--- title: Americans Eat More Than Half of Their Meals Alone description: A new report finds that Americans are solo more than half of the time they're eating and drinking canonical: https://time.com/3089129/americans-consumers-eat-meals-food-alone/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-07T17:12:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:48:30.930Z og:title: Americans Eat More Than Half of Their Meals Alone og:description: Party for one? og:url: https://time.com/3089129/americans-consumers-eat-meals-food-alone/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Americans Eat More Than Half of Their Meals Alone twitter:description: Party for one? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Americans Eat More Than Half of Their Meals Alone by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Aug 7, 2014 5:12 PM UTC by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Aug 7, 2014 5:12 PM UTC Here’s some good news for your self esteem: It turns out you aren’t really alone when you’re, well, eating alone. A [new report](https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/press-releases/consumers-are-alone-over-half-of-eating-occasions-as-a-result-of-changing-lifestyles-and-more-single-person-households-reports-npd/) from the market research firm NPD Group finds that Americans are solo more than half of the time that they’re eating and drinking. People are the least lonely at dinner—eating with others some two-thirds of the time—but breakfast and lunch are their most solitary meals.  NPD Group NPD Group tracks the daily eating habits of some 2,000 households a year and collects 5,000 individuals’ food diaries every two weeks, a spokeswoman told TIME. These findings are the result of two years of research, ending in late February. This results shouldn’t really come as a surprise, since the [U.S. Census Bureau](http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/08/19/single.in.america/) reported that 27% of households are made up of just one person and the stigma of eating alone appears to be slowly lifting. There are even restaurants [designed](http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-24/eating-alone-by-design-an-entire-restaurant-with-tables-for-one) specifically for parties of one. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3089129/americans-consumers-eat-meals-food-alone/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3089129/americans-consumers-eat-meals-food-alone/"},"headline":"Americans Eat More Than Half of Their Meals Alone","datePublished":"2014-08-07T17:12:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:30.930Z","description":"Party for one?","url":"https://time.com/3089129/americans-consumers-eat-meals-food-alone/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Food & Drink","Food","study","Americans","eating"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3089129/americans-consumers-eat-meals-food-alone/","name":"Americans Eat More Than Half of Their Meals Alone"}}]}] ```