Do Americans spend more on meals out than on groceries? In dollars, yes, and the money has leaned toward the counter since at least 1997. The figures here come from the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) Food Expenditure Series and payroll data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The short answer
In 2025, food away from home made up 56.3% of US food spending: $1.41 trillion of $2.51 trillion. Food at home took the other $1.10 trillion. So more than half of every food dollar went to food away from home, about 1 in 1.78 (our arithmetic).
What ERS counts
These totals are not household budgets alone. ERS measures “U.S. food spending by consumers, businesses, and Government entities,” in inflation adjusted 2025 dollars. Its documentation defines food away from home as “Prepared meals and snacks for immediate consumption” and food at home as “Packaged food for off-premise consumption.”
That makes food away from home much wider than restaurants. Alongside full service and limited service restaurants and drinking places, ERS counts food sold at hotels and motels, retail stores, recreational places, and schools and colleges, plus food sold on trains, in hospital and nursing home cafeterias and in office buildings. A school lunch and a stadium hot dog both land on the counter side of the ledger.
The long view
After adjusting for inflation, spending on food away from home grew from $818 billion in 1997 to $1.41 trillion in 2025. Food at home grew from $738 billion to $1.10 trillion over the same period. The counter was already ahead in 1997, with about 53% of the total, but the gap widened from about $80 billion to about $310 billion (our arithmetic). Between 2024 and 2025, total food spending rose from $2.49 trillion to $2.51 trillion after accounting for price changes.
| Year | Food at home | Food away from home |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | $738 billion | $818 billion |
| 2025 | $1.10 trillion | $1.41 trillion |
Source: USDA ERS, Food Expenditure Series (inflation adjusted, 2025 dollars).
The household view
A second ERS measure looks at consumers only. In 2025, US consumers spent 9.7% of their disposable personal income on food, down from 10.4% in 1997. The share spent on food away from home rose from 4.3% to 4.9%, while the share spent on food at home fell from 6.1% to 4.8%. ERS notes that the fall in the food at home share more than offset the rise in the away from home share. For consumers, the two shares now sit almost level, with eating out a tenth of a point ahead.
For how often people cook, see how many people in the US cook.
The jobs
Food services and drinking places employed 12,393,000 people in September 2026, seasonally adjusted, according to BLS. That is a preliminary figure, and BLS marks the September total for all nonfarm payroll jobs, 159,044,000, as preliminary too. On those numbers, food services and drinking places held 7.8% of US payroll jobs, about 1 in 13 (our arithmetic).
The old question
The original version of this page was titled “The Recession Is Not Killing Restaurants.” This version makes no claim about restaurant spending in 2008 to 2010, or about whether the economy is in a recession now; none of the series saved for it covers either question. What the saved data do show is a long lean toward the counter, from 1997 to 2025.
Last checked: 2026-10-22, against the USDA ERS Food Expenditure Series (2025 data, updated June 2026) and BLS Current Employment Statistics (September 2026, preliminary). This article was machine-checked against the sources above and has not been expert-reviewed. Spotted an error or a newer public figure? Please tell us on our contact page with the article link and we will review it.
Sources
- S1 Zeballos E, Sinclair W. “Total U.S. food spending reached $2.51 trillion in 2025.” USDA Economic Research Service, Charts of Note, June 11, 2026. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/114212 . Accessed Oct 22, 2026.
- S2 Zeballos E, Sinclair W. “U.S. consumers spent 9.7 percent of their disposable personal income on food in 2025.” USDA Economic Research Service, Chart Gallery, June 1, 2026. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/76967 . Accessed Oct 22, 2026.
- S3 USDA Economic Research Service. “Food Expenditure Series: Documentation.” Updated July 28, 2026. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-expenditure-series/documentation . Accessed Oct 22, 2026.
- S4 US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics: food services and drinking places, all employees (CES7072200001), and total nonfarm, all employees (CES0000000001), seasonally adjusted, September 2026 (preliminary). https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES7072200001 . Accessed Oct 22, 2026.