Household Food Insecurity Rate

USDA's Economic Research Service classifies a household as food insecure when it cannot reliably afford enough food for an active, healthy life. In 2024, 13.7% of U.S. households met that definition. That works out to roughly one in seven households, and about one in five children lived in one of them.

The jump from 10.2% in 2021 to 13.7% in 2024 tracks the rollback of pandemic-era SNAP emergency allotments, which expired for most states in early 2023. Most of the move landed in 2022; the rate has held roughly flat since.

The policy change was the shock. The underlying condition — household budgets that can't absorb a grocery-price increase without something giving — was already in place. SNAP Food Stamp Enrollment remains well above 2019 levels even as headline unemployment stays low. The two indicators describe the same household from different angles.

Food is the most elastic line in a household budget. Rent has to be paid. The car payment has to be paid. Groceries can be cut. When The Squeeze tightens and The Buffer runs dry, this is the indicator that picks up the slack. This series ends here: USDA terminated the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement in September 2025, so 2024 is the last year measured.