We were recently made aware of the comparison of food insecurity statistics from Canada and the US in the recent Toronto Sun column, “These are Canada’s ‘Hunger Games” (Sept 15) that cited PROOF’s summary of Statistics Canada’s recent food insecurity statistics and suggested that food insecurity is far more prevalent in Canada than in the US.
This is not true due to the considerations needed to make an appropriate comparison and we responded with letters to the editor and author (below). We also provided calculations for comparable estimates, showing that when using the Canadian approach to classifying food insecurity for both countries, the percentage of people living in food-insecure households is greater in the US.
Our letter to the editor (sent to, but not published by the Toronto Sun)
Clarifying food insecurity numbers
Re “These are Canada’s ‘Hunger Games” (Sept 15): Citing PROOF, our research program at the University of Toronto studying food insecurity, Dr. Charlebois pointed out Canada’s high rate of food insecurity, the inadequate or insecure access to food due to financial constraints.Although Canada and the US use the same survey questions to determine if a household is food insecure, the statistics from the US are not directly comparable to those in Canada. There are several differences in how we classify and report food insecurity, the biggest being that the US applies a more conservative threshold for determining if a household is food insecure. That means some households considered food secure in the US would be classified as food insecure in Canada.
Applying Canada’s classification threshold to the US data, we calculate that in 2023, 23.7% of Americans lived in a food-insecure household, compared to 22.9% of Canadians. While food insecurity is high in Canada and requires immediate policy attention, it is not higher than in the US.
Since food insecurity is measured using the same 18-item Household Food Security Module (HFSSM) in both countries, how the prevalence of food insecurity compares between Canada and the US is an important question. However, there are key differences in how food insecurity status is determined using the module in the two countries and reported by the national statistical agencies that prevent the direct comparison of the two statistics. These differences must be taken into consideration.
We calculated that 23.7% of Americans lived in a food-insecure household in 2023 when applying Canada’s classification scheme and focusing on the person as the unit of analysis. Comparing this US estimate to the 22.9% of Canadians living in a food-insecure household in 2023 based on Statistics Canada’s Canadian Income Survey (CIS) release shows that the rate of food insecurity is not higher in Canada than in the US.
This difference raises questions about the effectiveness and appropriateness of adopting US-style policy responses for addressing food insecurity in Canada, such as food stamps, national school lunch program, or food prescriptions.
Technical Note
We used the public use microfile for the 2023 US Current Population Survey (CPS), the survey used by the USDA for monitoring household food insecurity, applying Canada’s classification approach and less conservative threshold for household food insecurity status (households affirming at least one of the 18 HFSSM items considered food insecure in Canada).
Since the USDA reports food insecurity at the household level as their primary statistic in their reports, i.e. the percentage of food-insecure households and Statistics Canada reports food insecurity at the individual level, i.e. percentage of people living in food-insecure households, the unit of analysis also had to be matched.
Classification differences
The classification approach and thresholds used in Canada were established by Health Canada when Canada adopted the HFSSM and informed by Canadian research and in consultation with independent Canadian researchers and the USDA, who first developed the survey module.
Food insecurity exists on a continuum of severity and Canada uses a less conservative threshold in recognition of a large body of research showing that even less severe forms of food insecurity are detrimental to health.
In the US, the threshold for food insecurity requires indications of actual disruptions of normal eating patterns or reductions in food intake, but USDA documents and US literature does acknowledge the health implications of less severe indications of food insecurity without disruptions to intake, like households worrying about running out of food before there is money to buy more.
Like other indicators or standards in other fields, the two countries can have different thresholds that are appropriate for their respective countries and contexts. Understanding these contexts is critical for considering comparisons.
Reading list
If you are interested in this topic, check out the following resources or connect with us.
Men F & Tarasuk V. (2022). Classification differences in food insecurity measures between the United States and Canada: practical implications for trend monitoring and health research. The Journal of Nutrition, 152(4), 1082-1090.
- This article describes how the classification method and thresholds differ between the US and Canada, summarizes the history of the classification schemes and supporting research, and highlights the importance of distinguishing marginally food insecure households from food secure households for both research and monitoring, due to the health implications.
Men F & Li T. (2023) How household food insecurity is classified matters for monitoring and research. CRDCN research-policy snapshots.
- We produced a Research Policy Snapshot as part of the Canadian Research Data Centre Network’s series highlighting policy-relevant research using Statistics Canada microdata. It summarizes the above research article in a one-page brief.
Li T, Fafard St-Germain AA, Tarasuk V. (2023) Household food insecurity in Canada, 2022. Toronto: Research to identify policy options to reduce food insecurity (PROOF).
- In PROOF’s annual reports, we provide national and provincial estimates of food insecurity prevalence at the household level. Pages 9-13 of our 2022 report provide additional information on how food insecurity is measured and monitored in Canada and various issues related to the interpretation and comparison of different statistics and sources, including unit of analysis and levels of severity.
Health Canada. Determining food security status.
- Health Canada’s overview of how household food insecurity status is determined in Canada using the HFSSM. Marginal food insecurity was officially considered as part of food insecurity by Health Canada in 2020.
Rabbitt, M. P., Reed-Jones, M., Hales, L. J., & Burke, M. P. (2024). Household food security in the United States in 2023 (Report No. ERR-337). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
- The USDA’s latest report on household food insecurity in the US, using data from the US Current Population Survey, found that 13.5% of households in the US were food insecure in 2023, based the US classification scheme. The household prevalence estimates from the US are not comparable to Canadian estimates without additional calculations using the appropriate survey data.
PROOF. (2024) New data on household food insecurity in 2023.
- PROOF summarized data on food insecurity in Canada in 2023 from Statistics Canada’s public release articles and data tables based on the 2022 Canadian Income Survey. While the CIS 2022 provides information on income and poverty using 2022 tax files, hence its name, questions about food insecurity were asked in the following year, from January to June 2023. Since food insecurity status is determined by the report of food deprivation in the past 12 months, we think it is more appropriate to characterize the food insecurity statistics as representative of 2023. Links to Statistics Canada’s releases are in the post.
