It's no exaggeration to say that there are as many types of food as there are people in the world, but it turns out that no matter who you ask, one cuisine always comes out on top: According to a recent YouGov survey, people love Italian food more than any other food in the world There are many. To be fair, there's no disputing pizza, pasta, and lots of cheese. But regardless, I guess there are some things that are universally loved.
In the survey, YouGov asked more than 25,000 people in 24 countries who had tried cuisine from 34 different countries and whether they liked the dishes when they tried them. Italian food has a global average score of 84%, earning it the blue ribbon for the world's most popular food - no small feat.
Perhaps it's no surprise that Italian food is most popular elsewhere? - Italy. 99% of Italian respondents said they had tried Italian food and liked it, leaving what the remaining 1% regularly eat in their home country an enduring mystery. Spain came in second, with 94% of respondents saying they liked pizza, pasta, etc. France, Sweden, the UK and the Philippines followed, with positive percentages ranging from 93 to 90; in 11 other countries, 80 % to 90% of respondents said they like Italian food. (The United States falls into this range, with 88% of respondents liking Italian food.)
The percentages dropped thereafter; responses from Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand fell in the 78% to 69% range. China had the lowest proportion, with only 59% of respondents saying they had tried and liked Italian food. Of course, "only 59%" is still more than half of the total number of respondents - and if the sample is broad enough to represent the entire country's population, that means there could be more than 817 million people like Italians living there.
So, uh, the force of Italian food is strong, that's what I'm saying.
Meanwhile, the least popular cuisines are... somewhat surprising: Global results show that only 32% of respondents said they had tried and enjoyed them, with Finnish and Peruvian cuisines tied for the bottom. But it’s worth noting that people from Finland participated in the poll, while people from Peru did not – meaning approval of Finnish food is as high as 94%, compared to 32 partners. Some deviation - percentage. If we remove Finland from the survey, support for Finnish food drops a few percentage points, to around 30%.
Do whatever you want with it.
Of course, it's hard for me to say that I don't like any particular kind of dish, so I admit I don't fully understand the "dislike" vote in the entire survey. ( Peruvian chicken is delicious, in my opinion.) Then again, I’m an omnivore; Plus, food is one of my favorite parts of traveling. Therefore, I may not be the best person to judge the validity of these results. Furthermore, everyone has the freedom to eat or not eat anything; your stomach, your decision. If you don’t dig Peruvian chicken like I do, that’s no problem, my friend.
It's also worth noting that within each country, there are always regional differences in the food you'll find there. Therefore, it is difficult to view each country's cuisine as monolithic. In Italy, for example, “pizza” doesn’t just mean one thing; Thick-crust Sicilian pizza is very different from thin-crust Neapolitan pizza, and Turin's Pizza al padellino or Pizza al tegamino is different from both.
The YouGov poll doesn't really take into account regional differences, or the availability of authentic versions of each cuisine in countries other than its country of origin, so keep in mind that what people in a country know as "Italian cuisine" (or " "Peruvian food" or "Finnish food" or whatever) may be different from what someone in another country knows.
You can view the full findings here. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some pasta to heat up...
