Clever Real Estate is back with its annual list of America’s best pizza cities, and it’s likely to stir up another hornet’s nest—which is at least partially the point.
Based on the website’s evaluation of a certain set of metrics, last year’s No. 1 pizza city was Denver. Prior to that, it was Detroit two years in a row. Putting the Mile High City at the top of the 2024 list generated some outrage (“Yeah, they lost me at Denver,” one BuzzFeed writer grumbled), as such lists often do.
This year brings a new study that will almost certainly set tongues to wagging once again. For 2025, the best pizza city in the U.S., according to Clever Real Estate, is Rochester, New York.
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First, let’s look at how the company reached the decision. Its data team evaluated 100 of America’s largest cities on the following factors:
- The number of pizza restaurants per capita
- The average price of large cheese and pepperoni pizzas on thousands of pizzeria menus (and how they compare to local incomes)
- Clever Real Estate’s Pizza Passion Score, which reflects Google searches related to pizza in various markets
- A city’s perceived pizza quality, as measured by a poll of 2,000 Americans
After crunching the numbers, Rochester came out on top, the company said, “as a result of one of the highest Pizza Passion Scores (98 out of 100), a high number of pizza restaurants per capita (25 per 100,000 residents), and high average Yelp ratings for pizzerias (4.11 out of 5).”
Philadelphia claimed the No. 2 spot, followed by Boston at No. 3. Rounding out the top 10 were Detroit and Buffalo (tied for No. 4); New Haven, Connecticut (No. 6); Pittsburgh (No. 7); New York City (No. 8); Albany, New York (No. 9); and Chicago (No. 10).
Only one Southern city made it into the top 20, and that was Washington, D.C., which is tied for No. 17 with St. Louis.
Respondents to Clever Real Estate’s nationwide poll see things a bit differently. Asked to name their top 5 pizza cities, Americans most frequently selected New York (66%), Chicago (57%), Los Angeles (22%), Philadelphia (17%) and Detroit (16%).
Other findings:
- Buffalo has the highest Pizza Passion score—a perfect 100, in fact.
- San Diego’s pizza restaurants have the highest average Yelp rating—4.35 out of 5 stars.
- New Haven has the most pizza restaurants per capita, with 35.6 per 100,000 residents. But New York City has the most pizzerias overall.
- More Americans love New York-style pizza (51%) than any other, followed by Chicago-style (40%) and Sicilian and Neapolitan (tied at 36% each).
But, hey, wherever your pizzeria is located, you’ll be happy to know that, according to the survey, about 59% of Americans say pizza is their favorite food.
