The State With The Cheapest Cheese Pizza
Whether after a long day at work, at the end of a night out that went maybe a little bit long or a little bit wrong, or just because of a million other things, there's nothing like the warmth and chewiness of a hot slice of pizza to set things right in the world. In recent years, numerous polls have shown the undisputed place of pizza at the top of Americans' list of comfort food. As just one example, a 2018 survey by the Sara Lee Corporation, a frozen and packaged foods company, found Americans ranking pizza as their go-to comfort food, followed by "... burgers, fried chicken, french fries, pasta, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, mashed potatoes, chili and tomato soup." Similarly, a 2020 report from Technomics, as reported by Dairy Processing, affirms pizza's enduring role as the favorite American comfort food.
But, in these budget-conscious times, as working Americans and American families find themselves dealing with food inflation, the place of pizza as the country's premier comfort food may find itself adjusting to some sobering fiscal realities. In other words, the price may begin to be an even bigger factor in the decision to pick up a pizza on the way home from work or grab a slice out of the hot cabinet at the corner convenience store.
Where is the cheapest cheese pizza in the United States?
As inflationary pressures built last year, the money management website Expensivity released its 2021 US Pizza Index ranking of the price of a cheese pizza in every state. The study took an average of all pizzas offered at selected restaurants on Menu with Price, choosing pizzas listed as either "plain," "cheese," or "Margherita." North Dakota has the cheapest cheese pizza, costing an average of just $6.64 for Margherita, which typically comprises tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil. The most expensive cheese pizza in the United States is in Alaska, at an average of $9.21.
The survey also included a ranking of the average price of a pepperoni pizza in each of the 50 states, given that pepperoni is a massively popular pizza topping. A pepperoni pizza in Utah will cost an average of just $6.49, the lowest in the country, while Oklahoma is at the top of the scale, where the average cost is $15.56. Expensivity also included a city-level breakdown of average prices for pepperoni pizza: A sampling reveals that a pepperoni pizza costs $10.31 in Seattle, $9.50 in Washington, D.C., $8.58 in Las Vegas, $7.78 in Athens, Georgia, and just $6.84 in Pittsburgh.