Disparities in food insecurity among Black and White households: an analysis by age cohort, poverty, education, and home ownership

Abstract

We use the Current Population Survey's Food Security Supplement data to investigate food insecurity disparities among Black and White households across different age groups and socioeconomic characteristics. We find that disparities in the probability of food insecurity between Black and White households vary considerably across specific socioeconomic strata, in particular education, poverty status, and home ownership. Black households are systematically more food insecure than White, even when conditioning on other attributes, and even once household heterogeneity is eliminated. Thus, factors beyond socioeconomic characteristics may be more important in determining food insecurity disparities across Black and White households.