Income and Household Size: Their Effects on Food Consumption

Excerpts from the report Preface: The principal purpose of this study was to determine as precisely as possible the influence of differences in family income, by major income classes, on food consumption at home. One of the practical uses of this kind of information is in forecasting future markets with known or assumed changes in population, family income, and household size. This information is also useful in planning merchandising, advertising, and promotional programs by food producers, manufacturers, and distributors. Another need for these data lies in the area of public policy relating to food supplies and their distribution. A further need is in broadening and updating information on consumption-income response relationships found in earlier studies. The 1955 Household Food Consumption Survey provided data from which elasticities of demand with respect to income for all food and major classes of food were computed. This survey afforded the opportunity for determining the effect of income differences on food consumption under the then prevailing social and economic conditions. Because of the substantial effect household size has on the amount of food consumed per person in a household, the effects of this variable were evaluated separately.