How many cups of rice are in a pound?

There are about 2 cups of white rice in 1 pound. Brown rice is slightly more, about 2 1/4 cups per pound. With wild rice, it takes about 3 cups to equal 1 pound.

The conversion from cups to pounds is not exact, because cups is a unit of volume in cooking, and pound is a unit of weight. Many foods are sold by weight. When cooked with water, both the volume and weight of the rice increase significantly. When preparing white rice, there is a 2-1 ratio between water and rice. Each cup of rice needs 2 cups of water at the start of the cooking process.