Americans spend less on food than anyone else in the world

[ttt]

www.vox.com/2014/7/6/5874499/map-heres-how-much-every-country-spends-on-food


When droughts or crop failures cause food prices to spike, many Americans hardly notice. The average American, after all, spends just 6.5 percent of his or her household budget on food consumed at home. (If you include eating out, that rises to around 11 percent.)

AMERICANS SPEND A SMALLER SHARE OF THEIR BUDGET ON FOOD THAN ANYONE ELSE

In Pakistan, by contrast, the average person spends 41.4 percent of his or her household budget on food consumed at home. In that situation, those price spikes become a lot more noticeable.

The US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service keeps tabs on household expenditures for food, alcohol, and tobacco around the world.

Americans, it turns out, spend a smaller share of their household budgets on food than anyone else — less even than Canadians or Europeans or Australians:


Note that the map above is based on data for food consumed at home — the USDA doesn't offer international comparisons for eating out, unfortunately. Still, even if you do include food consumed at restaurants, Americans devote just 11 percent of their household spending to food, a smaller share than nearly every other country spends on food consumed at home alone.

Below is a chart showing percentages for a handful of select countries. This doesn't include spending on government subsidies or anything like that — it's just a measure of the fraction of household expenditures devoted to food consumed at home:


Now, to clarify, these are percentages. In an absolute sense, the United States spends more per household on food consumed at home ($2,390 per year) than, say, Nigeria ($1,343) or Russia ($1,935). But because Americans are richer, food still makes up a much smaller portion of their budgets.

Anyway, there are a few basic takeaways here:

1) Richer countries spend a smaller fraction of their income on food. This makes intuitive sense. There's an upper limit on how much food a person can physically eat. So as countries get richer, they start spending more of their money on other things — like health care, or entertainment, or alcohol. South Koreans spent one-third of their budget on food in 1975; today that's down to just 13 percent.

SOUTH KOREA SPENT ONE-THIRD OF ITS BUDGET ON FOOD IN 1975 — TODAY IT'S JUST 13 PERCENT

That said, this relationship doesn't always hold. It depends, at least in part, on what kind of food people favor, patterns of eating out, and the specific food prices and subsidy schemes in their country. Note that India spends a smaller fraction of its budget on food consumed at home than Russia, which is much richer. Likewise, South Korea spends a smaller share of its budget on food than wealthier Japan does.

2) Americans spend less than Europeans on food at home. The fact that Americans spend a smaller portion of their household budgets on food than Europeans is partly a consequence of the fact that Americans are richer. But Americans spend less on an absolute level, too.

The average American household spends $2,390 per year on food consumed at home, the USDA notes. The average German household spends $2,646 per year. The average French household spends $3,241 per year. The average Norwegian spends a whopping $4,454 per year on food.

The USDA doesn't explain the variation. Some of it likely has to do with different tax systems in Europe (here's an international comparison of food prices), as well as differences in eating out. But there are also dozens of forces making food in the United States cheap — from farm subsidies to advancements in industrial agriculture that have pushed down the price of food. (Over the years, the price of meat, poultry, sweets, fats, and oils in the United States have fallen, although the price of fresh produce has risen.)

There are fierce debates about the downsides of industrial agriculture — as well as the desirability of subsidizing agriculture. But one thing this system has done fairly well is keep the sticker price of food at the grocery store down.

3) High spending on food and malnutrition seem to go hand in hand. This is another perhaps obvious point, but worth highlighting. Poorer countries that have to spend a much larger share of their budget on food also end up with much higher malnutrition rates.

Here's an older map from Washington State University making this point (click to enlarge, although note the date is from 2008):



You can find the USDA's data on international food expenditures in this spreadsheet. (Note that there's also data on alcohol and tobacco spending — the Czech Republic comes out on top here, spending 9.3 percent of expenditures on booze and cigarettes.)

[Velar Fricative]

I would spend 100% on booze (beer) if I were Czech because their beer is amazing.

Overall, when we love processed food so much and processed food is cheaper, this isn't too surprising.

[aurora]

Aug 16, 2015 21:35:40 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I would spend 100% on booze (beer) if I were Czech because their beer is amazing.

Overall, when we love processed food so much and processed food is cheaper, this isn't too surprising.

I would actually be curious to see how the numbers would change if we took externalities and subsidies into account, especially for the highly processed food. The article mentions subsidies keeping the sticker price down, but I have no idea by how much.

[sangria]

Clearly the writers of this piece haven't looked at the monthly debits in my checking account.

[anastasia517]

I'm not at all surprised. Seeing people's grocery budgets has made me think "that's impossible" on more than one occasion. Stats Can says the average price for a dozen eggs this summer is $3.29/dozen while the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the US says it has varied between $1.96 and $2.50 in the US. Transferring kg to lbs, ground beef here is $5.80/lb vs. $4.30-$4.32/lb in the US over the past couple months.



Yes, part of this is the currency conversion but accounting for salaries it still sucks.

Canada: www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/econ155a-eng.htm

USA: data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost



And then there's this from just under 3 years ago:



According to the website numbeo.com, the average income of an American and a Canadian are approximately the same amount. Canada’s after-tax monthly income is about $3,000 which totals around $36,000per year. The U.S. sits just below Canada at approximately $2,942 per month, or roughly $35,300 per year.



Food is much more costly in Canada. One kilogram of chicken breasts costs around $6.50 in the United States, while it averages almost $11 in Canada. A mid-range, three-course meal for two in Canada ends up costing $60. In the U.S. you are only paying about $44. Finally, clothing is more expensive in Canada than in the United States. A $40 pair of Levi’s jeans in the States will run you about $55 in Canada.



From: www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/household-finances/does-it-cost-more-to-live-in-canada-or-the-us-depends-if-you-have-kids/article4617778/

[loira]

Interesting. I would have thought the UK would spend more, but I guess (in London anyway) when we're spending over half our income on rent, there isn't a lot left for food.

[alleinesein]

This doesnt surprise me based on my experiences buying groceries in the US and in India. I spent USD $90 on meat and only got 1.5lbs of bacon, 1 lb sliced turkey breast, 1 lb black forest ham, and 1 lb spanish chorizo. A small head of iceberg lettuce (a little bigger than the size of a baseball) would typically cost USD $2-$3. Apples were about USD $5 per pound. A quart of juice was $3-$4. Even eating out was on par with US prices; McDonalds value meals were between $4-$5 (don't judge....I have an unhealthy love for the McSpicy Paneer!!) Its really easy to see how even eating a very basic veg/carb diet can suck up a huge portion of your income especially when wages are low (my old coworkers in Mumbai made between $300-$500 USD a month).

[Deleted]

$2900 a year on groceries?
That's let household right? Not person.
$55 a week? That was almost the cost of formula per week for my child - I guess the other families just starved the parents.

[Deleted]

I'm confused.

It says the average American household spends $2390/month on food. That's about $200 per month. MM says that's impossible.

[katfco]

I wonder how much other countries' food costs are affected by the US demand. Qinoa prices, for example, have skyrocketed in Peru and Bolivia.

[karinothing]

Aug 17, 2015 4:45:33 GMT -5 papiercherri said:

I'm confused.

It says the average American household spends $2390/month on food. That's about $200 per month. MM says that's impossible.

Ha, not possible here. Even growing up in the 80's in a LCOL state, on a tight budget, my mom spent more than that

[lizard1131]

How many people in America are going hungry for our household average to be so low? In comparing with my friends we all spend at least $800 on food alone, not out to eat etc. Is this USDA propaganda to get us to believe there is no inflation and/or that subsidies are good?

[IIOY]

We budget pretty carefully and the one line item that makes our eyes bulge every year when we review our expenditures is groceries.

[penguingrrl]

I'm curious if they're counting single people and couples as households for that calculation. Because otherwise there's no way to feed a household on $55/week. I spend about $125-150/week on groceries for 3 meals a day 7 days a week and can't imagine being able to significantly cut that for five people. I could definitely cut a bit here or there, but not down to 1/3.

[josieposy]

Yeah that is definitely not a small line item in my budget.

[kirra]

Aug 17, 2015 4:37:59 GMT -5 @hannymaren said:

$2900 a year on groceries?
That's let household right? Not person.
$55 a week? That was almost the cost of formula per week for my child - I guess the other families just starved the parents.

Per household, but just consumed at home. Average of 6.5% of income, and it doesn't give a dollar number for food including restaurants, but that raises food to 11%. So this is just over half the total food budget.

I'm still having trouble figuring out how the numbers would work for households with children, though. I lived on $40 a week for food in a LCOL area in college and it was tight. H and I spend about $300-350 a month on food now, and I wish we could spend more.

[sfy]

Aug 17, 2015 4:45:33 GMT -5 papiercherri said:

I'm confused.

It says the average American household spends $2390/month on food. That's about $200 per month. MM says that's impossible.

[ttt]

I actually think the article is wrong. When you go to the data (here: www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-expenditures.aspx#26636, table 13) it says that in 2013, per capita food expenditures was $2,271 for at home food consumption. That figure makes a lot more sense as a per-person number.

[cap]

Aug 17, 2015 6:47:12 GMT -5 incogneato said:

I'm not surprised. I mean *I* feel like my grocery bills are high, but I also feel that good and housing are supposed to be the bulk of spending so it doesn't feel wrong to me that it is so high. Americans seem morally affronted when food isn't cheap and plentiful. Don't get me wrong- I think every human is entitled to enough nutritious food to live. I just don't understand why we as Americans seem to think that spending hundreds on technological toys is NBD but somehow fresh food that requires land, manpower, transportation, water, etc, should be dirt cheap. That's not how it works, but that seems to be the American attitude much of the time. I think other places around he world have a more realistic view of the value of food and why it costs money to get it.

ETA- a lot of my rambling up there concerns beef, especially. I get frustrated at the American expectation that a daily pound of cheap beef is every Americans God given right. Beef has a high environmental cost and SHOULD be expensive and we should all eat less of it.


I have had no sleep or coffee so if that was gibberish, just scroll in by.

As someone who works in horticulture, with a husband in agronomy, I agree.  Then there are a lot of other screwed-up attitudes, like that they want the produce to be perfect, but not contain any :gasp:: pesticide residues.  

[KB]

How are these numbers possible? We are a family of 3 and there is no way I could get away with under $100 a week in groceries if we ate all meals at home. Meat and dairy prices drive that even higher. I feel like I'm missing something here.

[msmerymac]

$43/week/person seems more reasonable.

I think groceries are the 1 thing people can sort of control and the one expense that's always there. You buy groceries more frequently than you pay your electric bill. So it's the thing most people really try to control, although it represents a small overall amount, comparatively.

[kitty]

Aug 17, 2015 4:45:33 GMT -5 papiercherri said:

I'm confused.

It says the average American household spends $2390/month on food. That's about $200 per month. MM says that's impossible.

It is per person, if you look at the linked USDA spreadsheet.