Survey: 18.2% in U.S. couldn't afford food

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A survey released Tuesday indicated 18.2 percent of Americans can cite at least one instance in the past 12 months they could not afford to buy food.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which asked 177,662 U.S. adults in the first half of 2012 whether there have been times money to buy food for themselves or their families was unavailable, found Mississippi, Alabama and Delaware the states with the most severe situations. Mississippi, with 24.9 percent of the respondents answering yes, led the list.

The states with populations least likely to struggle to afford food were North Dakota, at 9.6 percent, followed by South Dakota and Vermont.

The results were based on telephone interviews, and had a maximum margin of sampling error of 0.3 percentage points.