The bar chart illustrates how often Americans visited fast food restaurants over a decade from 2003 to 2013.
Overall, the most common frequencies of eating at fast food restaurants were “once a week” and “a few times a month,” while the least common were “every day” and “never.” There were noticeable changes in these patterns over the three years.
In 2003, the percentage of people who ate at fast food restaurants every day was just under 5%, and this figure remained almost unchanged in 2006 and 2013. Similarly, the proportion of Americans who never ate at fast food restaurants was around 5% in 2003, with a slight increase over the subsequent years.
The categories of “several times a week” and “a few times a year” had relatively stable percentages across all three years, with figures ranging from approximately 13% to 20%. The proportion of people who ate fast food several times a week slightly decreased from 20% in 2003 to around 16% in 2013, while those eating a few times a year remained relatively consistent.
The highest percentages were observed in the “once a week” and “once or twice a month” categories. In 2003, these two categories had similar proportions, both at about 30%. However, there was a significant shift in 2006, where the proportion of people eating out once a week peaked at approximately 33%, while those eating once or twice a month dropped to 25%. By 2013, the trend reversed, with the percentage of people eating out once or twice a month rising to about 33%, while those eating once a week fell to around 27%.