One 18-Inch Pizza Gives You More Pizza Than Two 12-Inch Pizzas

National Pizza Day on February 9th celebrates one of America’s all-time favorite foods. Whether it is thin crust, Chicago-style, deep dish or anything in between, pizza is an American favorite.

• 6th Century BC – Writings from Darius the Great record findings of flatbreads that are topped with dates and cheese, which is possibly the earliest mention of something like pizza
• 997 AD – The word “pizza“ dates back over 1000 years. The earliest known record of the word appears in a Latin text from 997 C.E.
• 1000 AD – Roughly 1,000 years ago, herb- and spice-covered circles of baked dough became exceptionally popular in Naples, Italy. Known as focaccia, these rounds were served as an appetizer or a snack.
• 1522 – Following the import of tomatoes to Europe, the people of Naples begin combining them with flatbreads. Naples’ status as a port city means sailors and travelers spread the word throughout Europe
• 1738 – Antica Pizzeria, the first Pizzeria, opened in Naples, Italy.
• 1830 – In Naples, Italy, the world’s first pizza restaurant opened and began to replace the street vendors who sold slices to local artists, students, and others with low incomes.
• 1861 – King Umberto and Queen Margherita of the newly unified Italy visit Naples, and the Margherita pizza gets its name
• 1895 – Gennaro Lombardi opened the first Pizzeria in the United States in New York City.
• 1933 – At first, pizzas were sold exclusively by the pie. But in 1933, Patsy Iancieri (of Patsy’s pizzeria in New York City) started selling pizza by the slice—a trend that was quickly picked up by other pizzerias.
• 1940s – Immigrants to New York brought the Neapolitan delight that is pizza.
• 1943 – Pizzeria Uno in Chicago invents the deep-dish pizza, sparking the ongoing debate over whether a casserole can be a pizza.
• 1958 – Pizza Hut the leading chain pizza restaurant, was founded in Wichita, Kansas
• 1962 – The first frozen pizza hit the market in 1962. It mostly tasted like cardboard until the genius food inventor Rose Totino got her hands on it.
• 1962 – Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada by Sam Panopoulos, a Greek native who ran a pizzeria in Ontario. Bored with only having three toppings available, mushroom, bacon, or pepperoni, he took down a can of pineapples from the top shelf and decided to throw it on the pizza.
• 2016 – NASA funded & tested a 3D printer that can make pizza for astronauts.
• The BeeHex company received a NASA grant. source
• 2024 – an estimated 12.5 million pizzas were sold in the U.S. on Super Bowl game day
• Pepperoni is the most popular pizza, accounting for 53% of all pies ordered.
• Over 3 billion pizzas are sold in the USA each year.  Add another 1 billion on frozen pizzas
• There are over 60,000 pizzerias in the U.S. — 56% are independently owned, and 44% are chain restaurants.
• Americans consume over 23 pounds of pizza per person each year.
• Americans order 350 slices of pizza every second.
• The highest per capita pizza consumption in the world is in Norway.
• The average pizza place uses roughly 55 pizza boxes per day.
• We consume about 251,770,000 pounds of pepperoni slices every year. 
• 93% of Americans have eaten pizza in the last month.
• Kids ages 3 to 11 prefer pizza over all other food groups
• Saturday is the most popular night to eat pizza.
• Women are twice as likely as men to order vegetarian toppings on their pizza.
•  61% of people prefer thin crust.
• Each year, thousands of people involved in the pizza industry attend Pizza Expo, the world’s largest pizza-only trade show. The Pizza Expo is held each year in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• One in six males aged 2 to 39 eat pizza for breakfast, lunch, or dinner on any given day
• Pizza accounts for more than 10 percent of all food service sales.
• Italian is the most popular type of ethnic food in America.
• 62% of Americans prefer meat toppings while 38% prefer vegetables.
• The first American cities to start selling pizza were New York, Boston, New Haven, Conn., and Trenton, N.J. All four of these cities had an influx of southern Italian immigrants around the turn of the century.
• Currently, there are over 19,000 Pizza Huts around the world, with 6827 in the USA.
• One of the biggest days for pizzerias nationwide is Super Bowl Sunday. Pizza is a major staple of this sports event, with an average of 2.5 million pizzas sold just from Pizza Hut alone.
• On Super Bowl Sunday, sales at pizzerias rose by 35%. Most people place their pizza orders an hour before kickoff.
• According to the United States Department of Agriculture, about 13 percent of Americans eat pizza daily.
• According to a USDA study, pizza is an extremely popular meal among men. Its most popular demographic is males ages 6-19, as more than 1 in 4 of them eat pizza on any day.
• A typical daily pizza serving accounts for over half of our lycopene diet.  Lycopene, an antioxidant shown to help prevent cancer and heart disease in a study published in the Annual Review of Food Science and Technology, is prominent in pizza. This is mainly due to the tomato sauce in pizza since tomatoes are known to have a naturally high concentration of antioxidants.
• One 18-inch pizza gives you more pizza than two 12-inch pizzas – source

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Foodimentary

Sweety High

Pizza Need

Eat This

USA Today

National Today

Scrape Hero

Days of the Year