Americans In This State Eat Dinner Earlier Than Everyone Else
The early bird gets the worm, right? A trend once reserved for senior citizens is now being embraced by a much broader age demographic and reshaping the dining landscape from coast to coast. Reports from the past few years indicate a significant shift in dining habits across the United States, with Americans increasingly opting to eat dinner as early as 5 or 6 p.m.
The number of reservations made between 2 and 5 p.m. have doubled since 2019, according to Yelp data reported by the Wall Street Journal in July 2023. Ride-sharing data from Uber further highlights a 10% increase in trips to restaurants between 4 and 5 p.m., while late-night dining has seen a corresponding decline. Similarly, Resy reported in May 2022 that reservations in New York City made at 5:30 p.m. have jumped from 7.75% over two years to 8.31% over the past six months, and 8 p.m. reservations fell from 8.31% to 7.8% of the total dinner reservations in the city.
“I am not a planner, which in the past meant that if I wanted to eat anywhere without a reservation, my options were limited to walking in when some place opened at 5, or waiting until the dinner rush died down closer to 10,” New York Magazine's Tammie Teclemariam wrote in a Grub Street article published March 2022. “Now, though, the traffic patterns are all thrown off: 6 o’clock is hotter than 9 o’clock.”
These changes aren’t only present in dining in, but also for takeout and delivery. GrubHub said there's been a notable shift in peak ordering times, and the “busiest time for ordering now is between 5 and 7 p.m., compared to 6 to 8 p.m. prior to the pandemic,” company spokesperson Jenna DeMarco told the New York Post.
Nationwide, the average dinner time has skewed earlier, with before 7:30 p.m. being the new norm. This shift is not just limited to urban centers; suburban and rural areas are also embracing the trend. According to data from the American Time Use Survey, conducted between 2018 to 2022, states like Pennsylvania and Maine lead the charge with average peak dinner times around 5:37 p.m. and 5:40 p.m., respectively. In contrast, Washington D.C. residents dine the latest on average, with a peak around 7:10 p.m.
The change in dining habits is attributed to several factors, including the rise of remote work. With 34% of Americans working from home, flexibility in daily schedules has allowed for earlier dining opportunities, says The Robb Report.
Additionally, health considerations post-pandemic have encouraged a shift towards earlier meals. Experts suggest that earlier dining may benefit metabolic health by aligning meal times with the body’s natural rhythms, potentially aiding in weight management and blood sugar control.
“When we delay the food intake and keep everything else the same, that by itself leads to an increase in cravings, changes in appetite hormones and fewer calories burnt across the waking hours,” said Frank Scheer, Harvard Medical School professor and Medical Chronobiology Program director, to Axios.
As Americans continue to navigate a post-pandemic world, dining preferences are evolving, driven by convenience, health consciousness, and changing work dynamics. The traditional notion of dinner at 8 p.m. is giving way to a new reality, where 6 p.m. reservations are growing more and more coveted by the minute.
According to the American Time Use Survey, most Americans are eating dinner between 5:07 p.m. and 8:19 p.m., with peak dinner time nationwide being at 6:19 p.m.
Are you curious where your state falls on the dinner time scale?
Here’s a complete list of average dinner times listed by state, earliest to latest:
Pennsylvania: 5:37 p.m.
Maine: 5:40 p.m.
Vermont: 6:00 p.m.
Wyoming: 6:00 p.m.
North Dakota: 6:00 p.m.
New Hampshire: 6:00 p.m.
Alaska: 6:00 p.m.
New Mexico: 6:00 p.m.
Washington: 6:01 p.m.
Oregon: 6:02 p.m.
Kentucky: 6:04 p.m.
West Virginia: 6:05 p.m.
Montana: 6:05 p.m.
Wisconsin: 6:05 p.m.
Delaware: 6:05 p.m.
Florida: 6:05 p.m.
Utah: 6:07 p.m.
Rhode Island: 6:10 p.m.
Louisiana: 6:10 p.m.
South Carolina: 6:10 p.m.
Michigan: 6:10 p.m.
Alabama: 6:12 p.m.
Massachusetts: 6:13 p.m.
Connecticut: 6:14 p.m.
Oklahoma: 6:14 p.m.
Minnesota: 6:15 p.m.
Maryland: 6:15 p.m.
Indiana: 6:15 p.m.
Georgia: 6:15 p.m.
Illinois: 6:17 p.m.
New Jersey: 6:17 p.m.
California: 6:19 p.m.
Colorado: 6:25 p.m.
Ohio: 6:28 p.m.
Nevada: 6:29 p.m.
Idaho: 6:30 p.m.
Iowa: 6:30 p.m.
Hawaii: 6:30 p.m.
Virginia: 6:32 p.m.
Arizona: 6:32 p.m.
North Carolina: 6:34 p.m.
South Dakota: 6:35 p.m.
Kansas: 6:35 p.m.
New York: 6:41 p.m.
Missouri: 6:45 p.m.
Nebraska: 6:51 p.m.
Arkansas: 7:00 p.m.
Tennessee: 7:00 p.m.
Mississippi: 7:02 p.m.
Texas: 7:02 p.m.
District of Columbia: 7:10 p.m.
You Might Also Like
