Pizza is an American staple, an easy and generally inexpensive option for a snack or a main meal. There are pizzerias all over the country and, while prices don’t vary enormously, some places sell their pies for less than others.
24/7 Tempo has assembled a list of the 50 U.S. cities with the cheapest pizza. The information is drawn from the Pizza Index 2021 published by the financial advisory site Expensivity. The site considered the comparative prices of a cheese pizza in 259 cities around the country, reviewing menus and prices from MenuWithPrice. They considered any offering described as “plain pizza,” “cheese pizza,” or “Margherita pizza,” but didn’t differentiate between pies of different sizes, so the averages given reflect the prices of qualifying pizzas of all sizes.
If you’ve got a craving for pizza and are on a budget, you’ll be lucky if you’re anywhere near Wilmington, North Carolina, or Hayward, California — where the pizzas both come in at a very reasonable average of $6.35 each. Even at the other end of the scale, a pie in Santa Ana, California, will run you only $7.62 on average. (Price aside, these are the best cities for pizza lovers.)
Click here to see the cities with the least expensive pizza.
To identify the cities with the least expensive pizza, 24/7 Tempo reviewed the average price of a plain pizza from Pizza Index 2021 for 259 cities around the country. The price of a pepperoni pizza also came from the Pizza Index. Pizza Index used prices that were derived from menus using MenuWithPrice and the number of pizzerias was derived from the Yelp API. Total population used to adjust for pizzerias per 100K population was from the US Census Bureau.
It might surprise some pizza-lovers to note that no cities from New York State figure on our list. There are plenty of bargain-priced pizzerias in New York City, for example (there aren’t many other places where you can get an ample slice for a buck), but both city and state have plenty of upscale pizzerias, too, which brings up the average. (The upside is that New York does boast some of the 25 best pizza places in America.)
50. Santa Ana, California
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.62
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49. Raleigh, North Carolina
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.55
48. Escondido, California
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.52
47. Hialeah, Florida
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.51
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46. Fremont, California
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.50
45. Lincoln, Nebraska
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.49
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44. Arlington, Texas
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.48
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43. Detroit, Michigan
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.45
42. Lakeland, Florida
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.43
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41. Greensboro, North Carolina
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.43
40. Tucson, Arizona
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.40
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39. Kissimmee, Florida
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.40
38. Kansas City, Missouri
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.38
37. San Antonio, Texas
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.37
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36. Huntsville, Alabama
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.37
35. Tallahassee, Florida
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.37
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34. Bloomington, Illinois
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.34
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33. Carmel, Indiana
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.33
32. Ann Arbor, Michigan
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.32
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31. Costa Mesa, California
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.32
30. Durham, North Carolina
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.27
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29. Kalamazoo, Michigan
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.24
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28. Jacksonville, Florida
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.22
27. Leominster, Massachusetts
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.19
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26. Huntington Beach, California
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.19
25. Mesa, Arizona
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.18
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24. Omaha, Nebraska
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.15
23. Anaheim, California
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.13
22. Green Bay, Wisconsin
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.05
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21. Peoria, Arizona
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $7.04
20. Lexington, Kentucky
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.99
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19. Richmond, Virginia
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.95
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18. Salt Lake City, Utah
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.93
17. Peoria, Illinois
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.89
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16. Glendale, California
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.84
15. Tempe, Arizona
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.84
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14. Columbia, Missouri
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.82
13. Vista, California
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.81
12. Fort Worth, Texas
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.79
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11. Danbury, Connecticut
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.78
10. Columbia, South Carolina
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.71
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9. Nashville, Tennessee
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.65
8. Indianapolis, Indiana
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.62
7. St. Louis, Missouri
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.61
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6. Denton, Texas
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.51
5. Fort Wayne, Indiana
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.51
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4. Lafayette, Indiana
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.40
3. Gilbert, Arizona
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.40
2. Hayward, California
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.35
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1. Wilmington, North Carolina
> Avg price of a plain pizza: $6.35
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