More Households Had Difficulty Meeting Their
Food Needs
Mark
Nord
J. Nord
The food security of the Nation’s
households—their consistent access to enough
food for active, healthy living—declined from
2003 to 2004. Although 88 percent of U.S. households
were food secure throughout the year in 2004, the
percentage of households that were food insecure
at least some time during the year rose from 11.2
percent in 2003 to 11.9 percent in 2004. Over the
same period, the percentage that were food insecure
with hunger also increased, from 3.5 to 3.9 percent.
The condition “food insecure with hunger”
means that, at times during the year, one or more
household members were hungry because of insufficient
money and other resources for food.
The increase in the prevalence
of food insecurity from 2003 to 2004 appears to
have occurred in most regions and most types of
households. The prevalence of food insecurity increased
for households with children, households without
children, women living alone, men living alone,
households with incomes above the Federal poverty
line ($19,157 for a family of four in 2004), and
households in the Midwest and South. All other categories
and regions also showed increases, except for Hispanic-headed
households, but were within ranges that could have
resulted from sampling variation.
In both 2003 and 2004, the prevalence
of food insecurity was about twice as high for households
with children as for households without children.
Single women with children were particularly likely
to have difficulty putting enough food on the table—about
one in three were food insecure in each year. Single
men with children were also more likely than the
average U.S. household to be food insecure, although
not as likely as single women with children. Households
consisting of two or more adults with no children
present and households with elderly members were
less likely than the average U.S. household to have
reported difficulties meeting their food needs.
Black and Hispanic households had rates of food
insecurity more than twice those of White non-Hispanic
households.
Food insecurity is strongly linked
to income. Households with incomes below the Federal
poverty line were about four times as likely to
be food insecure as households with incomes above
that level. Food insecurity was somewhat more prevalent
in the South and West than in the Northeast and
Midwest.
Household
Food Security in the United States, 2004,
by Mark Nord, Margaret Andrews, and Steven Carlson,
ERR-11, USDA, Economic Research Service, October
2005.
The ERS Briefing Room on Food Security in the United States.
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