As the US is getting ready to celebrate National Pizza Week, numbers show that Americans have an increasing appetite for one of their favorite meals. The latest statistics from data specialist BoldData show that the amount of pizza restaurants in America has spiked by 39.2% over the last five years. However, growth abruptly stopped in 2020.
The US is home to the largest number of pizza restaurants worldwide. Italy – where the modern pizza was originally invented – comes in second with 42.288 pizzerias. Brazil completes the top 3 with 32.283 pizza joints. But the USA has nothing to fear from the rest of the world. With 90.817 pizza restaurants, the US still has more pizzerias than the top 4 combined (88.100). Australia is number 8 on the list: with 5.598 pizza restaurants, they have one of the highest numbers of pizza places per capita.
According to a press release from BoldData, there are currently 90.817 pizza restaurants in The United States. An increase of 39.2% compared to 2016 when there were 65.213 pizza places. Especially 2017 was a good year for pizza: with an increase of 11.137 pizza restaurants (17.1 %). At the beginning of 2021, the US should’ve reached 100.000 pizza restaurants, but the COVID-19 pandemic lowered the number of openings to just 581.
BoldData numbers show that California leads the way with 8.271 pizza places, of which 2.044 are based in the Los Angeles area. New York comes in second with 7.190 restaurants, a growth of 48% compared to 2016. The biggest growth took place in Hawaii (69%). Wyoming, on the other hand, is the state that has the lowest number of pizza joints (133).