Where Indiana Ranks in Loving to Eat Pizza

Where Does Indiana Rank Among Most Pizza-Loving States?

There aren’t a lot of culinary fares that draw the type of acclaim that pizza does from coast to coast, whether it’s Neapolitan style pie or a more traditional New York slice.

That national love affair has spread its wings from the metropolitan areas of the East to the humble Midwest, with Indiana ranking among the national leaders in pizzerias per capita and search rankings.

With National Pizza Day arriving on Feb. 9^h and the Super Bowl a few days later, we decided to put coverage of Indiana sports betting on pause and look at the states that love to eat pizza the most.

IndianaBets.com utilized two combined data points to develop the ranking of the 50 U.S. states in terms of loving pizza. We utilized Statista.com to get the pizzerias per 100,000 in each state and 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.

Top 10 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

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Indiana in Top 10

Nationally, Indiana’s 29.1 pizzerias per capita ranks 13th out of 50 states and Washington D.C. The Hoosier State’s search ranking for “pizza” ranks ninth overall, with a search interest score of 74.

Those two datapoints give Indiana a total average ranking of 11, which puts the state 10th nationally, behind Iowa (8.5 total average ranking), No. 8 Ohio (8 total average ranking) and No. 7 New Jersey (7 average ranking).

Nationally, Rhode Island (1 average ranking), Connecticut (2 average ranking) and Pennsylvania (3 average ranking) are the leaders when it comes to interest in pizza, followed by Delaware (4.5 interest ranking) and New Hampshire (5.5).

Of the states just ahead of Indiana, Iowa had the fifth-highest pizzerias per capita (34.6) and the 12^th-highest “pizza” search ranking (69 interest score). Ohio finished with the ninth most pizzerias per capita (32) and the seventh-highest search ranking score (78).

Rhode Island had the most pizzerias per capita (37.3), and the highest search ranking for “pizza,” at 100, while Connecticut ranked second in both camps, at 36.8 and 88.

It seems like the desire of the good folks of Indiana to eat a good slice of pizza punches well above the state’s weight class, with the Hoosier State being one of three outside the East Coast to crack the national top 10, alongside Iowa and Ohio.

In between bites of pizza, make sure to look for Indiana sportsbook promos if you are looking to place a bet on the Super Bowl.

Author

Christopher Boan

@cgboan

Christopher Boan is a staff writer for IndianaBets.com. He has covered sports and sports betting for more than seven years and has worked for publications such as ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.