Is U.S. Dairy Consumption Growing?

ZISK
1 hour ago
1 min read

The prior post covered the growth of milk production in the U.S. This post covers the domestic disappearance and consumption of dairy products. Is the growth in consumption cooling off? Is inflation causing changes in consumption? Is the increase in milk production needed?

This post is based on new data that was not available during the government shutdown. The data is based on 12-month moving averages to minimize cyclical fluctuations. The data in the charts below are based on the annual growth of domestic consumption using domestic disappearance data. The charts below cover the trends over five years, from 2021 to 2025 YTD.

Chart I shows the growth of domestic butter consumption. Domestic butter consumption had been decreasing as there were concerns about saturated fats causing unhealthy heart conditions. Current research has shown that the saturated fat in butter does not result in unhealthy heart conditions and is a positive health item in diets. In 2023 the growth rate of domestic butter consumption increased significantly. In 2024 and 2025 the growth rate has leveled off to just around 6% annually. This is slightly less than the growth rate in mid 2024 but is still a very significant growth rate.