Forum on Child and Family StatisticsFood Insecurity
Households are classified as food insecure if, at some time during the year, they had difficulty providing enough food for all their members because of a lack of resources. In households with children, food insecurity indicates at least one person in the household experienced reductions in dietary quality or variety and, in some cases, disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake. However, household food insecurity may be experienced differently across household members. Adults often protect their children from food insecurity and, as a result, some households with children report food insecurity for only the adults.12 In other households, caregivers report that they were unable to provide adequate, nutritious food for their children at times. In these households, both adults and children experienced food insecurity. Food insecurity is associated with poor health outcomes in adults.13 Therefore, the effects of food insecurity on adults may affect children in the households as well, even when they themselves are not food insecure.
Figure 9: Prevalence of food insecurity among single female-headed households with children by food security status of adults and children, 2009–2022
NOTE: Food-insecure households with children are those with low or very low food security among adults, children, or both. At times, they were unable to acquire adequate food for active, healthy living for all household members because they had insufficient money and other resources for food. Households with food-insecure children are those with low or very low food security among children. In these households, eating patterns of one or more children were disrupted, and their food intake was reduced below a level considered adequate by their caregiver.
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey Food Security Supplements, 2009–22; tabulated by U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service and Food and Nutrition Service.
- The prevalence of food insecurity for in single female-headed households with children (represented as bars in the figure) has historically been higher than the prevalence for all households with children (represented as the line in the figure).14
- In about half of food-insecure single female-headed households with children, only the mother was food insecure. In the other half of those households, the children also were food insecure. This pattern holds for each year between 2009 and 2022.
- The prevalence of food insecurity in single female-headed households was about 35% from 2009 to 2014, before decreasing to 30% in 2015. The prevalence rate decreased again to 28% in 2018 and to 24% in 2021. In 2022, the prevalence of food insecurity for single female-headed households increased to 33%, the first increase since 2009.
12 Hanson, K. L., & Connor, L. M. (2014). Food insecurity and dietary quality in U.S. adults and children: A systematic review. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 100(2), 684–692.
13 Gundersen, C., & Ziliak, J. P. (2015). Food insecurity and health outcomes. Health Affairs, 34, 1830–1839.
14 Rabbitt, M.P., Hales, L.J., Burke, M.P., & Coleman-Jensen, A. (2023). Household Food Security in the United States in 2022 (Report No. ERR-325), U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics
