These Are America's Most Expensive Cheese Pizzas, Says New Study

Perhaps you assume that New York has the most expensive cheese pizza, given that the city is well known for selling deliciously cheesy slices. But according to a recent study published by Expensivity, a company focused on providing readers with accurate data on investing and personal finance, New York's prices are surprisingly cheaper.

In fact, the most expensive cheese pizzas sold in America are in the Last Frontier. After mapping out the average price of cheese pies across the country, Expensivity found that Alaska has the highest average price of cheese pizza at $9.21.

Does that mean the Empire State is close behind? Not at all. In fact, the following states are considered to have the most expensive cheese pizzas prices before New York even hits the list. Without further ado, here are their average prices:

Alaska: $9.21
Montana: $9.07
Oklahoma: $9.00
Vermont: $8.93
Connecticut: $8.76
Pennsylvania: $8.72
Kentucky: $8.60
Mississippi: $8.56
Kansas: $8.51

To gather this data, Expensivity took a look at menus and prices at pizzerias across the U.S. using estimates from MenuWithPrice and Yelp API. It collected the prices of any pizzas that were "plain," "cheese," or "Margherita" and averaged the price for the entire state.

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According to the data, the average price of a cheese pizza in New York is $8.27, while Illinois—home of the famous deep-dish slice—averages just $7.33 per cheesy pie.

How is this possible? Typically, pizzas that stick to plain cheese tend to be a lot cheaper than pies with deluxe toppings. To illustrate the difference, Expensivity also looked at the prices of pepperoni pizza. Oklahoma has the most expensive pepperoni pizza with an average price of $15.56 per pie. Trailing close behind are Iowa at $15.38, and Kansas at $14.96. New York still keeps it cheap with an average price of $9.20 per pepperoni pie.

Maybe New York's average pizza price for the entire state is cheaper, but it's probably different in the city, right? Still not true. According to Expensivity's 2021 U.S. Pizza Index, Eau Claire, Wis., has the highest average cheese pizza price in the entire nation with an average of $15.01 per pie. New Haven, Conn., comes in second at $13.84, while New York City averages just $9.96 per pizza.

And while New York City may seem like a city full of pizzerias, it doesn't even have the highest density of them. According to the data, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has the most pizzerias, averaging 95.4 pizzerias per 100,000 people. NYC doesn't even come close with only 8 pizzerias available per 100,00 people.

Now, what about the cheapest cheese pizzas? According to the data, the average cheese pizza in North Dakota costs $6.64. Rhode Island comes in a close second at just $6.68 per pizza—and it's also known for having the highest density of pizzerias compared to any other state. In terms of cities, you can find the cheapest cheese pie in Wilmington, N.C. There, the average price is $6.35.

Sorry, New York, but it looks like you aren't winning the cheesy pizza game!

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