Food insecurity in households with children fell 2.6 percentage points in 2015

The year 2015 marked the most significant annual improvement in food security since the Great Recession ended in 2009. In 2015, 16.6 percent of households with children were food insecure, down from 19.2 percent in 2014, meaning that 2.2 million fewer children in 2015 lived in households that had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources. Members within a household may be affected differently by food insecurity. In about half of the food-insecure households with children in 2015, food insecurity was only reported among adults. But, in 7.8 percent of all U.S. households with children in 2015, both children and adults lacked consistent access to adequate, nutritious food at some time during the year. The 7.8-percent prevalence of food insecurity among children in 2015 was a decline from 9.4 percent in 2014 and down from a peak of 11.0 percent in 2008. This chart appears in the Amber Waves article, “Food Insecurity Among Children Declined to Pre-Recession Levels in 2015,” released November 7, 2016.