Household-Level Income-Related Food Insecurity is Less Prevalent in Canada than in the United States

Food security-consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life-is essential for health and good nutrition. We examine differences between Canada and the United States in the prevalence and distribution of household-level, income-related food insecurity as a step toward understanding effects of economic, policy, and program factors on food security. We use nationally representative data on the food security of Canadian households from the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 2.2 (CCHS 2.2) and United States households from the 2003, 2004, and 2005 Current Population Survey Food Security Supplements (CPS-FSS). The two surveys used the same 18-item Household Food Security Survey Module, but Health Canada and the United States Department of Agriculture combined responses in somewhat different ways to determine the food security status of households. We examine effects of the methodological differences. Then, applying the Health Canada classification protocol to the data from both countries, we compare Canadian and US food insecurity rates nationally and for selected subpopulations. Food insecurity was substantially less prevalent in Canada than in the United States (9.0% vs 14.1% using the Canadian adult food security measure). The difference was larger in households with children, for which the prevalence rate of food insecurity in Canada was about half that in the United States. These differences reflected primarily differences in food insecurity prevalence rates within each income adequacy range rather than differences in income distribution between the two countries.