How Americans fill their shopping carts at the grocery store is partly driven by prices. About six-in-ten U.S. adults say food costs are extremely or very important to them when deciding what food to buy, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to explore Americans’ attitudes about and experiences with food costs. Data on what Americans prioritize when buying food and how they view food costs comes from a Center survey of 5,123 U.S. adults conducted from Feb. 24 to March 2, 2025.

Everyone who took part in the survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Interviews were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.

Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and the survey methodology.