Food security rates are high for elderly households

Food Review, Summer-Fall, 2002 by Mark Nord

Households that include elderly persons are generally more food secure than other U.S. households. However, not all elderly persons have achieved food security--access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. Analysis by USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) of data from a nationally representative food security survey conducted in September 2000 shows that 94 percent of households with an elderly person (age 65 or older) present were food secure throughout the year. The remaining 6 percent of households with elderly were food insecure. At some time during the previous year, these households were uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food to meet basic needs of all their members because they had insufficient money or other resources for food (see box).

One in four of the food-insecure elderly households (1.5 percent of all elderly households) were food insecure to the extent that one or more household members were hungry, at least some time during the year, because they could not afford enough food. The other three-fourths of food-insecure elderly households obtained enough food to avoid hunger by using a variety of coping strategies, such as eating less varied diets, participating in Federal food assistance programs, or getting emergency food from community food pantries. These rates of food insecurity and hunger among elderly households were about half those of households with no elderly members.

Elderly households registered nearly identical rates of food insecurity and hunger in 1999 and 2000. Two-year average rates for 1999-2000 are reported in the remainder of this article to increase the reliability of the statistics, especially as pertains to smaller sub-populations of the elderly.

Elderly Are More Food Secure Than Nonelderly

The lower rate of food insecurity of elderly households compared with nonelderly households is, in part, a result of a lower poverty rate among the elderly. Food insecurity is, by definition, a condition that results from constrained resources, and the elderly have, for several decades, registered lower rates of poverty than the nonelderly. In 2000, for example, the U.S. Census Bureau reported a poverty rate of 10.2 percent for people age 65 and older, compared with 11.4 percent for people under age 65. (Poverty and income statistics reported in this article take into account all cash income, including Social Security benefits.)

Lower poverty rates, however, account for only a small part of the low rate of food insecurity among the elderly. At all income levels, food insecurity was much less prevalent among households consisting entirely of elderly persons than among households with no elderly persons (fig. 1). Food insecurity rates for mixed-age households--those with both elderly and nonelderly present--fell between those of the other two groups. The prevalence of food insecurity with hunger--the more severe range of food insecurity--followed a similar pattern except that rates for mixed-age households were nearer those of households consisting entirely of elderly persons (fig. 2).

More stable income probably contributes to the higher rates of food security among the elderly compared with other age groups. ERS research shows that irregular income, and especially sudden drops in income, contributes to food insecurity Social Security and pensions provide relatively stable income for many elderly persons. Also, as reported by the Institute for Research on Poverty, a larger proportion of elderly than nonelderly own their own homes and have substantial financial assets. Thus, the elderly have more of their income available for food, and they are better able to smooth their consumption if income or other needs fluctuate.

Rates of food insecurity and hunger among households consisting entirely of elderly persons remained almost unchanged from 1995, when the first nationally representative food security survey was conducted, through 2000 (fig. 3). Over the same period, the food security of nonelderly households improved steadily as incomes rose with economic growth. Elderly persons generally depend less on the labor market for their income than nonelderly persons. As a result, the incomes of elderly persons, especially the lower income elderly, who are more vulnerable to food insecurity, are not affected much by changes in the economy.

Elderly Couples Were Most Food Secure

Rates of food insecurity and hunger among elderly households depended to a considerable extent on household composition, household income, race and ethnicity, and area of residence. Households consisting of two or more elderly persons--almost all of them married couples--were by far the most food secure. Only 2.4 percent of such households were food insecure, and 0.6 percent were food insecure with hunger (table 1). Rates of food insecurity were higher among elderly men living alone (6.9 percent) and elderly women living alone (6.6 percent) and higher still for mixed-age households (7.9 percent). All of these rates, however, were well below those of households with no elderly members (11.6 percent).