Food insecurity affects millions of U.S. households, including families with children who rely on school meals and other supports. In 2024, 18.3 million households experienced food insecurity at some point during the year, while public-school meal participation remained high in the 2024–25 school year. These measures describe household conditions and school operations separately, so they should not be read as a direct count of students experiencing hunger at school.
Contents
- National scale of food insecurity
- Households with children
- Very low food security and children
- Income and poverty thresholds
- Race, geography, and regional differences
- School meal access
- Operational barriers in public schools
National scale of food insecurity
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA ERS) reported that 86.3% of U.S. households—115.7 million households—were food secure throughout 2024. The remaining 13.7%, or 18.3 million households, were food insecure at some time during the year. USDA ERS, “Food Security in the U.S. – Key Statistics & Graphics”
USDA ERS separates food insecurity into levels of severity. In 2024, 8.3% of households, or 11.1 million households, had low food security. Another 5.4%, or 7.2 million households, had very low food security. Across all food-insecure households, 47.9 million people lived in households affected by food insecurity, including 33.8 million adults. A total of 12.3 million adults lived in households with very low food security.
The national household food-insecurity rate was 13.7% in 2024, compared with 13.5% in 2023. USDA ERS reported that this difference was not statistically significant, meaning the available estimate does not establish a meaningful year-to-year change.
Households with children
Households with children under 18 faced higher food-insecurity rates than households without children. In 2024, 81.6% of households with children—29.9 million households—were food secure. Food insecurity affected 18.4%, or 6.7 million, of these households. USDA ERS, “Food Security in the U.S. – Key Statistics & Graphics”
The household measure also distinguishes whether food insecurity reached children. In 9.3% of households with children, or 3.4 million households, food insecurity affected adults only. In 9.1%, or 3.3 million households, both children and adults were food insecure. About 0.9% of households with children—318,000 households—reported that at least one child experienced reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns.
Household structure was associated with different 2024 food-insecurity rates. Households with children under age 6 had a rate of 17.8%. Married-couple families with children had a rate of 10.9%, while households headed by a female with no spouse had a rate of 36.8%. Households headed by a male with no spouse had a rate of 23.8%, as did other households with children. Households with no children under 18 had a rate of 11.9%. USDA ERS, “Household Food Security in the United States in 2024”
Very low food security and children
Very low food security represents a more severe household condition than food insecurity overall. In 2024, 5.5% of households with children had very low food security. The rate was 4.7% among households with children under age 6 and 2.7% among married-couple families with children.
The rate was higher among households headed by one adult without a spouse. Female-headed households had a 12.9% very-low-food-security rate, compared with 5.8% for male-headed households. USDA ERS, “Household Food Security in the United States in 2024”
USDA ERS estimated that 7.3 million children lived in food-insecure households in which children and adults were both food insecure during 2024. Separately, 751,000 children, or 1.0% of U.S. children, lived in households where at least one child experienced very low food security.
Among households with children, 9.1% had one or more food-insecure children in 2024. The rate was 5.2% for married-couple households and 19.6% for female-headed households. Households with a Black, non-Hispanic reference person had a 17.4% rate of food insecurity among children. USDA ERS, “Household Food Security in the United States in 2024”
These figures are annual household measures. They are not a direct count of students who experience hunger during the school day. The child-specific household measure classifies a household as having food insecurity among children when it reports two or more child food-insecure conditions.
Income and poverty thresholds
Food insecurity was closely associated with household income relative to the official poverty threshold. In 2024, households below 100% of the poverty threshold had a 39.4% food-insecurity rate. The rate was 38.3% among households below 130% of the threshold and 32.8% among households below 185%. Among households at or above 185% of the poverty threshold, the rate was 7.9%. USDA ERS, “Household Food Security in the United States in 2024”
The USDA ERS statistical supplement provides additional detail for households with children and low-income family structures:
| Household group, 2024 | Food-insecurity rate |
|---|---|
| Below 130% of the poverty line | 38.3% |
| Below 130%, with children under 18 | 43.3% |
| Below 130%, with children under age 6 | 40.4% |
| Low-income married-couple families | 35.1% |
| Low-income female-headed households, no spouse | 51.2% |
| Low-income male-headed households, no spouse | 38.4% |
USDA ERS, “Statistical Supplement to Household Food Security in the United States in 2024”
Among households below 130% of the poverty line, those with children under 18 had a 43.3% food-insecurity rate. The rate was 40.4% for households with children under age 6. Low-income female-headed households without a spouse had the highest rate in this comparison, at 51.2%, while low-income married-couple families had a rate of 35.1%.
Race, geography, and regional differences
USDA ERS reported different household food-insecurity rates by the race and ethnicity of the household reference person. In 2024, households with a Black, non-Hispanic reference person had a 24.4% rate, and households with a Hispanic reference person had a 20.2% rate. The rate was 10.1% among households with a White, non-Hispanic reference person and 11.9% among households with an other, non-Hispanic reference person. USDA ERS, “Household Food Security in the United States in 2024”
Geography also showed variation. Households in principal cities had a 16.0% food-insecurity rate, while households outside metropolitan areas had a 15.9% rate. The rate was 11.9% in metropolitan areas outside principal cities.
At the regional level, the South had a 15.0% household food-insecurity rate in 2024, compared with 12.2% in the Northeast. These statistics describe household food security in the named geographies; they do not identify the rate for individual school districts or schools.
School meal access
School meal participation provides context for how public schools operate programs that can help provide food during the school day. The National Center for Education Statistics reported that 91% of public schools participated in USDA meal programs during the 2024–25 school year. The corresponding figures were 92% during 2023–24 and 88% during 2022–23. NCES, “More than a Quarter of Public Schools Now Offer All Students Free School Meals Through State or Local Initiatives”
In 2024–25, 29% of public schools operated a state or local initiative offering all students free lunches and/or breakfasts. For comparison, 21% offered all students free meals through a state or local initiative in October 2022. These are school-operation figures, not estimates of the share of students who were food insecure.
Only 4% of public schools allowed students to buy meals at school outside the USDA school-meal program during 2024–25. Among public schools providing meals, 67% collected household applications for free- or reduced-price meals.
Operational barriers in public schools
Application processes can affect how families connect with meal benefits. During the 2024–25 school year, 39% of public schools reported difficulty convincing parents to submit free- or reduced-price meal applications. Among public schools that collected applications, 55% identified parent reluctance to submit them as a challenge.
Staffing was another reported barrier. Thirty-eight percent of public schools said school food-service staff shortages were an operating challenge during 2024–25. NCES, “More than a Quarter of Public Schools Now Offer All Students Free School Meals Through State or Local Initiatives”
Taken together, the statistics show two related but distinct parts of the issue: household food insecurity affected 18.4% of U.S. households with children in 2024, while public schools reported extensive USDA meal-program participation and continuing administrative and staffing challenges in 2024–25. No 2026 value is implied by these measurements.