Table for one? More than half of meals eaten alone, study finds.

According to new research from the NPD group, 57 percent of meals in the US, both at home and away, are eaten alone. Breakfast is the loneliest meal of the day, with 60 percent of meals eaten in solitude. 

|
Ng Han Guan/AP/File
A man eats a burger at a McDonald's restaurant in Beijing. More than half of meals in the US are eaten alone, according to research from the NPD group.

For most Americans, eating a meal is a solitary rather than social occasion.

More than half (57%) of all eating occasions (both at-home and away-from-home) in the U.S. are people eating alone, according to data from The NPD Group. It notes that 27% of U.S. households now consist of a single person, the highest level in U.S. history.

Breakfast is the loneliest daypart, NPD finds, with 60% of meals consumed alone. Given the number of breakfasts consumed on the run, in cars or at desks, this is understandable. At lunch the percentage of solo meals declines to 55%, though still a majority.

At least there’s company for dinner: Diners eat alone for just 32% of evening meals. Nearly half of families with children eat dinner together at least five times a week, NPD reports.

Says NPD F&B analyst Darren Seifer, “The number of solo eating and beverage occasions has wide-ranging implications for food and beverage marketers in terms of new products, packaging and positioning. As lifestyles shift, it’s key for marketers to profile and segment occasions when their product is consumed in various ways, including solo versus social occasions, in order to connect most effectively with consumers.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Table for one? More than half of meals eaten alone, study finds.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Bite/2014/0825/Table-for-one-More-than-half-of-meals-eaten-alone-study-finds
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe