In this brief, we use data from the Urban Institute’s Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS) to estimate the share of adults experiencing household food insecurity in 2025. We also assess changes in household food insecurity among working-age adults (ages 18 to 64) between 2019 and 2025.
We find food insecurity remained high in 2025, with nearly 1 in 4 adults reporting difficulty affording adequate food.
Why This Matters
Passed in July 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) is set to make unprecedented cuts to the nation’s safety net, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid. At a time when many families are struggling to afford everyday expenses, these cuts could place families at risk of further hardship.
As OBBBA is implemented, this analysis provides a baseline for monitoring changes in food insecurity. It can also help fill knowledge gaps resulting from the federal government’s decision to stop collecting food security data in selected federal surveys.
Key Takeaways
- In December 2025, nearly 1 in 4 (24.2 percent) adults ages 18 and older reported experiencing household food insecurity in the last 12 months. Working-age adults were more than twice as likely to report food insecurity as those ages 65 and older, though previous studies have found there are wide disparities within the senior population.
- Household food insecurity among working-age adults has been significantly elevated since 2023 and remained high in 2025 at 27.7 percent. The WBNS has documented significant volatility in household food insecurity in recent years, following the rapid expansion and contraction of federal economic assistance to households and acute inflation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey, December 2019 to December 2025.
Notes: Because of an update to our methodology, estimates differ slightly from those published in previous reports. See the data and methods appendix in the brief for details.
*/**/*** Estimates differ significantly from Dec. 2025 at the 0.10/0.05/0.01 level, using two-tailed tests.
- Nearly one-third of working-age adults living with children (32.0 percent) reported experiencing food insecurity in 2025. Among these households, approximately half reported very low food security—a severe form of food insecurity in which household members may skip meals or go without food for an entire day.
- The impact of cuts to SNAP and Medicaid under OBBBA will fall predominantly on families with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). More than half (51.0 percent) of working-age adults in families at this income level reported experiencing food insecurity in 2025.
- Food insecurity increased between 2024 and 2025 among families with moderate incomes. More than one-third (34.2 percent) of working-age adults with family incomes between 200 and 400 percent of FPL reported food insecurity in 2025, up from 30.6 percent in 2024. These findings reflect broad affordability challenges facing families across income levels.
How We Did It
This analysis draws on data from the December 2025 round and prior rounds of the WBNS, a nationally representative, annual survey of adults that monitors individual and family well-being in the context of a changing safety net.
More than 7,500 adults ages 18 to 64 participated in each survey round between 2017 and 2024. In 2025, the sample was expanded to include 2,500 adults ages 65 and older, for a total sample size of more than 10,000 participants.
