From fresh to frozen, statistics are showing that U.S. citizens have a serious penchant for pizza. It is estimated that about $38 billion is spent on pizza each year with about 13% of Americans eating pizza every day.
Typing "pizza near me" into your search bar will result in hundreds of pages dedicated to independent pizza places and franchises. The total number of pizza stores in the U.S. actually increased by 2 percent between 2014 and 2015. Next time you search for pizza near you, you will have more than 71,000 pizza joints across the U.S to choose from, which makes the decision process a bit tough.
Pizza places in the U.S. are primarily franchises, such as Hungry Howie's. However, there are at least a dozen states where the number of independently-owned pizza places rises above franchises. Overall though, pizza chains accounted for the majority of industry sales and brought in more than $22.7 billion in 2014.
Per 10,000 people, here are some statistics on pizzerias per capita across the U.S.
- New Hampshire has the highest number of pizzerias with 3.8 per capita
- Hawaii has the lowest availability of pizza with only 1.05 pizzerias per capita
- Other states with high pizzerias per capita included Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maine with more than 3.0 per capita each.
- States with lower pizzerias per capita included some larger states like Louisiana, Mississippi and New Mexico.
Hungry Howie's currently ranks as 11th among the Top 50 pizza chains. However, among all the pizza chains, its sales growth exceeds four of the top 10 chains with an average 22 percent sales increase (based on 2013 sales). On average the number of stores has also continually increased.
More than 1 million searches each month are dedicated to "pizza near me". Interestingly, most people are searching for pizza near them between March and July, very likely related to the fact that kids are out of school.
With millions of people searching for pizza near them, it really is no surprise that pizza sales have continued to grow each year. Mobile apps, online ordering and even ordering through social media has allowed pizza lovers to get their fix in any way they can.
Sources:
http://www.pmq.com/December-2014/Pizza-PowerThe-2015-Pizza-Power-Report/
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/new-report-americans-love-pizza/283721/