Trace grocery-price growth against personal income since 1970. Follow the national food-budget share in USDA data, then compare BLS food-at-home spending across Census regions and divisions.
Choose a Census region or division. Map color shows the percentage-point change since the first overlapping BLS snapshot. The detail panel also shows the current share.
Values use one 0–350% scale across all years.
Map key: state borders are geographic context only. Each color represents a Census region or division statistic; no value is measured at the state level.
Each point shows the percent change from the prior year’s annual average. Income is nominal personal income per person.
The food-at-home price index rose in most year-over-year comparisons. The annual rate varied; this line shows yearly change, not cumulative growth.
USDA’s current Food Expenditure Series tracks food-at-home, food-away-from-home, and total food spending as shares of disposable personal income.
National average, not an individual budget. The USDA series starts in 1997. It gives the long national view; the BLS map above provides a separate regional comparison from survey averages.
Annual means of the monthly, not-seasonally-adjusted CPI-U “Food at home” series. National series: CUUR0000SAF11. Regional series: Northeast, Midwest, South, West. CPI is a price index, not dollars spent.
Personal income per capita, annual dollars, not seasonally adjusted. “Personal income” includes multiple income sources; it is not household wages, take-home pay, or median income. The chart compares each year’s nominal income growth with that year’s food-price change.
The chart uses the current Food Expenditure Series normalized file for household final users, 1997–2025. Download the source CSV. USDA reports the share of disposable personal income spent on food at home, food away from home, and total food. This is a national aggregate series, not the average household’s personal share. See the USDA methodology.
Table 1800, Census regions and Table 2700, Census divisions. BLS classifies food by where it is purchased: food-store purchases are “at home,” while restaurant takeout and delivery are “away from home,” even if eaten at home. The map shows the ratio of mean annual food-at-home spending to mean annual income before taxes, and change in that share from the first snapshot (2017–2018). The player includes seven overlapping two-year periods through 2023–2024. This ratio of means is not a typical household’s budget. See the geographic table index and the BLS glossary.
Census regions and divisions. State outlines come from the us-atlas TopoJSON project, based on U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundaries. Outlines help orient; the statistics belong to the grouped Census geography.