Family meal frequency varies substantially across U.S. households. In the 2007–2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 49.6% of people living in households of at least two people reported at least seven family meals at home in the previous week, while 18.0% reported two or fewer. These figures describe a specific survey period and household population, not a current national estimate. Family Meal Frequency and Association with Household Food Availability in United States Multi-Person Households provides the central benchmark.
Contents
- How often U.S. households eat family meals
- Frequency by age, race, and ethnicity
- Education, partnership, income, and birthplace
- What foods were available at home
- Family meals and the household food environment
- Changes and benchmarks over time
How often U.S. households eat family meals
The NHANES 2007–2010 distribution places household family meals into three broad weekly bands. Among people living in U.S. households with at least two people, 18.0% reported 0–2 family meals at home in the previous week. Another 32.4% reported 3–6 family meals, and 49.6% reported at least 7. The source measures meals eaten at home with family members; the categories should not be treated as a seven-day average for every household.
| Family meals at home in the previous week | Share of people in multi-person households |
|---|---|
| 0–2 | 18.0% |
| 3–6 | 32.4% |
| At least 7 | 49.6% |
Other studies offer related but differently defined benchmarks. In a nationally representative sample of 882 U.S. adults living with family members, 53% reported eating family meals at least seven times per week in 2009. In a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults living with family, 89% ate family dinners at least five days per week in the 2014 survey. Because the sample definitions, questions, and thresholds differ, these percentages are useful comparisons rather than a single time series. The two studies are Family meals and body weight in US adults and Family dinner frequency, settings and sources, and body weight in US adults.
Adolescent data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth show a more detailed distribution for family dinners in a typical week. Zero dinners were reported by 8.3% of adolescents; 7.3% reported 1–2, 13.4% reported 3–4, 28.1% reported 5–6, and 42.0% reported seven. Those figures come from Frequency of family dinner and adolescent body weight status and apply to 1997, not to adolescents today.
Frequency by age, race, and ethnicity
Within the NHANES 2007–2010 analysis, the share reporting at least seven family meals at home differed by the age of the household reference person. The rate was 42.4% among reference persons aged 18–25, 49.6% among those aged 26–45, and 44.7% among those aged 46–64. It rose to 67.2% among reference persons aged 65 or older. These are subgroup percentages among U.S. multi-person-household residents, and age here refers to the household reference person rather than every person eating the meal.
Race and ethnicity categories in the same 2007–2010 source also showed variation. At least seven family meals at home were reported by 58.5% of Hispanic residents, 49.7% of non-Hispanic White residents, 31.7% of non-Hispanic Black residents, and 59.4% of residents in the source’s other non-Hispanic race category. The labels and categories are those used in the underlying analysis; they should not be interpreted as explanations for the differences.
For a compact comparison, the reported percentages are:
| Subgroup | At least 7 family meals at home per week |
|---|---|
| Age 18–25 reference person | 42.4% |
| Age 26–45 reference person | 49.6% |
| Age 46–64 reference person | 44.7% |
| Age 65 or older reference person | 67.2% |
| Hispanic residents | 58.5% |
| Non-Hispanic White residents | 49.7% |
| Non-Hispanic Black residents | 31.7% |
| Other non-Hispanic race category | 59.4% |
All values in this section are from Family Meal Frequency and Association with Household Food Availability in United States Multi-Person Households for 2007–2010.
Education, partnership, income, and birthplace
The 2007–2010 NHANES results also report family-meal frequency across education levels. At least seven family meals at home were reported by 63.2% of household reference persons with less than ninth-grade education, 55.5% of those with ninth- through 11th-grade education, 47.6% of those with a high-school diploma or GED, 47.4% of those with some college education, and 47.9% of college graduates.
Partnership status showed another spread. The at-least-seven-meals share was 52.8% among married or partnered households, 39.7% among divorced, separated, or widowed households, and 37.3% among never-married households. These categories describe household reference-person characteristics in the cited analysis, not the circumstances of every household member.
Income-to-poverty ratio groups were reported as 55.9% for households below 1.3, 49.3% for households from 1.3–3.5, and 45.5% for households above 3.5. The measure is a ratio category, so these figures do not provide dollar income thresholds in the supplied results.
Birthplace was associated with a difference in the same dataset: 47.3% of U.S.-born household reference persons reported at least seven family meals at home per week, compared with 60.0% of foreign-born reference persons. These are descriptive subgroup estimates for 2007–2010, not causal findings.
What foods were available at home
Family meal frequency appeared alongside measures of food availability in multi-person households. During 2007–2010, fruit was always available at home for 71.5% of people in U.S. multi-person households, while dark-green vegetables were always available for 58.5%. Salty snacks were always available for 45.2%, and sugar-sweetened beverages were always available for 42.8%. Sugar-sweetened beverages were available most of the time for another 14.2%.
When “always” and “most of the time” were combined, fruit was available at that level for about 89.8% of people, and dark-green vegetables were available at that level for about 81.3%. At the other end of the scale, rarely or never having salty snacks available was reported by 11.7%, while rarely or never having sugar-sweetened beverages available was reported by 26.0%.
The study also summarized a healthy-food-availability score based on four healthier availability conditions. A score of 4 of 4 applied to 4.7% of people in U.S. multi-person households, a score of 2 applied to 55.4%, and a score of 0 applied to 4.1%. These scores summarize the household food environment; they do not count meals or servings.
Family meals and the household food environment
The relationship between food availability and meal frequency was visible in subgroup comparisons. When fruit was always or most of the time available, 51.1% reported at least seven family meals at home per week. When fruit was available only sometimes, rarely, or never, the corresponding share was 36.4%.
For dark-green vegetables, 51.7% reported at least seven family meals when the vegetables were always or most of the time available, compared with 40.4% when they were available sometimes, rarely, or never. The pattern was different in scale but similar in direction for snack and beverage availability: 56.5% reported at least seven family meals when salty snacks were rarely or never available, versus 48.7% when salty snacks were always, most of the time, or sometimes available. For sugar-sweetened beverages, the figures were 57.0% when they were rarely or never available and 47.0% when they were always, most of the time, or sometimes available.
The study’s adjusted results express these relationships as odds of being in a higher family-meal-frequency category. The odds were 2.08 times as high when fruit was always or most of the time available versus less often available. For dark-green vegetables, the odds were 1.66 times as high under the more frequent availability condition. Each one-unit increase in the healthy-food-availability score was associated with 1.44 times the odds of being in a higher family-meal-frequency category. These are associations reported for 2007–2010; they do not establish that food availability caused more family meals.
Changes and benchmarks over time
Several sources provide historical benchmarks, but their populations and measures differ. In households with working-age adults and children under 17, family meals increased from 5.8 per week in 2007–08 to 6.3 per week in 2009–10. Family meals prepared at home in those same households increased from 5.4 to 5.8 per week. Among working-age adults in multi-person households, family meals prepared at home increased from 5.3 per week to 5.7 per week over the same period. These estimates were reported by the USDA Economic Research Service in More family meals prepared at home following the 2007-09 recession.
Adolescent trends moved differently in another study. Among 14–15-year-old males in the Growing Up Today Study, mean family dinners declined from 5.3 per week in 1996 to 4.6 in 2008. Among 14–15-year-old females, the mean declined from 5.0 per week to 4.4. The results come from Secular trends in family dinner frequency among adolescents; they cover the study’s participants and should not be generalized to every U.S. adolescent without qualification.
Finally, the Simply Dinner screening sample reported an intervention-period benchmark. Parent-and-child dinners together averaged 5.14 days per week before the intervention and 5.53 days per week afterward, in the 2016–2018 screening phase. The result is from Supporting Family Meal Frequency: Screening Phase Results from the Simply Dinner Study. It is a screening-sample comparison, not a national estimate, and its measurement period is later than the NHANES figures above.