The term is “food hardship.” Either people do not have resources to feed themselves or their children in cases when this term is used. These Americans say they did “not enough to eat” sometimes or often in the previous seven days. The problem has worsened over the course of the pandemic. The percentages of how prevalent this is from state to state vary widely.

Data collected by the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey between August 19 and September 14 show that 22,632,000 adults fall into the category of those who live in households where they do not have enough to eat. That is 10% of American adults. Almost 12% of American adults with children said they were in households where their children did not have enough to eat. That translates into a raw number of 11,815,000 households where “the children were not eating enough because we just couldn’t afford enough food.”

The causes of the increase in these numbers over the course of the pandemic vary. They include job loss, higher food prices and inadequate government assistance problems. Some children miss out on government food programs because they cannot go to school due to the disease.

The percentage of adults who report they live in households where children do not enough to eat is highest in the District of Columbia, at 21%. Among states, the highest, at 17%, are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Tennessee. The percentage is lowest, at 6%, in New Hampshire. It probably comes as no surprise that New Hampshire had one of the lowest unemployment rates for August, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

This is the ranking of the states where “Adults Reporting That Children in Household Weren’t Eating Enough Because Couldn’t Afford Enough.”

Location	Number	Adults Living With Children
United States	11,815,000	14%
California	1,746,000	16%
Texas	1,281,000	16%
Florida	941,000	17%
New York	751,000	16%
Illinois	499,000	15%
Georgia	475,000	17%
Ohio	356,000	13%
North Carolina	351,000	13%
Pennsylvania	344,000	12%
New Jersey	288,000	13%
Tennessee	274,000	17%
Arizona	269,000	15%
Virginia	263,000	12%
Michigan	259,000	11%
Maryland	246,000	16%
Indiana	232,000	13%
Alabama	214,000	17%
Louisiana	214,000	18%
Massachusetts	195,000	12%
Oklahoma	168,000	16%
Missouri	167,000	11%
South Carolina	160,000	12%
Washington	156,000	8%
Minnesota	150,000	11%
Colorado	149,000	10%
Kentucky	141,000	13%
Wisconsin	139,000	10%
Nevada	129,000	17%
Mississippi	121,000	15%
Connecticut	116,000	13%
Oregon	112,000	11%
Arkansas	110,000	14%
Kansas	95,000	13%
New Mexico	91,000	16%
Utah	73,000	8%
Iowa	68,000	9%
Nebraska	58,000	12%
Hawaii	54,000	15%
Idaho	37,000	8%
West Virginia	37,000	9%
Delaware	36,000	16%
Rhode Island	33,000	14%
District of Columbia	32,000	21%
Montana	32,000	12%
North Dakota	26,000	13%
South Dakota	26,000	12%
Maine	24,000	8%
Alaska	23,000	12%
New Hampshire	20,000	6%
Wyoming	20,000	14%
Vermont	11,000	8%

How to read this table: In the United States, over 22 million adults reported that their household sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat in the past seven days. This represents 10% of all adults in the country. Over 11 million adults living with children reported that “the children were not eating enough because we just couldn’t afford enough food.” This represents 14% of adults living with children. Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

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