The given bar chart depicts fast food consumption in the USA in 2003, 2006 and 2013, categorized under six frequency groups . Units are expressed in terms of percentage of people.
Overall, over the specified years, there was a high preference of consumers to eat either “once a week” or “once a month”. Conversely, there was a change in trends with lesser proportion of the population consuming everyday or none.
To begin with , a little under 5% of population either ate everyday or never had any form of fast food, with minimal fluctuations over the years. However, there was a rapid increase with over 25% preferring to eat once a week with a noticeable peak in 2006 with slightly above 30% before reaching a nadir in 2013 with just about 25%. This similar trend was observed in people who had a tendency to eat several times a week with the highest percentage of about 20% recorded in 2006 while remaining slightly above 15% in 2003 and 2013 respectively.
With respect to people who ate “once or twice a month” a significant increase of about 30% was reported in 2003 which then fell by approximately 5% in 2006 and subsequently rose in 2013 to more than 30% .
In conclusion, while fast food remained popular over the decade, there was a marked shift towards more occasional consumption by 2013, as fewer people ate it regularly compared to earlier years.