Americans eat over 3 billion pizzas every year, 350 slices per second: 10 mind-blowing Pizza facts that may surprise you

The love for pizza around the world is growing every year, and for a country like the United States, it is perhaps one of the top preferences when it comes to fast food. The versatility and the wide variety of pizzas make it a top choice for people across the globe, especially Americans.

According to National Day Calendar, the highly popular pizza toppings include cheese, pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, and bacon. Onions, black olives, green peppers, Canadian bacon, anchovies, goat cheese, chicken, and spinach are also tasty toppings.

If statistics are to be believed, more than five billion pizzas are sold worldwide each year. As for America, according to Dairy Herd, Pizza ranks as the second most popular fast food, behind hamburgers.

Key facts about pizzas

Over 3 billion pizzas are sold each year in the United States—and that number jumps to 4 billion when you include frozen pizzas. Pizzerias make up 17% of all restaurants in the country. The world’s first pizzeria, Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba, opened in Naples, Italy, in 1738.

According to Silicon Valley Pizza Week, the first US pizzeria, Gennaro Lombardi, opened in 1905 at 32 Spring Street in New York City.

Each day, Americans eat the equivalent of 100 acres of pizza—that’s 350 slices per second!

Americans consume an average of 23 pounds of pizza per person each year.

Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day for pizza sales in the U.S.

Thin-crust pizzas are the most popular type of pizza crust, preferred by about 61% of pizza eaters. Saturday night is the most popular day of the week for eating pizza.

The largest pizza ever made, measuring 131 feet in diameter, was rolled out in Rome in 2012. The world’s priciest pizza, the Louis XIII, costs $12,000 and includes ingredients such as buffalo mozzarella, lobster, and caviar.

October is celebrated as National Pizza Month in the United States. It was established in 1984 by Gerry Durnell, the founder of Pizza Today magazine, to recognize and honor the love of pizza.

Pepperoni is the most popular pizza topping in the U.S., featured on 36% of all pizzas ordered. The world record for the fastest pizza-making was set at 14 pizzas in two minutes and 35 seconds.

NASA-funded scientists developed a 3D printer that can make pizzas for astronauts in space.