | County | Score (0–100) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Choctaw County, OK | 94.8 |
| 2 | Stewart County, GA | 94.2 |
| 3 | Noxubee County, MS | 94.2 |
| 4 | Hudspeth County, TX | 94 |
| 5 | Brooks County, TX | 94 |
| 6 | Lake County, TN | 94 |
| 7 | Duval County, TX | 93.9 |
| 8 | Ripley County, MO | 93.5 |
| 9 | Dunklin County, MO | 93.3 |
| 10 | Quitman County, GA | 93.2 |
Questions about not having enough to eat
What share of U.S. adults didn't have enough to eat?
In the Federal Reserve's October 2025 survey, 8% of U.S. adults said members of their household sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the past month. The 2024 share was 7%, too small a difference to call a change.
Is this the same as the food insecurity rate?
No. USDA's food insecurity rate counted households that had trouble affording food at any point in a year, using a longer set of questions. USDA ended that report after 2024, and we keep it on an archived page. The Fed asks adults one question about the past month, so the two are different measures.
What is the Fed SHED survey?
The Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) is an annual Federal Reserve survey of U.S. adults about their finances. It is taken each fall and published the following May. Answers describe conditions at the time of the survey, not a full-year average.
Sources and method for the share of adults who didn't have enough to eat
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) The share comes from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED), asked each fall and weighted by the Fed to represent U.S. adults. We use the annual figures as published, from 2023 through 2025, with no adjustment of our own. The Fed’s report (1) The Fed’s report (2)
We write with assistance from AI tools. Figures come from the data and sources named on this page.