Mapped: America’s favorite Thanksgiving pie
Google Trends data reveals where US states stand in the great pie debate — pumpkin, pecan, or apple?
What’s more American than apple pie (besides, of course, death, taxes, and the stock market going up relentlessly)? On Thanksgiving, at least, it’s pumpkin pie.
In the run-up to Turkey Day, bakeries big and small, and home cooks good and bad, have been making, decorating, or defrosting one or another form of pie… most likely something squash-based. A recent YouGov survey found that 29% of Americans said their favorite type of pie to eat on Thanksgiving is pumpkin, followed by apple (20%), pecan (14%), sweet potato (9%), chocolate (9%), and cherry (5%).
However, like many dinner-table conversations that’ll take place on Thursday, the type of pie that’s presented post-meal depends a lot on where you’re from and where you live.
Over the past 30 days, there were more search queries for “pumpkin pie” than any other type of pie in all but six US states. Indeed, only Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New Jersey googled “apple pie” more often or as much as its pumpkin counterpart… while only Southern states Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi saw a greater search volume for “pecan pie.”
However you slice it…
America has a long, storied history with pumpkin pie. According to the Library of Congress, colonial settlers in New England were making the sweet treat as early as 1655, appearing in published cookbooks by 1796. Today, pilgrims or otherwise, pumpkin spice still has a firm place on the Thanksgiving table, but now the flavor holds a broader cultural significance in the “autumn vibes” space (see also: the Starbucks PSL).
