Americans absolutely love pizza, and we think that’s a fact we can all agree on, but what are the stats that back this up? We decided to do the research and spent hours combing through the internet and reading books, newspapers and more to bring you the most comprehensive list of pizza statistics.
Read on to learn more about pizza consumption, pizza restaurant, and frozen pizza statistics. In crust, we trust.
Pizza Consumption Statistics
Guys, we eat A LOT of pizza. Have a look below to find out just how much pizza we eat, what kinds of pizza we eat, and more on our pizza-eating habits.
1. Consumer spending on pizza delivery in the United States amounted to approximately 16.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.
2. Americans consume about 3 billion pizzas each year.
3. Americans prefer thin crust pizza, about 61% as noted in pizza connoisseur Craig Priebe’s The United States of Pizza. 14% of Americans favor deep-dish.
4. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, about 13% of Americans eat pizza on any given day. That’s about 1 in 8 Americans!
5. About 350 pizza slices are sold each second, which means 21,000 pizza slices are sold each minute. That equals a whopping 1.26 million pizza slices per hour and 30 million per day.
6. In the United States, 59% of Americans choose to eat pizza in their homes rather than dine out at pizza restaurants.
7. Households with an income of $75,000 to $99,000 typically spend the most money on pizza annually.
8. The most popular time of day to eat pizza is for dinner. Around 59% of adults prefer to have pizza for dinner while 44% of kids choose it for lunch.
9. The number one pizza topping is pepperoni. 39% of Americans choose pepperoni, followed by sausage at 14% and cheese at 8%.
10. The top 5 biggest days for pizza sales, in order, are Super Bowl Sunday, New Year’s Eve, Halloween, Thanksgiving’s Eve, and New Year’s Day.
11. The biggest day for pizza sales is Super Bowl Sunday. Pizzerias see an increase of 35% in sales that day, and Pizza Hut sells an average of 2,500,000 pizzas in one day alone!
12. One in six males aged 2 to 39 eat pizza for breakfast, lunch, or dinner on any given day.
13. 93% of Americans have at least one slice of pizza per month, according to the USDA.
14. Consumption of pizza has increased America’s consumption of cheese by 41% since 1995. In roughly a 25-year span, cheese consumption has nearly doubled due to the high consumption of pizza in the United States.
15. The US is responsible for one-third of global pizza consumption.
16. The typical person eats 46 slices of pizza per year, totaling 23 pounds of pizza annually.
17. Most people eat pizza on Saturday nights, says Uber Eats.
18. 251.7 million pounds of pepperoni are consumed every year in the U.S. just from pizza.
Pizza Restaurant Statistics
The pizza industry is booming! Check out these statistics about local pizzerias, chain pizza restaurants and slice joints.
19. The pizza industry reported sales of more than $38 billion in the U.S.
20. There are more than 71,000 pizzerias operating in the United States.
21. The average cost of a large cheese pizza at a restaurant spans from $8.90 in Kentucky to $16 in the Big Apple, New York City.
22. There are at least 9,000 pizzerias in New York State.
23. Arkansas has the lowest number of pizzerias at 139, followed by Wyoming at 141.
24. The highest grossing single unit independent pizzeria in the country is Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria located in Anchorage, Alaska. Its annual revenue is about $6 million.
25. The most popular pizza chain restaurants, in order, are Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Papa Johns, Little Caesars and Papa Murphy’s.
26. Pizza Hut is the top-selling pizza chain with close to 18,703 Pizza Huts around the world and more than $5.5 million sales in the United States alone.
27. Pizza chains like Pizza Hut and Domino’s account for roughly 25% of all pizza sales while independent restaurants represent more than 53% of the market.
28. There are more than 34 million ways to create a pizza from Domino’s.
29. Domino’s is the “World’s Fastest Pizza Maker” and can make three large pizzas in just 47.56 seconds.
30. Papa John’s started in the back of a broom closet. In 1984, founder John Schnatter sold his car to buy equipment and start the pizza company.
Frozen Pizza Statistics
We love the convenience of heating up a frozen pizza at home, and it’s clear that many of our fellow Americans agree. Have a look at these staggering statistics on frozen pizza.
31. Global frozen pizza market is valued at USD 17.56 billion in 2021.
32. Approximately $6 billion of frozen pizza is sold in the U.S. each year. DiGiorno generates close to $1.2 billion in frozen pizza sales alone.
33. DiGiorno frozen pizza was first introduced into the U.S. market in 1995.
34. 203.13 million Americans consumed frozen pizzas in 2020.
35. 83.63 million Americans consumed Digiorno frozen pizza specifically in 2020.
36. Sales of frozen pizza crust and dough in the United States jumped significantly in 2021. Sales reached around 51.5 million U.S. dollars in 2021 compared to approximately 45.27 million dollars in 2020.
37. According to U.S. Census data and the Simmons National Consumer Survey (NHCS), 17.67 million Americans consumed 10 frozen pizzas or more in 2020.
38. Close to 2 out of every 3 households consume frozen pizza regularly.
39. The average frozen pizza costs $6.37.
40. In 2019, U.S. households with annual income earnings more than 100,000 U.S. dollars spent around 7.96 U.S. dollars per trip on frozen pizza purchase.
Conclusion
And there you have it, folks. Remember these pizza facts and stats the next time you’re eating a slice and be sure to share this knowledge with your friends!
Sources and References
It takes a village to accumulate all of this incredible pizza knowledge. We’d like to recognize the sources, experts and references that helped us build this incredible list of pizza statistics and facts.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, What We Eat In America: Consumption of Pizza
- Guinness World Records, Largest Pizza
- Craig Priebe’s The United States of Pizza
- Pizza Today, Press Releases
- PMQ Pizza Magazine, Pizza Power 2017 — A State of the Industry Report
- Domino’s, 101 Fun Facts
- The Atlantic, New Report: Americans Love Pizza
- The Week, America’s Pizza Obsession: By the Numbers
- The Washington Post, We Eat 100 Acres of Pizza a Day in the U.S.
- First We Feast, This Map Shows the States With the Most Pizza Joints Per Capita
- Futurism, NASA Astronauts Can Now 3D-Print Pizzas in Space
- Business Insider, Pizza is the Key to this Strange Economic Principle
- Papa John’s International Inc, Annual Report
- Statista, U.S. Pizza Market — Statistics & Facts
- Uber Newsroom, UberEATS Serves Up Some Cheesy Pizza Facts
- Grocery Headquarters, State of the Industry Almanac
- The Harris Poll, Pepperoni Tops Americans’ List of Favorite Pizza Toppings
- Public Policy Polling, More on Americans’ Attitudes Toward Food