Rationing for civilians has most often been instituted during wartime. For example, each person may be given "ration
coupons" which allow them to purchase a certain amount of a product each month. Rationing often includes food and other necessities for which there is a shortage, including materials needed for the war effort such as rubber tires, leather shoes, clothing, and fuel. Rationing of food and water may also become necessary during an emergency, such as a
natural disaster or
terror attack. In the U.S., the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has established guidelines for rationing food and water when replacements are not available. According to FEMA standards, every person should have a minimum of per day of water, and more for children, nursing mothers, and the ill.
Origins German government propaganda poster describing rationing with personifications of meat, bread, sugar, butter, milk, and flour, 1916 Military
sieges have often resulted in shortages of food and other essentials. In such circumstances, the rations allocated to an individual have often been determined based on age, sex, race or social standing. During the
Siege of Lucknow (part of the
Indian Rebellion of 1857) women received three-quarters of a man's food ration. Children received only half. During the
Siege of Ladysmith in the early stages of the
Boer War in 1900,
white adults received the same food rations as soldiers while children received half that. Food rations for
Indian people and
black people were significantly smaller. The first modern rationing systems were imposed during the
First World War. In
Germany, suffering from the effects of the
British blockade, a rationing system was introduced in 1914 and was steadily expanded over the following years as the situation worsened. Although
Britain did not suffer from food shortages, as the sea lanes were kept open for food imports,
panic buying towards the end of the war prompted the rationing of first
sugar and then
meat. It is said to have benefited the overall health of the country, through the "levelling of consumption of essential foodstuffs". To assist with rationing, ration books were introduced on 1918 for butter, margarine, lard, meat, and sugar. During the war, average caloric intake decreased by only three percent, but protein intake by six percent. Rationing on a scientific basis was pioneered by
Elsie Widdowson and
Robert McCance at the Department of Experimental Medicine,
University of Cambridge. They worked on the chemical composition of the human body, and on the nutritional value of different flours used to make bread. Widdowson also studied the impact of infant diet on human growth. They studied the differing effects from deficiencies of salt and of water and produced the first tables to compare the nutritional contents of foods before and after cooking. They co-authored
The Chemical Composition of Foods, first published in 1940 by the
Medical Research Council. Their book, "McCance and Widdowson", became known as the dietician's bible and formed the basis for modern nutritional thinking. " campaign, encouraging Britons to supplement their rations by cultivating gardens and
allotments In 1939, they tested whether the United Kingdom could survive with only domestic food production if
U-boats ended all imports. Using 1938 food-production data, they fed themselves and other volunteers a limited diet, while simulating the strenuous wartime physical work Britons would likely have to perform. The scientists found that the subjects' health and performance remained very good after three months. They also headed the first ever mandated addition of vitamins and minerals to food, beginning with adding
calcium to bread. Their work became the basis of the wartime austerity diet promoted by the
Minister of Food,
Lord Woolton. but rationing improved the health of British people: infant mortality declined and life expectancy rose. This was because everyone had access to a varied diet with enough nutrients. The first commodity to be controlled was petrol. On 8 January 1940, bacon, butter and sugar were rationed. This was followed by successive rationing schemes for meat, tea, jam, biscuits,
breakfast cereals, cheese, eggs, lard, milk, and canned and dried fruit. Fresh vegetables and fruit were not rationed, but supplies were limited. Many people grew their own vegetables, greatly encouraged by the highly successful "
Digging for Victory" campaign. Most controversial was bread; it was not rationed until after the war ended, but the "
national loaf" of wholemeal bread replaced the ordinary white variety, to the distaste of most housewives who found it mushy, grey, and easy to blame for digestive problems. Fish was not rationed, but fish prices increased considerably as the war progressed. , 1943 In May 1941, Woolton appealed to Americans to reduce consumption of certain foods (dairy, sugar canned salmon and meat) so more of those could go to the United Kingdom. The
Office of Price Administration (OPA) warned Americans of potential gasoline, steel, aluminum and electricity shortages. It believed that with factories converting to military production and consuming many critical supplies, rationing would become necessary if the country entered the war. It established a rationing system after the
attack on Pearl Harbor. In June 1942 the
Combined Food Board was set up to coordinate the worldwide supply of food to the Allies, with special attention to flows from the U.S. and Canada to Britain. American civilians first received ration books—War Ration Book Number One, or the "Sugar Book"—on 4 May 1942, through more than 100,000 school teachers,
Parent-Teacher Associations, and other volunteers.
Coffee was rationed on 27 November 1942 to every five weeks. By the end of 1942, ration coupons were used for nine other items. The work of issuing ration books and exchanging used stamps for certificates was handled by some 5,500 local ration boards of mostly volunteers. As a result of the gasoline rationing, all forms of automobile racing, including the
Indianapolis 500, were banned. All rationing in the United States ended in 1946. , a girl of 11, her notes about starvation and deaths of her sister, then grandmother, then brother, then uncle, then another uncle, then mother. The last three notes say "Savichevs died", "Everyone died" and "Only Tanya is left." She died of intestinal
tuberculosis shortly after the siege. In the
Soviet Union food was rationed from 1941 to 1947. In particular, daily bread rations in
besieged Leningrad were initially set at . By the end of 1941 the bread rations were reduced to for workers and for everyone else, which resulted in a
surge of deaths caused by starvation. Starting in 1942 daily bread rations were increased to for workers and for everyone else. One of the documents of the period is the diary of
Tanya Savicheva, who recorded the deaths of each member of her family during the siege. Rationing was also introduced to a number of British dominions, and colonies, with rationing of clothing imposed in Australia, from 12 June 1942, and certain foodstuffs from 1943. Canada rationed tea, coffee, sugar, butter and mechanical spares, between 1942 and 1947. The Cochin, Travancore and Madras states, of
British India elected to ration grain between the fall of 1943 and spring 1944. Egypt introduced a ration card-based subsidy of essential foodstuffs in 1945.
New Zealand rationing in began in 1942 and was abolished on most foods in 1948, but continued on butter until 1950. Similarly rationing was introduced across the Japanese empire, as commodities such as rice became scarce in territories, after the destruction of the transport infrastructure that once served colonies. Many countries had
gasoline rationing that determined how much gasoline could be filled in a fuel tank, depending on whether the driver was essential to the war effort.
Peacetime rationing Civilian peacetime rationing of food has been employed after natural disasters, during contingencies, or after failed governmental economic policies regarding production or distribution, as well as due to extensive
austerity programs implemented to cut or restrict public spending in countries where the rationed goods previously relied on government procurement or subsidies, as was the case
in Israel. In the
United Kingdom, rationing remained for several years after the end of the
war. Some aspects of rationing became stricter than they were during the conflict—two major foodstuffs that were never rationed during the war, bread and potatoes, were rationed after it (bread from 1946 to 1948, and potatoes for a time from 1947). Tea was still rationed until 1952. In 1953 rationing of sugar and eggs ended and in 1954, all other rationing was abolished when cheese and meats came off ration. Some centralized
planned economies introduced peacetime rationing systems due to food shortages in the postwar period.
North Korea and
China did so in the 1970s and 1980s, as did
Socialist Republic of Romania during Ceausescu's rule in the 1980s, the
Soviet Union in 1990–1991, and from 1962–present in
Cuba. residents standing in line to buy food rations, 1954 From 1949 to 1959,
Israel was
under a regime of austerity, during which rationing was enforced. At first, only staple foods such as cooking oil, sugar, and margarine were rationed, but it was later expanded, and eventually included furniture and footwear. Every month, each citizen would get food coupons worth six
Israeli pounds, and every family would be allotted food. The average Israeli diet was 2,800 calories a day, with additional calories for children, the elderly, and pregnant women. Following the 1952
Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany, and the subsequent influx of foreign capital, Israel's economy was bolstered, and in 1953, most restrictions were cancelled. In 1958, the list of rationed goods was narrowed to just eleven, and in 1959, it was narrowed to only jam, sugar, and coffee. Petroleum products were rationed in many countries following the
1973 oil crisis. The
United States introduced
odd–even rationing for fuels during the crisis, which allowed only vehicles with even-numbered
numberplates to fill up on gas one day and odd-numbered ones on another.
Poland enacted rationing in 1981 to cope with economic crisis. The rationing system initially encompassed most of the population's daily necessities, but was gradually phased out over time, with the last ration being abolished in 1989.
Rationing in Cuba for basic goods was enacted in 1991 following the collapse of the
Soviet Union, which had previously subsidised the island nation's economy. Rationing started being phased out in the year 2000 at the end of the "special period", as Cuba had shifted to a more diversified and self-sustaining economy. Rationing, however, was not fully abolished and instead turned into an alternative way to purchase goods, in addition to the markets. This makes a curious departure from classical rationing, as during the 2001–2019 period, the rationing system was used in addition to, instead of as a replacement for regular markets. Cubans would be able to buy a certain amount of items at 'liberated' prices using ration coupons at a significantly reduced rate, while still being able to purchase more at regular market prices. This 'liberated' system persisted even during Cuba's period of economic growth and relative prosperity during the early and mid 2010s and enjoyed considerable popularity among the island's citizens. Cuba later re-introduced a classical limiting rationing system in 2019, following the imposition of strict sanctions on the island by US President
Donald Trump, as well as the collapse of petroleum shipments from
Venezuela, which was facing its own economic troubles at that time. Cuba's president pitched the new system as significantly more lenient than the 1991–2000 "special period", though admitted that it would negatively affect consumption. Short-term rationing for gas and other fuels was introduced in the
U.S. states of
New Jersey and
New York following
Hurricane Sandy in 2012. In April 2019,
Venezuela announced a 30-day electricity rationing regime in the face of power shortages. For a few years during a
series of droughts in California (from 2015 to 2019), the
California State Water Resources Control Board had mandatory water-use restrictions. In 2021,
Sri Lanka, facing a major economic crisis, is considering introducing food rationing. According to
The Hindu, "President
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has called in the army to manage the crisis by rationing the supply of various essential goods." , peacetime rationing for basic foodstuffs and similar goods is in effect in Cuba and North Korea.
Refugee aid rations Aid agencies, such as the
World Food Programme, provide food rations and other essentials to
refugees or
internally displaced persons who are registered with the
UNHCR and are either living in
refugee camps or are supported in
urban centres. Every registered refugee is given a ration card upon registration which is used for collecting the rations from food distribution centres. The 2,100 calories allocated per person per day is based on minimal standards and is frequently not achieved, as has been the case in Kenya. According to Article 20 of the
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees refugees shall be treated as national citizens in rationing schemes when there is a rationing system in place for the general population. ==Other types==