Key findings

• 15.4% of U.S. Hispanics (over 6.7 million people) experienced food insecurity in January 2023.
  
  
• One out of every three Hispanics in Vermont and Indiana report not having enough food to eat.
  
  
• In 10 states, at least 20% of Hispanic residents struggled with food insecurity in January.
  
  
• Hispanics are currently twice as likely to experience food insecurity as Whites.
  
  

Study overview

Gathering and eating together as a family are staples of Hispanic culture, but in many U.S. households, it’s been a scarce commodity lately. 

The Anhelo editorial team analyzed recent U.S. Census Bureau data and found more than 15% of Hispanic American households struggled with food insecurity in January 2023. That rate is twice as high as the rate for White households (7.5%).

In some states, one out of every three Hispanic or Latino households had insufficient amounts of food in January.

Survey respondents were asked to choose between the following options as to what best described the food in their home over the last seven days:

• Often not enough to eat
• Sometimes not enough to eat
• Enough food, but not always the kinds wanted
• Enough of the kinds of food wanted

For this study, food insecurity is defined as those reporting either “often” or “sometimes” not having enough to eat.

Hispanic Food Insecurity by State

The chart below shows the percentage of Hispanic residents in each state who reported sometimes or often not having enough food to eat in the household.

Click on the image to enlarge in a new tab

More than 15% of Hispanics nationwide struggle with food insecurity. That number reaches one in three Hispanic residents in Vermont and Indiana, and more than one in five in Rhode Island, Wyoming, Connecticut, Missouri, Maryland, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma.

Hispanic Food Insecurity by City

Food insecurity among Hispanics can exist on an even more local level.

• For example, just 12.5% of Hispanic residents in Texas report food insecurity, but that number jumps to 19.1% in Houston and 17.5% in Dallas.
  
  
• Conversely, only 2.8% of Hispanics in Philadelphia report not having enough food to eat compared to more than 20% across Pennsylvania as a whole. 

The chart below shows the level of food insecurity among Hispanics in 10 of the largest cities in the U.S.

Click on the image to enlarge in a new tab

Hispanic households facing higher rates of food insecurity than White households

Food insecurity was reported by 7.5% of Whites nationwide. The rate of food insecurity among Hispanics was higher than that of White households in 41 states. 

In Vermont, the rate of food insecurity among Hispanics reached 35% but was just 6.8% among Whites. That type of disparity was nearly as drastic in Indiana (33.1% to 9.9%), Rhode Island (24.3% to 6.3%) and many other states. 

Large disparities existed even in states with some of the largest populations of Hispanics, such as California (19.9% to 6.8%) and Arizona (18.3% to 8.1%).

Health Effects of Food Insecurity

Research shows a link between food insecurity and a number of health effects including:

• Delayed development in young children
  
  
• Increased risk of chronic illnesses and conditions like asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure
  
  
• Behavioral problems such as hyperactivity, anxiety and aggression in school-age children 
  
  

Metodología

The data used for this report came from the U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey, specifically Week 53 data released January 25, 2023.

The US Census Bureau survey used the designation "Hispanic or Latino, any race." For simplicity, we chose to use "Hispanic" in this piece to represent the demographic population.