One of the most reliable patterns in all of economics is that, as a country gets richer, the share of income its people spend on food falls.
The gap between the poorest and richest countries is enormous.
TL;DR
- In Nigeria, Kenya, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, more than 50% of consumer spending goes toward food.
- In the United States, spending on food at home was about 5.3% of the consumer budget in 2023.
- Middle-income Latin American countries such as Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico spend about 22.5%.
The cross-country figures here come from the USDA Economic Research Service, which compiles internationally comparable food expenditure shares.
The Global Spread
| wdt_ID | wdt_created_by | wdt_created_at | wdt_last_edited_by | wdt_last_edited_at | Country group | Share of spending on food |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 01/08/2026 02:05 AM | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 01/08/2026 02:05 AM | Nigeria, Kenya, Bangladesh | over 50% |
| 2 | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 01/08/2026 02:05 AM | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 01/08/2026 02:05 AM | Low-income Africa and South Asia | over 40% |
| 3 | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 01/08/2026 02:05 AM | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 01/08/2026 02:05 AM | Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala | over 30% |
| 4 | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 01/08/2026 02:05 AM | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 01/08/2026 02:05 AM | Argentina, Colombia, Mexico | ~22.5% |
| 5 | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 01/08/2026 02:05 AM | emmanuel-ashemiriogwa | 01/08/2026 02:05 AM | United States | ~5.3% (food at home) |
The pattern is consistent: as incomes rise with development and urbanization, the food share falls while spending shifts toward housing, education, healthcare, and recreation.
This relationship is old enough to have a name in economics, Engel’s Law, and it holds across almost every country.
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Where the US, UK, and Canada sit
The three core markets cluster tightly at the low end.
The United States, Switzerland, Australia, and Canada all have small food shares because disposable incomes are large.
But there is a wrinkle worth telling US readers: the household average hides steep inequality.
American households in the lowest income group spent about 31% of their income on food, while the highest earners spent a far smaller share.
So even in a rich country, the poorest families live much closer to the developing-world pattern than the national average suggests.
Things Are Still Changing…
The food share is one of the cleanest single indicators of a country’s standard of living.
A falling food share signals rising incomes and a broadening economy. A high or rising food share is an early warning that households are being squeezed, which is why food price inflation is so politically dangerous in lower-income countries.
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ELI5
In poorer countries, families spend more than half their money just on food.
In rich countries like the US and Canada, food is a small part of spending, because people earn enough to cover it easily and spend the rest on other things.
Sources:
