{"id":238994,"date":"2025-05-15T12:58:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T16:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?post_type=short-read&p=238994"},"modified":"2025-06-06T11:21:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T15:21:54","slug":"5-facts-about-food-costs-in-america","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2025\/05\/15\/5-facts-about-food-costs-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"5 facts about food costs in America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"This
(Jim Watson\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How Americans fill their shopping carts at the grocery store is partly driven by prices. About six-in-ten U.S. adults say food costs are extremely or very important to them when deciding what food to buy, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With egg prices at a near-record level<\/a> and higher tariffs<\/a> taking effect, here are five facts about food costs in the United States, based on Center surveys and federal data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How we did this<\/summary>\n

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to explore Americans\u2019 attitudes about and experiences with food costs. Data on what Americans prioritize when buying food and how they view food costs comes from a Center survey of 5,123 U.S. adults conducted from Feb. 24 to March 2, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone who took part in the survey is a member of the Center\u2019s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Interviews were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP\u2019s methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the questions used for this analysis<\/a>, along with responses<\/a>, and the survey methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Methodological information about the other Center surveys referenced in this analysis can be found by following the links provided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data on food insecurity in America comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Economic Research Service. It is based on a national food security survey of roughly 40,000 households, conducted as an annual supplement to the U.S. Census Bureau\u2019s Current Population Survey. The latest national data is from 2023; state-level data is available for the 2021-23 time span. Read more about its methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Findings about how U.S. food prices have changed in recent years draw on Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers<\/a> data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It is not seasonally adjusted. The most recent data is from April 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UPDATE (June 6, 2025): BLS <\/em>announced\u00a0in early June<\/em><\/a> that it used a reduced collection sample to calculate its April inflation figures, and stopped collecting CPI data in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Provo, Utah, due to\u00a0<\/em>decreased resources and staffing<\/em><\/a>. The agency said these changes \u201chave minimal impact on the overall all-items CPI-U index, but they may increase the volatility of subnational or item-specific indexes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Costs are a key factor in many Americans\u2019 food choices. <\/strong>A majority of U.S. adults (62%) say how much food costs is extremely or very important to them when deciding what to buy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Smaller shares of Americans say the healthiness of the food (52%) and how convenient the food is to get and prepare (47%) are highly important factors when deciding what to buy. How the food tastes ranks the highest of the four considerations we asked about: 83% say this is extremely or very important to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Majorities across many demographic groups see food costs as highly important. But Americans in lower-income households are especially likely to prioritize this. Three-quarters in this group say cost is key when deciding what food to buy, compared with much smaller shares of middle-income (61%) and higher-income (39%) Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Americans say healthy food has become more expensive for them over the past few years, <\/strong>according to the same Center survey from March. Nine-in-ten U.S. adults say this, including 62% who say it\u2019s become a lot <\/em>more expensive. Few say the price of healthy food hasn\u2019t changed (6%) or has become a little or a lot less <\/em>expensive (3%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About seven-in-ten Americans (69%) say the increased cost of healthy food makes it more difficult for them to eat healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inflation data shows that nearly every food item the government tracks has become more expensive in recent years. <\/strong>As of April, the overall price of food at home<\/a> was up 2.0% compared with the same time last year, according to the latest Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers<\/a> (CPI-U) data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The cost of food at home has climbed 28.3% since January 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a> hit the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/em><\/strong> As inflation soars, a look at what\u2019s inside the consumer price index<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are six distinct food and drink categories in the CPI-U. The \u201cmeats, poultry, fish and eggs\u201d category has seen the fastest inflation since January 2020: Prices are up 36.4%. Egg prices alone have more than doubled over this time frame, rising 116.1%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides eggs, the cost of margarine (+59.6%), frozen noncarbonated juices and drinks (+58.1%), crackers, bread and cracker products (+42.3%), canned vegetables (+35.5%), and dairy (other than ice cream, cheese and milk) and related products (+30.8%) also saw steep inflation since January 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the caffeine-dependent, coffee now costs, on average, 33.4% more than before the pandemic, while the BLS\u2019s price index for the \u201cother beverage materials including tea\u201d category has risen by 26.9%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price indices for coffee and several other products \u2013 including chicken, milk, uncooked beef roasts, and candy and chewing gum \u2013 remain among their highest levels recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A growing share of U.S. households are \u201cfood-insecure,\u201d meaning they sometimes cannot pay for the food they need. <\/strong>At some point in 2023, 13.5% of U.S. households were food-insecure, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a> (USDA). This includes 5.1% \u2013 or roughly 6.8 million households \u2013 that had very low<\/em> food security that year, meaning that some household members\u2019 normal eating patterns were disrupted at times. The share of food-insecure households was higher in 2023 than in the previous three years: 12.8% reported experiencing this in 2022, as did 10.2% in 2021 and 10.5% in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the USDA defines \u2018food insecurity\u2019<\/summary>\n

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines food insecurity<\/a> as \u201climited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A household is considered<\/a> food-insecure if, at some point during the year, there isn\u2019t enough food for all members of the household due to financial constraints or other barriers to food access. Households with low food security<\/strong> are defined as those with \u201creduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet.\u201d Households with very low food security<\/strong> are those where someone living in the household reports disruptions to their normal eating patterns and reduced food intake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USDA categorizes households based on responses to a series of survey questions<\/a> about food-related behaviors and experiences. Read more about the USDA\u2019s categorization of households by food security levels<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Food-insecurity is especially prevalent in homes with kids present: 17.9% of households with children under 18 reported being food-insecure at some point in 2023, compared with 11.9% of households without minors. For single-woman households with children, 34.7% were food-insecure at some point in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Differences also emerge by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n