By Arlenys Tabare
According to data published this Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Overall food prices in the United States increased by 0.2% during the month of Maystanding at 3.1% compared to the previous year, while the cost of fast food increased between the end of 2025 and April 2026 by 3.2% and on average by 60% in the last 10 years.
In this sense, to find out where American consumers spend more or less, the personal finance company WalletHub carried out an evaluation in all 50 states comparing the average prices of like a flash food with family income.
For Chip Lupo, analyst at WalletHub, “with an average increase of 60% in fast food prices over the last decade, it is logical that consumers wonder if the convenience of having food ready in minutes is really worth it.”
In this sense, WalletHub indicated which states are where people spend the most and least on fast food?
- 1. Mississippi (0.48%)
- 2. Arkansas (0.44%)
- 3. Louisiana (0.44%)
- 4. New Mexico (0.44%)
- 5. West Virginia (0.44%)
- 6. Alabama (0.44%)
- 7. Montana (0.43%)
- 8. Kentucky (0.42%)
- 9. Oklahoma (0.41%)
- 10. Florida (0.40%)
“Mississippians pay more for fast food relative to their income than anyone else in the country. Buying a hamburger, small pizza, and fried chicken sandwich costs residents 0.48% of average monthly household income. By comparison, the same purchases would cost only 0.27% of the average monthly household income in Massachusetts,” Lupo notes.
For the analyst, Where you live also has a lot to do with how much you spend on fast food.; It costs about 1.8 times more in the most expensive states than in the cheapest, relative to the median income, he said.
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