The U.S. food-insecurity rate is down by 1 percentage point from its peak of 14.9 percent in 2011, the government said in an annual report. The current rate, based on a Census Bureau survey of 43,000 households during December 2014, is 14.05 percent, essentially unchanged from the previous year. “However, the cumulative decline from 14.9 percent in 2011 was statistically significant,” said the USDA’s Household Food Security report.
In the survey, adults were asked if at any time during the year their household did not have enough food for all its members and lacked the money or resources to acquire it.
Nearly one-fifth of households with children reported food insecurity, compared to 12 percent of households without children. Insecurity rates were highest in the South, at 15 percent, and in rural areas, at 17 percent.
A lower insecurity rate could signal lower costs for public nutrition programs. Spending on food stamps, which help poor people buy food, peaked at $80 billion in fiscal 2013 when an average 47.6 million people received benefits. At latest count, food stamp enrollment was 45.5 million.
The insecurity rate skyrocketed during the 2008-09 recession, zooming by 3.5 points in a year, and has remained above 14 percent since 2008. From 1996-2007, the rate wavered between 10 percent and 12 percent.
The U.S. poverty rate at latest measure was 14.5 percent.