Food-insecure households have difficulty providing enough food for their members because they lack resources. USDA’s Economic Research Service monitors the extent of food insecurity in U.S. households at the national and state levels through an annual U.S. Census Bureau Survey.
State-level estimates are obtained by averaging three years of data to generate a larger sample size in each state. This provides more precise estimates and more ability to detect differences across states. The national three-year average (2020-2022) was 11.2 percent of American households classified as food insecure. Of that 11.2 percent, findings ranged from 6.2 percent in New Hampshire to 16.6 percent in Alaska. Food insecurity was statistically significantly higher than the national average in six states, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas.
The prevalence of food insecurity was statistically significantly lower in 17 states, including California, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wisconsin, and many others.