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Free and Reduced-Price School Meals
Database Detail
| Name | Free and Reduced-Price School Meals |
| Summary | Students eligible for free- and reduced-price lunches in public schools |
| Additional Background |
This database provides the number of students eligible for free- and reduced-price lunches in U.S. public school districts and schools. These lunches are provided as part of the Department of Agriculture's National School Lunch Program (NSLP), in which schools receive cash subsidies and donated commodities in exchange for offering free- or reduced-price lunches to eligible children. The percentage of children eligible for free- or reduced-price lunches is often considered a surrogate measure for poverty rates.
Student eligibility is determined by family incomes. Students from families with incomes at or below 130% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) qualify to receive free lunches; students from families with incomes between 130% and 185% of the FPL qualify for reduced-price lunches. See Poverty Guidelines for additional information on the FPL.
Users should exercise caution in calculating the number of students eligible for free- or reduced-price lunches as a share of total students since the data provider, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), may report lunch and enrollment data that were collected at different times during the school year. In addition, some schools may report free- or reduced-lunch statistics for more than one school. Data are not available for all combinations of categories and districts.
Years reported reflect the second year of a traditional academic year, e.g., 2008 reflects eligible students in the 2007-2008 academic year.
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| Geographic Coverage | U.S., States, Counties, City or Other Local Government |
| Periodicity | Annually |
| Series Begins/Ends | 2001 - 2023 |
| Data Source | National Center for Education Statistics |
| Summary | Students eligible for free- and reduced-price lunches in public schools |
| Geographic Coverage | U.S., States, Counties, City or Other Local Government |
| Series Begins/Ends | 2001 - 2023 |
| Reporting Period | Annually |
| Updated | Apr. 18, 2025 |
| Estimated next update | Feb. 28, 2026 |
| Original Source | National Center for Education Statistics |
| Sample File | Sample_CSV__Free_and_Reduced-Price_School_Meals.zip |
| Number of records | 1,129,068 |
| Values Missing or Not Reported | 41.0% |
| File Size | 235.4 MB |
| Latest data available | Year 2023 |
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Source (APA): |
StatsUSA. (2025, April 18). Free and Reduced-Price School Meals. https://statsusa.org/us/stats/free-and-reduced-price-school-meals.html
Set APA as default format
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This database provides the number of students eligible for free- and reduced-price lunches in U.S. public school districts and schools. These lunches are provided as part of the Department of Agriculture's National School Lunch Program (NSLP), in which schools receive cash subsidies and donated commodities in exchange for offering free- or reduced-price lunches to eligible children. The percentage of children eligible for free- or reduced-price lunches is often considered a surrogate measure for poverty rates.
Student eligibility is determined by family incomes. Students from families with incomes at or below 130% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) qualify to receive free lunches; students from families with incomes between 130% and 185% of the FPL qualify for reduced-price lunches. See Poverty Guidelines for additional information on the FPL.
Users should exercise caution in calculating the number of students eligible for free- or reduced-price lunches as a share of total students since the data provider, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), may report lunch and enrollment data that were collected at different times during the school year. In addition, some schools may report free- or reduced-lunch statistics for more than one school. Data are not available for all combinations of categories and districts.
Years reported reflect the second year of a traditional academic year, e.g., 2008 reflects eligible students in the 2007-2008 academic year.
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APA
Format or style, from the American Psychological Association, is commonly used for footnotes in behavioral and social science publications. APA citation is an author-year-system. It is one of the most common styles used and taught at colleges and high schools. See here for more details, including APA formatting for bibliographies.Chicago
Format or style (also known as Turabian), created by the University of Chicago, is commonly used for footnotes in history, business, and fine arts and occasionally in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The Chicago style has two systems of citation. The author-date system (most common in social sciences and sciences) cites sources parenthetically in the text. The notes and bibliography system (most common in humanities) cites sources in numbered footnotes or endnotes which correspond to a superscript number in the text. See here for more details, including Chicago formatting for bibliographies.MLA
Modern Language Association (MLA) format or style is most commonly used for footnotes in the language arts, cultural studies, liberal arts, and humanities. MLA uses short parenthetical citations within the text that are linked to an alphabetical list of work cited at the end of the document. MLA commonly cites using this format: author's last name, first name, title, publication, edition or chapter, and year. See here for more details, including MLA formatting for bibliographies.AMA
American Medical Association (AMA) format or style is most commonly used for footnotes in medicine, biomedical research, nursing, dentistry, and other life sciences. AMA uses numerical superscript for citing sources in-text and refers to a list at the end of the work. These references appear in sequential order of when the sources were cited, instead of alphabetical order. See here for more details, including AMA formatting for bibliographies.
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