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14% of all UK adults and their households have experienced food insecurity in latest survey: A survey by the Trussell Trust has revealed that 14% of all UK adults and their households had experienced food insecurity in the 12 months to the middle of 2022, with 47% of these households including children under the age of 16. This says the Trust equates to around 11.3 million people.

The Hunger in the UK research is the “most in-depth study on hunger, its causes, impacts and who is affected, in the UK to-date and evidences the main driver as a lack of money", according to Ipsos who conducted the project.

The research was made up of a national survey polling almost 4,000 respondents as well as surveys distributed through food banks across the UK. It highlighted that food insecurity extends to working households with one in five people using food banks in the Trussell Trust network reporting being in paid employment and yet still not able to make ends meet. The survey also found that those experiencing food insecurity are more than twice as likely to have experienced difficult circumstances or events such as domestic violence, bereavement, or illness/disability than those who are food secure (49% versus 23%), and those who use foodbanks are 'significantly' more likely to have experienced multiple adverse events, found the study.

In recent years the number of food parcels distributed to adults and children by food banks in the Trussell Trust network have grown significantly from 862,563 in 2017/18 to almost 1,846,650 in 2022/23, found the research, with the number of parcels handed out to children  growing from 491,799 to 1,139,553.

The areas most affected by food insecurity

One of the survey's key findings was that in the most deprived areas of the UK food insecurity rises to almost 30%. Wales was also found to have a greater prevalence of food insecurity (20%) compared to England (14%), Northern Ireland (16%) and Scotland (17%), with the North East having the most instances in England (26%). This compares to just 6% in the South East, 8% in the South West and 8% in the East Midlands.

Most at risk groups

The research also looked at who is the most at risk of food insecurity, with more than a third of renters experiencing food insecurity compared to 6% of people with mortgaged properties. This rises even higher for those living in socially rented homes (45%) and compares to three in 10 private renters (29%).

Further findings revealed that the number of disabled people experiencing food poverty is almost three times higher than non-disabled people (26% versus 10%) while people from an ethnic minority group were almost twice as likely to suffer food insecurity than white people (24% versus 13%). Similarly, twice the proportion of LGBTQ+ people are likely to experience hunger than people who are heterosexual (27% versus 13%).

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