With inspiration from Bill English’s infamous ‘pizza night’ social media post we decided to settle the debate once and for all, does pineapple really belong on a pizza? and for that matter, what about spaghetti?
Using our monthly online omnibus survey of 1000 New Zealanders over the age of 18 we posed a range of normal, and possibly not so normal pizza toppings and asked respondents how much they liked or disliked them. We used a one to five scale where one meant ‘strongly dislike’ and five meant ‘like very much’.
Unsurprisingly the most mainstream topping we asked about was also the most favoured, with more than two-thirds (68%) of New Zealanders saying they like (4+5) pepperoni/salami on their pizzas. Pineapple was also liked as a topping by more than half (53%) of respondents, which is good news for Bill English considering his choice of toppings. However, not such good news for Bill was that only 19% liked the idea of spaghetti on their pizzas, so he may have to drop that topping the next time he goes posting on social media.
Among National’s own supporters, fondness for pineapple on pizza was significantly higher at 61%. National voters were also slightly more accepting of spaghetti on their pizzas with 22% saying they like it as a topping. Green voters were very wary of spaghetti on pizza with only 8% saying they liked it as a topping.
We also asked about a range of not so standard toppings to have on pizza including; avocado, potato wedges, broccoli and no cheese. Out of these options the most disliked as a ‘toping’ was in fact a lack of topping, the thought of having a pizza with no cheese was something only 10% of New Zealanders liked the idea of.
There were also some demographic differences on several different toping options. Males were more likely to like peperoni/salami on their pizzas (75% said so) and females were less likely to like peperoni/salami as a topping (61%). The opposite was true for broccoli on pizza with only 8% of males liking it, and 16% of females. The older generation (60+) was less likely to like peperoni/salami (58%), spaghetti (10%), and potato wedges (11%) on their pizzas; while 18-29s were more likely to like potato wedges (38%).
Methodology
- UMR online SAYit poll of n=1000 nationally representative New Zealanders conducted between the 28th April and 10th May 2017.
- The margin of error for a 50% with 95% confidence is +/- 3.1%.