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🍕 Which state has the best pizza in the U.S.? 🍕
Ohio is the nation's best state for pizza — thanks to high rankings from Cleveland (No. 2), Columbus (No. 3), and Cincinnati (No. 19).
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Ranking 50 Cities for Pizza | Top 15 Pizza Cities | Rankings by Category | A
Note on New York | Worst Pizza Cities | Methodology
People love debating about pizza — almost as much as they love eating it. Pizza connoisseurs can argue over the right way to eat pizza, what toppings to include, and even the origin of the word itself.[2]
3. Columbus, Ohio
| 🎓 A Solid College Cuisine
The home of The Ohio State University is a hub for pizza restaurants, with 13.1 pizzerias per 100,000 residents — 64% more than the average city we studied. |
Columbus doesn't just have school spirit, it also has pizza pride. With a Google Trends rating for different types of pizza that's 34% higher than average, Ohio's capital ranks No. 3 in pizza passion.
Someone should throw a pep(peroni) rally, as pepperoni prices in Columbus are among the top 10 cheapest in the country (at $7.24, 14% cheaper than the average city we analyzed). Columbus residents also search for pepperoni pizza third-most of any city, behind only
Houston and Louisville, Ky.
A visit to Columbus will also give you a chance to try a regional specialty — Ohio Valley-style pizza, an unconventional take claimed by DiCarlo's Pizza in which the cheese and toppings are dropped onto the pizza cold after the rest has baked.[3]
[4] which one might find at Boston's University House of Pizza.[5]
Norfolk has 3.7 independent pizza restaurants per 100,000 residents — 20% better than the average city in our sample.
11. Baltimore, Maryland
| 🍽️ A Raven-ous Appetite
Baltimore residents aren't satisfied with plain pizza alone, ranking No. 1 in search interest for pizza bagels and pizza Margherita. |
The home of the Ravens supports an extra-large amount of independent pizzerias. Baltimore boasts 3.9 independent pizza parlors per 100,000 residents — 24% more than the average city in our study.
Baltimoreans don't have to travel far to find a nice slice: The city has a pizza shop every 1.74 miles, 38% closer than the average city's distance of 2.82 miles.
12. Tampa, Florida
| ☀️ Pride of the Sunshine State
Tampa shines as Florida's highest-ranking city for pizza — no small feat in the nation's third-largest state. |
Home of the NHL's Lightning, Tampa residents can find quality pizza in a flash. The city has a restaurant every 1.75 miles, 38% better than the average city we studied. Tampa also has 4.3 independent pizza restaurants per 100,000 residents —
seventh-most of the cities we measured.
Fans of Tampa pizza must have an affinity for the Mediterranean, as the city ranks No. 4 in search interest for Greek pizza and No. 5 in interest for Neapolitan pizza.
13. Minneapolis, Minnesota
| 🏞 A Winner in the West
Not in the East? You can still feast on pizza in Minneapolis, the westernmost city to rank in the top 15 for pizza cities. |
Minneapolis has a soft spot for a wide variety of pizzas. The city ranks top 10 in our pizza passion metric due to a 15% higher average Google Trends rating across different pizza variations when compared to the average city in our study.
Minneapolis also finds itself in the top five in search interest for breakfast pizza, sausage pizza, BBQ chicken pizza, and veggie pizza.
14. Chicago, Illinois
| 🐻 Better Than the Average Bear
This Midwest metropolis has a pizza place every 1.89 miles — 33% closer than the average city measured. |
Our data shows Chicagoans value a wide mix of pizza styles. With a 37% higher average Google Trends rating across 20 pizza variations, the city stands out as No. 2 nationally in our pizza passion metric.
The Windy City ranks No. 1 in search interest for Chicago-style pizza — no surprise there — and No. 2 for search interest in sausage pizza.
15. Nashville, Tennessee
| 🎶 Songwriters and 'Za Biters
Music City marches to its own beat when it comes to pizza, with 3.7 independent pizza shops per 100,000 residents — 18% higher than the average city in our study. |
More like Noshville: Our data shows locals have a knead for doughy Sicilian pizza, with the second-most search interest of any city in our study in regards to the Italian island's style.
Nashville residents can save their money for music venues thanks to low prices on cheese pizza. With an average cost of $6.65 across all sizes (slices and pies averaged together), cheese pizza is 22% cheaper for Nashvillians compared to the average city
we analyzed.
A Note on New York 🍎
Perceptive pizza connoisseurs might notice New York City is absent from our top 15. Let us address any sauce-spicions: Although the Big Apple definitely has many positives for pie-lovers, its pizza culture has a fair share of flaws.
On the plus side:
- New Yorkers can find pizza with little effort, as the city has a pizzeria every 1.2 miles, 57% closer than the average city we studied.
- New Yorkers on average have more dough to spend. As a result, a weekly pepperoni pizza runs them only 0.48% of their average annual income compared to the 0.71% average among the 50 metros we analyzed.
As for the downsides of New York's pizza scene:
- New York has a lackluster share of independent pizzerias. With just 1.5 independent pizzerias per 100,000 residents, it's half the average of 3.1 per 100,000 across the 50 cities we looked at.
- Locals don't show much of an interest in different styles of pizza, with a 14.7% lower average Google Trends rating across the 20 pizza variations we analyzed.
- New York has 7.7 overall pizza shops per 100,000 residents (including chains), lower than the average of eight among all 50 cities we included in our research.
That's not to say we're sleeping on the city that never sleeps — New York still finishes in the top half of our rankings at No. 22.
» MORE: The Most Bike-Friendly Cities in the U.S.
Data Details: Top 5 Rankings by Category
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The 10 Worst Pizza Cities
We can't pan-der to every town. Of America's 50 most populous cities, these 10 were the least impressive, according to the metrics we used:
- Riverside, California
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Houston, Texas
- San Antonio, Texas
- Miami, Florida
- Memphis, Tennessee
- San Diego, California
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Austin, Texas
When taken as a group, the bottom 10 pizza cities had just 2.6 independent pizza shops per 100,000 residents — 16% worse than the average of 3.1 in the cities we reviewed.
This slice of our 50-city sample has scant pizza passion, according to residents' search interest in a mix of pizza styles, displaying a 20.6% lower average Google Trends rating across the 20 varieties we analyzed. Residents in these 10 cities would also
have to dish out 0.82% of their annual average income to afford a weekly pepperoni pizza, higher than the 0.71% average across all metros.
Of the 50 cities we looked at, the data was most down on Riverside — in part due to high pepperoni pizza prices and a low pizza-to-people ratio:
- Riverside has just 5.37 pizza restaurants per 100,000 residents, making it bottom five in pizzerias per capita.
- Riverside residents seem ambivalent about trying a wide variety of pizza styles, earning the second-lowest score in our pizza passion metric that analyzes Google Trends to measure interest in a mix of pizza variations.
- Riverside ranks in the bottom three for density of pizza shops. The city has a pizzeria every 5.88 miles, double the typical 2.82 miles for the average city we evaluated.
- Taking all slices and sizes into account, pepperoni pizza costs about $9.72 in Riverside, 16% more expensive than the average $8.39.
If it's any consolation, Riverside residents, your city ranks No. 2 in search interest for Hawaiian pizza and No. 4 for California-style pizza.
Methodology
Anytime Estimate compared the 50 most populous U.S. metro areas across a number of metrics, listed below. Each metric was normalized and then graded on a 100-point scale. The combined weighted average of the scores determined the “pizza city”
score upon which the final ranking was based.
In cases where data sets included only cities or other statistical areas, the city data was combined into the overall metro in which the city belonged to the extent of the available data. In cases where data sets included only counties, county data was
crosswalked with metropolitan data. In cases where data sets included only states, the state where the largest portion of the metro is located was used.
The metrics used are as follows:
- Google Trends pizza varieties (31.25%)
- Google Trends pizza practical terms (12.5%)
- Total pizza restaurants per 100,000 citizens (18.75%)
- Chain pizza restaurants per 100,000 citizens (-6.25%)
- Independent pizza restaurants per 100,000 citizens (6.25%)
- Pizza restaurants per square mile (12.5%)
- Price of "cheese pizza" (6.25%)
- Price of "pepperoni pizza" (6.25%)
- Weekly cheese pizza per year for the average resident as a percent of total income (6.25%)
- Weekly pepperoni pizza per year for the average resident as a percent of total income (6.25%)
Data sources include: U.S. Census, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Google Trends, Thrillist, Pizza Today, US Business Data, Expensivity, and Menu With Price.
Article Sources
About Anytime Estimate
Stay on top of your money, around the clock. Since 2009, Anytime Estimate's straightforward calculators and expert articles have simplified mortgages, refinancing, and other real estate costs — fast. In 2021, Anytime Estimate was acquired by Clever Real Estate, a free agent-matching service that has helped consumers save more than $82 million on real estate fees. Research by Anytime Estimate's Data Center has
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FAQs
What's the best pizza city in the U.S.?
Detroit is the best pizza city in the nation. Detroit has the most independent pizzerias per capita, and its residents have the biggest appreciation for a variety of pizza styles, according to search data. Learn more.
What city has the most pizza?
Pittsburgh has the highest number of pizza restaurants per capita in the U.S. with 15.2 pizza places per 100,000 residents — 90% more than the average U.S. city. Learn more.
What city has the cheapest pizza?
The best prices for pepperoni pizza are in Salt Lake City (24% cheaper than the average metro). The best prices for cheese pizza are found in St. Louis (23% cheaper than the average city). Learn more.