Food away from home also does not include brown bag lunches and snacks taken from home and eaten at school or work. The survey data confirm that a greater percentage of Americans are eating away from home than ever before. This continues a trend seen since the question was first asked in 1965. The increase is apparent for all age groups, but most specifically for young children and for females 20 years and over. This increase is related to other sociodemographic trends that we have seen, namely that more women are working outside the home, and that more children are in care outside the home during the day.
Teenage males comprise the group most likely to eat away.
Seventy-one percent of teen males obtain and eat at least one food away from home on any given day. Individuals over 60 are the least likely to eat away. One-third of females 60 years and over eat away on a given day. This figure is just slightly lower than the average 39 percent of all individuals who ate away in 1965. A greater percentage of whites than blacks ate away from home in 1994 and 1995.