Contents
- Home cooking frequency statistics in U.S. surveys
- Home cooking frequency statistics by gender and age
- Home cooking frequency statistics across regions and countries
- Home cooking frequency statistics: Daily participation and time spent cooking
- Home cooking frequency statistics: Preparing versus eating home-cooked meals
- Sources
Home cooking frequency statistics in U.S. surveys
U.S. surveys capture home cooking through different questions and time frames. A weekly-frequency question describes how often respondents say they cook, while a time-use diary records whether cooking-related activity occurred during one particular day. Those measures are useful in their own right, but they should not be combined as if they were a single trend line.
In the 2025 IFIC Food & Health Survey, 78% of respondents reported cooking at home multiple times a week. Another 10% said they cooked at home once a week, and 8% reported doing so several times a month. These three response categories show that the survey captured a range of reported routines, from frequent weekly cooking to less frequent monthly cooking. The home-cooking item was new or edited in 2025, so this distribution is a 2025 snapshot rather than a directly comparable series across earlier IFIC reports.
| 2025 reported frequency | Share of IFIC respondents |
|---|---|
| Multiple times a week | 78% |
| Once a week | 10% |
| Several times a month | 8% |
Source: 2025 IFIC Food & Health Survey, page 61.
The table reproduces the reported response categories and values. It does not convert them into a new total or infer how respondents in other frequency categories behaved. In particular, the measures describe respondents’ answers to an IFIC survey question; they are not a count of meals cooked, a time-use diary, or a measure of meals eaten at home.
Home cooking frequency statistics by gender and age
A February 2026 YouGov poll reported differences in weekly and daily cooking by age and gender. Among U.S. adults, 90% of those aged 45 and older said they cooked weekly, compared with 82% of adults aged 18–44. The poll also reported that 40% of women cooked every day, compared with 31% of men. These are separate comparisons: one divides respondents by age and asks about weekly cooking; the other divides by gender and asks about daily cooking.
| YouGov measure, February 2026 | Group | Reported share |
|---|---|---|
| Cooked weekly | Adults aged 45 and older | 90% |
| Cooked weekly | Adults aged 18–44 | 82% |
| Cooked every day | Women | 40% |
| Cooked every day | Men | 31% |
Source: YouGov, “Just how many Americans order food delivered?”.
The same article reports a living-arrangement figure: 43% of U.S. adult citizens who lived with a spouse or partner said they cooked every day. That statistic describes respondents in that household category; it is not a gender or age result. Read together, the findings indicate that reported cooking frequency varies across the specific groups and frequency thresholds shown, while leaving other population groups and household arrangements unspecified.
Source: YouGov, February 2026 poll article.
These figures should remain tied to their original question wording. “Cooked weekly” includes a broader frequency threshold than “cooked every day,” and the poll’s adult-citizen sample is not identical to the respondent populations used by IFIC or the American Time Use Survey. The results therefore give a set of demographic snapshots, not a ranking across all U.S. adults under one standardized measure.
Home cooking frequency statistics across regions and countries
The Gallup–Cookpad global analysis counted meals respondents personally cooked at home for lunch and dinner during the previous week. Its global average was 6.5 meals in 2018 and 6.9 in 2019. Regional averages shown in the report provide a more specific view: Asia averaged 6.8 personally cooked home meals per week in 2018 and 7.3 in 2019, while Europe averaged 6.8 in both years.
| Population rollup | 2018 average meals per week | 2019 average meals per week |
|---|---|---|
| Global | 6.5 | 6.9 |
| Asia | 6.8 | 7.3 |
| Europe | 6.8 | 6.8 |
These averages refer to lunch and dinner meals personally cooked at home, per person in the prior week, among respondents aged 15 and older. The report’s global and regional rollups use population projection weights. They are not counts of all meals eaten at home, and they do not cover every meal occasion. The 2018 and 2019 values are historical findings from those survey years; they should not be read as present-day frequencies.
The regional figures also show why it matters to keep the geography and measure visible. Asia’s reported average was 6.8 in 2018 and 7.3 in 2019; Europe’s was 6.8 in each year. These values describe the selected regions and the report’s lunch-and-dinner definition. They do not establish that every country or respondent in a region shared its average.
Source: Gallup–Cookpad, global and regional averages, page 7.
Home cooking frequency statistics: Daily participation and time spent cooking
The American Time Use Survey analysis measures whether adults recorded a qualifying primary cooking-related activity during a 24-hour diary day. Its definition includes household food and drink preparation, presentation, and cleanup. In 2023, 62% of U.S. adults aged 18 and older cooked on the survey day. The same analysis reports 53% for 2003, giving two endpoints for daily participation across the study period.
| ATUS survey year | U.S. adults cooking on diary day |
|---|---|
| 2003 | 53% |
| 2023 | 62% |
Source: ATUS analysis, Table 2.
For 2023, the study reports that 52% of men and 72% of women cooked on the survey day. These figures refer to participation in the defined primary activity during a single diary day, rather than the number of days each person usually cooks in a week. They also differ in wording and scope from YouGov’s self-reported weekly or daily frequency questions.
Among ATUS respondents who cooked, mean daily cooking time was 62 minutes in 2023. This is a mean per person per day among adults who reported a qualifying cooking activity. It is not the average for every adult, including those with no qualifying activity on the diary day, and it should not be interpreted as time spent cooking dinner alone.
Source: ATUS analysis, Tables 2–3.
The study excludes secondary cooking activity and does not count meal planning or shopping in this measure. That definition matters for interpreting both participation and minutes: someone’s diary-day total concerns the primary food and drink preparation, presentation, and cleanup activities covered by the analysis. It cannot capture all household effort related to meals, nor does a one-day diary establish a person’s usual weekly pattern.
Home cooking frequency statistics: Preparing versus eating home-cooked meals
Preparing a meal and eating one at home are related but distinct behaviors. In Gallup–Cookpad’s 2019 global analysis, 81% of respondents aged 15 and older said they ate a home-cooked dinner at least 4 times in the prior week. For lunch, 71% reported eating a home-cooked meal at least 4 times in that period. These results describe eating frequency, not the share of meals each respondent personally prepared.
Source: Gallup–Cookpad, “Preparing and Eating Home-Cooked Dinners Around the World,” page 20.
The report also describes clusters of respondents, which are selected analytic groups rather than the whole global sample. In the global Stay-in-and-Cook group, 93% ate a home-cooked dinner at home every day in the prior 7 days, while 83% said they cooked dinner every day in the prior week. The figures show separate eating and cooking responses within this group, using the time frames stated in the report.
In the What’s-for-Dinner group, 83% had eaten dinner at home all 7 days of the previous week, while 74% said they cooked dinner on no days in that week. Eating at home every day therefore does not by itself indicate that the respondent personally cooked dinner every day. The cluster data makes this distinction visible without suggesting that the group percentages apply to all respondents.
The Neither-Cooks-Nor-Home-Diners group had a different pattern: 56% did not eat a home-cooked dinner at all in the previous week. This result concerns that named cluster and dinner consumption during the specified week. It is not a general population estimate for people who rarely cook, nor does it measure lunch or food prepared by someone else outside the home.
Source: Gallup–Cookpad, cluster descriptions and global dinner findings, page 20.
Across these sources, “home cooking frequency” can mean a respondent’s stated weekly routine, cooking on a diary day, personally preparing a number of meals, or eating meals described as home-cooked. Each measure answers a different question. Keeping its population, period, and definition alongside the number makes the statistics more useful and prevents a frequency of eating at home from being mistaken for personal cooking frequency.
Sources
- Just how many Americans order food delivered?
- 2025 IFIC Food & Health Survey: Full Report
- Trends in Home Cooking among United States Adults from 2003 to 2023: Analysis of American Time Use Survey Food Preparation
- Preparing and Eating Home-Cooked Dinner: A Global Analysis of Cooking Around the World, Year 2