Contents
- US chicken consumption statistics: broiler disappearance per person
- US chicken consumption statistics: chicken availability over time
- US chicken consumption statistics by age and sex
- US chicken consumption statistics by income and education
- US chicken consumption statistics by race and ethnicity
- Sources
US chicken consumption statistics: broiler disappearance per person
USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) reports broiler meat disappearance per person in retail pounds. Disappearance is a supply-based measure, not a direct count of what individuals ate. ERS describes food availability as a proxy for consumption, so these figures should be read as estimates of meat available through the food system rather than individual dietary measurements. The retail-weight series also differs from the boneless, edible availability figures and the loss-adjusted demographic estimates discussed below. Source: USDA ERS, Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook: June 2026, p. 22
For 2025, the report gives annual per-capita broiler disappearance of 102.9 retail pounds. Its quarterly values are 24.9 retail pounds in 2025 Q1, 25.7 in Q2, 26.7 in Q3, and 25.6 in Q4. These are the report’s quarterly entries, alongside the annual estimate; the annual figure is not presented here as a sum recalculated from the quarters. Source: USDA ERS, Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook: June 2026, p. 22
| Period | Broiler disappearance per person |
|---|---|
| 2025 Q1 | 24.9 retail pounds |
| 2025 Q2 | 25.7 retail pounds |
| 2025 Q3 | 26.7 retail pounds |
| 2025 Q4 | 25.6 retail pounds |
| 2025 annual | 102.9 retail pounds |
| 2026 annual projection | 106.2 retail pounds |
| 2027 annual projection | 106.8 retail pounds |
The report labels the 2025 values as estimates and the 2026 and 2027 annual values as forecasts. In the June 2026 report vintage, USDA projected per-capita broiler disappearance of 106.2 retail pounds for 2026 and 106.8 retail pounds for 2027. These are projections, not later observed outcomes or present-day measurements. Source: USDA ERS, Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook: June 2026, p. 22
US chicken consumption statistics: chicken availability over time
A separate ERS series reports chicken availability per person on a boneless, edible basis. ERS states that 68.1 pounds of chicken per person were available for human consumption in 2021, compared with 32.7 pounds in 1980 in the cited series. The source describes the 1980-to-2021 increase as more than doubling. These are historical availability figures, not the retail-weight broiler-disappearance estimates in the previous section. Source: USDA ERS, “Chicken leads U.S. per person availability of meat over last decade”
| Year | Per-person chicken availability | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 32.7 pounds | ERS cited availability series |
| 2021 | 68.1 pounds | Boneless, edible basis |
For context within the same 2021 comparison, ERS reports 56.2 pounds of beef availability per person, against the 68.1 pounds of chicken. Chicken is explicitly described as boneless and edible in the narrative. Availability measures food potentially available for consumption; they do not establish how much each person actually ate. Source: USDA ERS, “Chicken leads U.S. per person availability of meat over last decade”
US chicken consumption statistics by age and sex
ERS’s demographic report provides modeled annual per-capita loss-adjusted chicken availability for historical survey periods. Its estimates are not directly interchangeable with the retail-weight disappearance or boneless, edible availability series. For the total U.S. population, the modeled estimate was 40.02 pounds per person per year in 1994–98 and 48.42 pounds in 2007–08. Source: USDA ERS, U.S. Food Commodity Consumption Broken Down by Demographics, 1994–2008, appendix table B1
The same table defines children as younger than 20 and adults as age 20 or older. Children’s estimated annual per-capita loss-adjusted chicken availability was 31.33 pounds in 1994–98 and 42.04 pounds in 2007–08. Adults’ estimate was 43.67 pounds in 1994–98 and 50.86 pounds in 2007–08. Source: USDA ERS, U.S. Food Commodity Consumption Broken Down by Demographics, 1994–2008, appendix table B1
| Population group | 1994–98 | 2007–08 |
|---|---|---|
| Total U.S. population | 40.02 lb/person/year | 48.42 lb/person/year |
| Children younger than 20 | 31.33 lb/person/year | 42.04 lb/person/year |
| Adults age 20 or older | 43.67 lb/person/year | 50.86 lb/person/year |
A separate ERS table breaks historical estimates out by sex and age categories. For 1994–98, boys’ modeled annual per-capita loss-adjusted availability was 34.35 pounds, and girls’ was 28.18 pounds. Among adults, the estimates were 50.50 pounds for men and 37.39 pounds for women. These are values for the report’s specified demographic groups and period; they are not current consumption estimates. Source: USDA ERS, U.S. Food Commodity Consumption Broken Down by Demographics, 1994–2008, appendix table B2
US chicken consumption statistics by income and education
The demographic report groups people by household income relative to the poverty line. Its low-income category is below 185% of the poverty-line cutoff; its high-income category is above that cutoff. In the modeled annual per-capita loss-adjusted series, the low-income estimate was 37.97 pounds in 1994–98 and 46.27 pounds in 2007–08. The high-income estimate was 40.94 pounds in 1994–98 and 49.87 pounds in 2007–08. The report’s cutoff defines the groups; these figures do not describe an income effect or explain why the estimates differ. Source: USDA ERS, U.S. Food Commodity Consumption Broken Down by Demographics, 1994–2008, appendix table B3 and methods
| Report income group | 1994–98 | 2007–08 |
|---|---|---|
| Low income, below 185% of poverty line | 37.97 lb/person/year | 46.27 lb/person/year |
| High income, above 185% of poverty line | 40.94 lb/person/year | 49.87 lb/person/year |
Education estimates apply to adults and use the report’s education categories. For adults with less than high-school education, modeled annual per-capita loss-adjusted chicken availability was 41.49 pounds in 1994–98 and 43.45 pounds in 2007–08. In 1994–98, the estimate for high-school-educated adults was 41.88 pounds, while the estimate for college-educated adults was 45.93 pounds. Those latter values are reported here only for 1994–98, the period for which the checked evidence supplies them. Source: USDA ERS, U.S. Food Commodity Consumption Broken Down by Demographics, 1994–2008, appendix table B4
The income and education values are modeled demographic disaggregations of loss-adjusted food availability using survey-derived consumption patterns. The survey periods end in 2007–08, so the report offers a historical comparison, not a current ranking of groups. ERS documentation explains the underlying commodity-consumption-by-population-characteristics estimates and their interpretation as food-availability measures. Source: USDA ERS, Commodity Consumption by Population Characteristics – Documentation
US chicken consumption statistics by race and ethnicity
For 2007–08, the ERS report’s narrative gives estimated annual chicken consumption per person for 4 race and ethnicity groups. The reported value was 63.0 pounds for non-Hispanic Black Americans, 45.6 pounds for non-Hispanic White Americans, 49.9 pounds for Hispanic Americans, and 46.2 pounds for the report’s “other” group. These are historical estimates for the named categories and survey period, not current measurements. Source: USDA ERS, U.S. Food Commodity Consumption Broken Down by Demographics, 1994–2008, p. 20, narrative accompanying figure 9
| Race or ethnicity group | Estimated chicken consumption, 2007–08 |
|---|---|
| Non-Hispanic Black | 63.0 lb/person/year |
| Non-Hispanic White | 45.6 lb/person/year |
| Hispanic | 49.9 lb/person/year |
| “Other” in the report | 46.2 lb/person/year |
The report describes these figures as chicken consumption per person per year for its 2007–08 estimates. Its demographic measures come from modeled disaggregations of loss-adjusted availability based on survey consumption patterns, so they should be understood in that historical estimation context. The listed categories and values do not establish reasons for differences between groups or support conclusions about individuals. Sources: USDA ERS, U.S. Food Commodity Consumption Broken Down by Demographics, 1994–2008, p. 20; USDA ERS documentation