Questions & Answers About Household Food Security in the United States, 1999

Q1. What are the main findings of the report?
During the year ending in April 1999, 90 percent of U.S. households were food secure, 10 percent were food insecure, and in 3 percent of households, food insecurity was so severe that people were hungry at times during the year because they couldn't afford enough food. The prevalences of food insecurity and hunger in the U.S. have declined substantially since they were first measured in 1995.

Q2. What does food security mean at the household level?
Food security means that household members had access at all times to enough food for an active healthy life.

Q3. And food insecurity?
Food insecurity means that a household had limited or uncertain availability of food, or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (i.e., without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other unusual coping strategies). Many food insecure households were worried or unsure whether they would be able to get enough to eat, and most reduced the quality, variety, or desireabilty of their diets. They may have resorted to emergency food sources or other extraordinary coping behaviors to meet their basic food needs.

Q4. We all get hungry now and then. What does hunger mean in this report?
The physiological phenomenon is the same, but hunger as described in this report is involuntary hunger that results from not being able to afford enough food. People are not counted as "hungry" for these statistics if they were hungry only because they were dieting to lose weight, or were fasting for religious reasons, or were just too busy to eat.

Q5. How many people were hungry in the Nation?
That can't be answered precisely from these data. About 7.8 million persons - 5.1 million adults and 2.7 million children - lived in households classified as food insecure with hunger. Not everyone in those households was hungry, however. Households are classified based on whether anyone in the household was hungry because of lack of resources. In this survey, it is not possible to ask separately about the experience of each person in the household. Most of the adults in these households were hungry at times during the year, but most of the children were not. Children - especially younger children - are usually protected from hunger until hunger among adults reaches quite severe levels. Work is underway to estimate the prevalence of hunger among children.

Q5. Where do we get information about food insecurity and hunger in U.S. households?
The statistics in this report are based on data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) - the same survey that provides data for the Nation's monthly unemployment statistics and annual poverty rates. The Census Bureau conducts the CPS monthly for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, interviewing about 50,000 households each month. Once each year, after completing the labor-force interview, households are asked a series of questions about food expenditures, use of Federal food programs, and behaviors and experiences known to characterize households having difficulty meeting their food needs.

Q6. What questions are asked about food insecurity and hunger?
Food security status is assessed by a series of 18 questions that ask about behaviors and experiences across a wide range of severity of food insecurity. For example, the least severe question asks whether respondents worried that their food would run out before they got money to buy more. A question at a somewhat more severe level asks whether they were unable to afford to eat balanced meals. At midrange are questions on reducing food intake, such as whether adults in the household cut the size of meals or skipped meals because there wasn't enough money for food. Questions tapping the more severe levels of food insecurity ask whether children skipped meals because there wasn't enough money for food, and whether adults did not eat for a whole day because there wasn't enough money for food.

Q7. How are food insecure households identified from these questions?
Households that answer yes to 3 or more of the 18 core food security questions are classified as food insecure. At a minimum, food insecure households have affirmed all of the following three items or else items indicating more severe conditions:

• They worried whether their food would run out before they got money to buy more
• The food they bought didn't last, and they didn't have money to get more
• They couldn't afford to eat balanced meals

Q8. And how are households with hunger identified?
In addition to affirming the three items listed in Q7, households with hunger will have affirmed both of the following items or else items indicating more severe conditions:

• Adults ate less than they felt they should
• Adults cut the size of meals or skipped meals in three or more months

Q9. What kinds of households are most vulnerable to food insecurity and hunger?
Single mothers with children registered the highest levels of food stress. Nearly 30 percent of these households were food insecure, and 8 percent were food insecure with hunger. Black and Hispanic households also had rates of food insecurity and hunger far above the national average. Income, of course, was a major factor in food insecurity and hunger. More than one-third of households with income below the Federal poverty line were food insecure, and 12 percent were food insecure with hunger.

Q10 Were there any geographical patterns in the prevalence of food insecurity and hunger?
The West and South Census Regions registered somewhat higher prevalences than did the Northeast and Midwest. Food insecurity and hunger were also substantially more prevalent in central cities and in nonmetropolitan areas than in suburban areas.

Q11. What are the national trends in food insecurity and hunger?
From 1995, when the first CPS Food Security Survey was fielded, to 1999, the number of food insecure households declined by about 12 percent, and the number food insecure with hunger declined by 24 percent. Adjusted for population growth, the declines amounted to 16 percent and 28 percent, respectively. The declines were quite widespread, including households of all compositions, all racial/ethnic groups, and all geographic areas. The only exception was that the prevalence rate of food insecurity increased for lower income households and was unchanged for higher-income households. Overall food insecurity declined in spite of these income-specific changes because incomes improved over the period, leaving a much smaller proportion of households in the low-income category.

Q12. Does this mean that the decline in food insecurity resulted from increased income?
The evidence is consistent with that explanation. The report does not provide detailed analysis of this issue, but other research by ERS has found that the relationship between food insecurity and income (adjusted for inflation) was unchanged from 1995 to 1999. Thus, the decline in food insecurity could be accounted for entirely by the increase in household incomes. The prevalence of hunger, however, declined even for lower income households.

Q13. Where can I get more information on food security in U.S. Households?
The ERS briefing room on domestic food insecurity and hunger has further information as well as links to reports, research publications, and other web sites with related information.

Page editor: webadmin@ers.usda.gov
Updated: September 7, 2000