Household Food Security in the United States, 1999

This report provides the most recent data on the food security of American households. Preliminary estimates indicate that 89.9 percent of American households were food secure in 1999, up 0.6 percentage point from 1995. Some 31 million Americans were food insecure--they did not have assured access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. In 3 percent of all households, one or more household members were hungry, at least some time during the year, because of inadequate resources. Between 1995 and 1999, the number of food-insecure households fell by 12 percent, and the number with hunger due to inadequate resources fell by 24 percent. Households with incomes between 50 and 130 percent of the poverty line were the only household types among the 30 subgroups studied to show a higher rate of food insecurity in 1999 than in 1995. Appendixes contain response frequencies of households for items on the Food Security Scale, background about the Food Security measurement project, and a comparison of prevalence rates of food insecurity and hunger across years.