Contents
- U.S. flour consumption statistics over time
- At-home and away-from-home wheat flour use
- Flour consumption statistics by food-product category
- Retail prices and the farm value of flour
- Sources
U.S. flour consumption statistics over time
U.S. wheat flour use per person was estimated at 126.4 pounds in 2025, according to the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS). The same ERS page reports that per-capita flour consumption had fallen to 134.4 pounds by 2005. The later estimate is 8 pounds lower, though the two figures alone do not describe the path between those years. The 2025 figure is an estimate, while 2005 is a historical value.
These measures refer to flour use per person in the United States; they are not household purchase totals or the amount consumed by each individual. Nor do the two endpoints establish why use changed. They provide a national benchmark, but more detail about annual changes or differences among population groups is not available in these figures.
Source: USDA ERS, Wheat Sector at a Glance.
At-home and away-from-home wheat flour use
A USDA ERS report provides a different view by allocating wheat flour consumption between food eaten at home and food eaten away from home. Its figures are pounds per person per year across survey periods. At-home use averaged 68.69 pounds in 1994–98, compared with 61.32 pounds in 2003–04, 60.12 pounds in 2005–06, and 63.44 pounds in 2007–08. The reported mean for the full 1994–2008 span was 63.39 pounds per person per year.
| Survey period | At home (lb/person/year) | Away from home (lb/person/year) |
|---|---|---|
| 1994–98 | 68.69 | 32.03 |
| 2003–04 | 61.32 | 34.23 |
| 2005–06 | 60.12 | 34.99 |
| 2007–08 | 63.44 | 33.31 |
| Mean, 1994–2008 | 63.39 | 33.64 |
Away-from-home use was lower than at-home use in each listed period. Its values ranged from 32.03 pounds per person per year in 1994–98 to 34.99 pounds in 2005–06; the reported 1994–2008 mean was 33.64 pounds. These are period averages in the report’s food-source analysis, not current annual measurements. The periods are not a continuous yearly series, so they show selected snapshots rather than a precise year-by-year trend.
Source: USDA ERS, U.S. Food Commodity Availability by Food Source, 1994–2008, Table 3, “Wheat flour,” Home and Away from home columns.
Flour consumption statistics by food-product category
A USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) report describes how wheat flour consumption was distributed across broad product categories in an analysis based on 2019 data. Bread basket products accounted for 36.9 percent, and sweet goods accounted for 25.8 percent. The remaining 37.3 percent was grouped into smaller categories: cereal, crackers, pasta, frozen pizza, and other foods excluding sweet goods.
| Product category | Share of wheat flour consumption |
|---|---|
| Bread basket products | 36.9% |
| Sweet goods | 25.8% |
| Smaller categories combined | 37.3% |
The report gives examples of bread basket products including packaged sliced bread, artisan breads, breakfast breads, buns, and rolls. Its sweet-goods examples include cookies, donuts, cake, waffles, and pancakes. These shares add to 100 percent and describe the report’s U.S. product-category analysis; they are not percentages of retail sales, household spending, or the number of products sold. The analysis used data collected or assembled in 2019, and the report version is dated October 26, 2021. It should not be read as a current-year estimate.
Source: USDA AMS, Industry Analysis and Justification for Wheat Flour Foods Promotion, Research, and Information Order, p. 6; footnotes 18–19.
Retail prices and the farm value of flour
Retail price figures add economic context to flour use, but they measure cost rather than consumption. ERS reports that one pound of all-purpose white flour cost 40.4 cents at U.S. retail stores in 2021 and 49.4 cents in 2022. In 2024, the retail price was 56.5 cents per pound.
The farm value of the wheat contained in one pound of flour was 11.8 cents in 2021, rose to 16.3 cents in 2022, and was 10.5 cents in 2024. ERS reports farmers’ share of the retail price at 33.0 percent in 2022 and 18.5 percent in 2024. For comparison, the annual average farm share was 21 percent over 2015–2023.
| Year | Retail price (cents/lb) | Farm value of wheat (cents/lb) | Farm share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 40.4 | 11.8 | — |
| 2022 | 49.4 | 16.3 | 33.0% |
| 2024 | 56.5 | 10.5 | 18.5% |
The farm value is the value of wheat in the flour, not the full cost of producing, milling, packaging, transporting, or selling flour. The retail price and farm-value series therefore describe different parts of the product’s value chain. Their movement does not, by itself, explain changes in how much flour people use.