America’s Burger Loving States

It’s no secret that we love burgers. After all, we eat a whopping 20 billion of them each year.

But which state reigns supreme when it comes to its love for burgers?

We conducted a study to find out.

Using a combination of burger restaurant data, burger search demand data, and burger consumption statistics, we mapped out America’s biggest burger-loving states.

More on our methodology and sources here.

America’s Biggest Burger Eaters

Hover over the interactive map to view more information.

Key Highlights

• Oregonians love burgers the most. They eat 78 burgers per year compared to the average of 60 – that’s close to 337 million burgers (or 200,000 entire cows).
• Nevadans top the list for burger demand*, followed by Utahns and Oregonians.
• Arizona has the most burger restaurants per person (10.4 for every 100,000 residents), followed by Ohio and Kentucky.
• D.C. and New York are the places you’re least likely to be having a burger. Possibly because there’s more competition from other cuisines. For example, sushi is searched for more than burgers in the state of New York!

BurgerS EATEN PER PERSON PER YEAR

Fun BURGER Facts

• Americans eat an average of 20 billion burgers a year (source). That’s the equivalent of 12.5 million cows!
• If you lined the 20 billion burgers up, you’d be able to go all the way to the moon 5 times.
• 40% of Americans like their burgers well done, and women are much more likely than men to opt for a well-done burger. Nearly 50% of women prefer well done, compared to only 33% of men (source).
• What toppings do you put on your burger? If you went for cheese, you’re in agreement with 70% of Americans. A surprising 48% would also add some pickles (source).

DATA

INFOGRAPHICS

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You are free to share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.

Press & media enquiries

For any press and media enquiries, or for access to any specific base data, please contact Veronica at [email protected].

Sources & Methodology

*Burger Demand: burger demand has been calculated using Google Trends for any searches containing the word ‘burger’. These include multiple demand occasions, including recipes, local searches (e.g. ‘burger joints near me’), and food delivery order searches.

According to Ahrefs search volume data, searches including the term ‘burger’ are searched 35 million times a month across the US.

Google Trends demand values are for the period 8/20/21 – 8/20/22.

Burger Restaurants Per Capita: we obtained aggregate state-level data for all restaurants tagged with the cuisine as ‘burger’ using the OpenStreetMap API.

Burgers Per Person: according to a YouGov survey conducted by White Castle, Americans eat an average of 60 burgers a year (or 20 billion burgers a year in total).

We created an evenly weighted index of both ‘burger demand’ and ‘burger restaurants per capita’ and apportioned the 20 billion burgers by state. Finally, we used U.S. Census Bureau data to arrive at a state-level ‘burgers per person’ estimate.

About Pantry And Larder

Pantry & Larder exists to help normal people get the most out of their food. Whether that’s by learning the best way to store and reheat your leftovers, by discovering the most delicious pairing for your meals, or by finding different substitute ingredients.

We’ve spent thousands of hours in the kitchen, rigorously testing everything you see here. We make the mistakes so you don’t have to.