43% Are Eating Out Less Than Six Months Ago

Americans are still not rushing out to eat these days, and a good meal at home remains their preferred option.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 43% of Adults say they are going out to eat less often than they were six months ago. But that's down 14 points from November 2008 when 57% said they eating out less often.  Only six percent (6%) say they’re dining out more often now, while nearly half (48%) say they go out about the same as before.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

An overwhelming majority (73%) of adults say they enjoy a good home cooked meal more than dining at a fine restaurant anyway, showing no change from October 2009.  Eighteen percent (18%) prefer a fine restaurant meal.

Perhaps this helps explain why a plurality (46%) say they sit down for dinner with the family more than three times a week, an eight-point increase from that October survey.  Twenty-five percent (25%) eat with the family two or three times a week, while 13% do so once a week. Fourteen percent (14%) say they rarely or never eat with their family during a typical week. 

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The survey of 1,000 Adults nationwide was conducted on January 18-19, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.