Everybody loves a burger! They are sizzling on grills across the U.S. this National Cheeseburger Day and all year round. But those living on the coasts will pay a premium to cook their burgers at home.
Cost of a home-cooked burger based on 1/4 lb. fresh beef, 2 oz. of bread, 2 oz. of tomato and 1 oz. each of lettuce, onion, and cheese.
Most Expensive States
Most Expensive | |
California | $3.62 |
Oregon | $3.58 |
Virginia | $3.57 |
New Hampshire | $3.56 |
Nebraska | $3.51 |
Maryland | $3.49 |
Vermont | $3.46 |
South Dakota | $3.46 |
Massachusetts | $3.44 |
Rhode Island | $3.44 |
The most expensive states to cook a burger at home include California, Oregon and Virginia, with the average cost of a pound of ground beef costing more than $8.00.
Most Affordable | |
Tennessee | $2.60 |
Georgia | $2.70 |
New Mexico | $2.72 |
Utah | $2.73 |
Florida | $2.74 |
Montana | $2.81 |
Wyoming | $2.86 |
Arizona | $2.87 |
West Virginia | $2.92 |
Nevada | $2.93 |
The most affordable states include Tennessee, Georgia, New Mexico and Utah, where ground beef prices are on average about $3.12 less per pound than the most expensive states.
Cost of a home-cooked burger based on national average cost of ingredients using data from the CFDAS.
You can find dashboards with food cost data at Purdue Agriculture’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability, as well as data on a number of shopping and eating habits through Consumer Food Insights, a monthly survey of more than 1,200 Americans conducted by Purdue agricultural economists. It tracks trends and changes in consumer food demand and sustainability, including food expenditure, values, satisfaction, security and sustainability.
Source: Center of Food Demand Analysis & Sustainability (CFDAS) at Purdue University and Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University
Data Sources: Web scraping via CFDAS and Octoparse; data for bun price from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI data for current year