The number of Americans dining out just hit a new low.
In the early days of the pandemic, restaurants went into survival mode to stay afloat. It may be safe to grab a bite to eat out of the house these days, but with fewer Americans able to afford the luxury of eating out, business is drying up again.
The percentage of Americans who say they dine out at least once a week slid almost 10% between 2022 and 2026, according to a new Gallup poll. Just prior to the pandemic in 2019, more than half of people surveyed reported eating out at a restaurant at least one time in a week. By 2021, that percentage dipped 10% to 43%, before perking up to 47% into 2022. In the 2026 version of the same poll, Gallup found that only 39% of people dine out weekly – fewer than in the first year following the Covid outbreak.
“Weekly dining out fell during the pandemic, partly recovered by 2022 and has since dropped to a new low, with the latest decline concentrated among middle- and upper-income Americans,” Gallup wrote in its new report, citing the “cumulative effect of price increases over the past four years” as the main driver keeping people dining in.
People aren’t just staying in and ordering takeout, either. The number of Americans who say they eat takeout weekly slipped to 31% in 2026, down from 26% in 2022 and 39% in 2021– a strong sign that the affordability crisis is driving the shifting trends. That percentage of Americans ordering takeout in 2026 is now even with what it was pre-pandemic in 2018.
Dining out across income levels
Unsurprisingly, people in different income brackets have different habits when it comes to eating out. Americans in upper-income households dine out much more often than those making less money, an intuitive finding given that higher costs don’t sting nearly as much when you’ve got more financial padding.
Just prior to the pandemic, Gallup found that 40% of people in a lower-income group group dined out on a weekly basis, compared to 54% in a middle-income group, and 65% of those in an upper-income group. By 2021, weekly dining rates had dropped across the board, but they began to rise again in 2022 – but only for higher-income Americans. Now, weekly dining is sliding again, this time falling for middle and upper-income adults, with 38% and 48% of people in those categories eating out at least once a week, respectively. For lower-income Americans, the percentage stayed stable at 32%.
“For restaurants, the challenge is less that Americans have stopped eating out than that they are doing so less often,” Gallup wrote in the report. “And with restaurant takeout falling from its pandemic-era high, weekly takeout or delivery does not appear to be making up the difference.”
Food safety worries
The current Gallup poll’s survey was conducted in July of this year, drawing on data from a random sample of 1,200 adults across all 50 states. The analytics company does note that its polling coincided with the cyclospora outbreak that had Americans skittish about lettuce this summer, as the food safety scare that may have impacted eating habits too.
The outbreak – traced to iceberg lettuce recalled by food supplier Taylor Farms – officially ended in September, but not before it sickened almost 13,000 people and sent 579 to the hospital. In a separate survey, Gallup found that Americans distrust the federal government on food more than ever, with only 47% feeling confident about food safety protocols.
With more people holed up at home with their groceries, restaurants have been forced to improvise. Some, like fast casual pillars Noodles & Company and Chipotle are getting creative with innovative menu items to bring diners back into the fold. Others, like McDonald’s, opted to make fast food feel cheap again with a $5 meal deal. But local restaurants and fine dining options don’t have as much breathing room as their corporate peers, with many folding to a lethal combination of higher ingredient prices and shrinking customer budgets – and little relief in sight.
