However, as Statista’s Felix Richter reports, that has come at the expense of personal saving, which dropped sharply in 2022, when the personal saving rate, i.e. the share of their disposable income that people weren’t spending on consumption, taxes or interest payments, dropped to the lowest level since the financial crisis.

You will find more infographics at Statista

During the pandemic, when generous stimulus checks met limited consumption possibilities, Americans had saved more money than ever before, with the personal saving rate peaking at 32 percent in April 2020 and remaining above the pre-pandemic trend until the end of 2021.

That’s when inflation started to bite, and people started utilizing these excess savings to support their spending.

According to calculations made by economists at the San Francisco Fed, American households accumulated $2.1 trillion in excess savings between March 2020 and August 2021, that is they saved $2.1 trillion more than they would have been expected to based on the pre-pandemic trend of personal saving. In September 2021, people began saving less than they would have been expected to, meaning those excess savings were gradually drawn down. Three inflation-plagued years later, Americans have burned through those excess savings, and then some.

At the end of September 2024, Americans had collectively saved $291 billion less since March 2020 than they would have been projected to if the pandemic had never happened.

Now, the inflation crisis under the Biden-Harris administration has intensified this issue even more. It was especially families with children that suffered during Covid-19 as school lunches disappeared and they have been hardest hit again in 2022 and 2023.

As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, the USDA just published its latest report on the issue, showing that last year, almost 18 percent of households where children lived were food insecure, up from 17.3 percent in 2022 and 12.5 percent in 2021. The negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic as well as the inflation crisis on food security still stayed behind those of the Great Depression between 2008 and 2011, however.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Looking at all household, 13.5 percent were classified as food insecure by the USDA most recently, defined as experiencing difficulty to meet basic food needs in the span of one year, including the inability to buy enough food, buy balanced meals or eat regular portion sizes as well as skipping meals, experiencing hunger and worry about food. In 2021, this share had been 10.2 percent.

While the share of food-insecure households rose in the U.S. in 2023, so did the share of adults living in them – from 13.5 percent to 14.3 percent. The share of U.S. children living in a food-insecure household rose as well from 18.5 percent to 19.2 percent. However, according to the USDA, it was often the adults in food-insecure households who restricted food intake, while attempting to shield children – especially younger ones – from negative effects.

Household with children number around 36 million in the U.S., around 27 percent of all households, while children themselves make up around 22 percent of U.S. residents at 72 million.