Which States Love Pizza the Most?

The pre-game snacks and postgame spreads will be in abundance for this Sunday’s Super Bowl. Can you imagine how many parties will have pizza?

Coincidentally, National Pizza Day arrives two days earlier, on Feb. 9. So, we decided to take a break from PA sportsbooks to discern the states that love to eat pizza the most.

PennStakes.com utilized two combined data points to develop the ranking of the 50 U.S. states in terms of loving pizza. We used Statista.com to get the pizzerias per 100,000 people in each state and then Google Trends to get the searches for “pizza” over the past 12 months (Feb. 1, 2023 - Feb. 1, 2024). Once acquiring that information, we averaged out the ranking of the states to get our final list. Here are the Top 10 states whose residents most love a slice or a pie:.

Pizza-Loving States

Overall Rank, State	Pizzerias Per 100,000 Rank	“Pizza” Search Ranking	Total Average Ranking
1. Rhode Island	1st (37.3 pizzerias)	1st (100 interest)	1
2. Connecticut	2nd (36.8 pizzerias)	2nd (88 interest)	2
3. Pennsylvania	3rd (36.2 pizzerias)	T-3rd (86 interest)	3
4. Delaware	6th (34 pizzerias)	T-3rd (86 interest)	4.5
5. New Hampshire	8th (33.5 pizzerias)	T-3rd (86 interest)	5.5
6. Massachusetts	7th (33.6 pizzerias)	6th (82 interest)	6.5
7. New Jersey	4th (35.7 pizzerias)	T-10th (70 interest)	7
8. Ohio	9th (32 pizzerias)	7th (78 interest)	8
9. Iowa	5th (34.6 pizzerias)	12th (69 interest)	8.5
10. Indiana	13th (29.1 pizzerias)	9th (74 interest)	11

Pennsylvania finished at No. 3. The Keystone State finished with 36.2 pizzerias per capita and tied for third with Delaware (No. 4) and New Hampshire (No. 5) with a “pizza” search ranking of 86.

The Ocean State - Rhode Island - topped the list in both pizzerias per capita (37.3 pizzerias) and a 100 for “pizza” search ranking. Neighbor Connecticut finished second with 36.8 pizzerias and a search interest of 88.

Rounding out the top 10: Massachusetts (6), New Jersey (7), Ohio (8), Iowa (9) and Indiana (10).

Super Bowl Sunday

The Pizzaburgh Steelers and the Pizzadelphia Eagles will not be playing in this year’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas, but pizza will be ordered and eaten constantly in the Commonwealth, starting Sunday afternoon.

Most PA sports betting apps list the San Francisco 49ers as a very slight favorite over the Kansas City Chiefs. Last year, the American Pizza Community organization estimated that during the clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles approximately 12.5 million pizzas were sold nationwide.

Whether it is plain, pepperoni, sausage or any other topping, pizza is the perfect Pennsylvania football meal. Just don’t forget the napkins.

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Author

Lou Monaco

@loumonaco

Lou Monaco had been East Coast Scene columnist for Gaming Today in Las Vegas since June 2019, covering the East Coast sportsbook scene with emphasis on NJ and PA. He also currently is a part-time writer for the high school sports department for NJ Advanced Media (NJ.com) in Iselin, NJ. Lou has over 30 years sports experience with previous stints at ESPN SportsTicker, Daily Racing Form and Oddschecker.