The world's most popular takeout food
People from around the world have had to spend plenty of time at home over the last three months, with lockdown and travel restrictions aplenty. And, with restrictions on shopping and supermarket deliveries in higher demand than ever before, it's no wonder that many have embraced the comfort of a takeaway meal during that time.
According to figures collected by Betway from Google Keyword Planner, worldwide searches for 'delivery', 'food delivery', 'takeaway' and 'takeout' rose by almost 300 per cent between March and May.
But which countries have ordered in the most often? And what type of food have they been craving?
Which takeout food is the most popular around the world?
(Click for full-size Infographic)
The figures show that pizza was the most-searched food in 55 of the 81 countries for which data was available.
It has proven particularly popular in eastern Europe, with Belarus carrying out the most searches for 'pizza delivery' per capita according to Google Trends.
Russia and Ukraine, meanwhile, were fourth and fifth respectively.
Interestingly, vegan food was the most-searched term in Russia – the only time it appeared in the top two searches for any country in the world.
That could have something to do with the fact that it's common practice for followers of the Russian Orthodox church – who make up 71 per cent of the Russian population according to a 2017 survey – to eat a plant-based diet during Lent, which ran from 26 February – 9 April this year.
Chinese was the next-most popular takeaway after pizza, topping the charts in 11 countries, including the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and, unsurprisingly, China. In fact, when looking at the cities that searched for the term the most, all of the top eight were in English-speaking countries.
Per capita, it was the that UK searched for 'Chinese cuisine' more than any other country.
Sushi was the third-most popular of the three leading takeaways worldwide.
The dish is synonymous with Japan, so it seems strange that, per capita, it was only third on the list of countries that searched for it the most.
Instead, it was Denmark that scoffed the most sushi per person. Considering that raw, pickled and smoked fish have been staples of the Danish diet since the Viking era, perhaps its popularity is understandable. With nearby Norway being the largest salmon-producing nation in the world, there is also plenty to go around.
Which takeout brands are people searching for?
Given its ubiquity across the world, it's unsurprising that McDonald's dominated searches for branded fast food companies.
The burger-flipping giant is the world's largest restaurant chain in terms of revenue and, as of 2018, had 37,855 outlets in 100 different countries. Forty-one of 81 countries for which data was available searched for McDonald's more than any other restaurant or branded food takeout.
The highest concentration of those searches came from Europe, with 26 of the 30 European nations hankering for a Big Mac. KFC was the second-most popular fast food joint, topping the charts in 23 countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa.
But the country that most craved the Colonel's secret blend of herbs and spices was Malaysia, amassing an average of 301,000 searches per month – more than any other country.
It is estimated that KFC serves 25m customers every month in Malaysia – only 6.5m fewer than its entire population.
The menu offers various localised items like rice congee – a type of porridge – and teh tarik – a milky tea that is popular in southeast Asia. The most popular company in one specific place was Pizza Hut in the USA, which averaged 1.83m searches per month between March and May.
Why Takeaways?
With so many people stuck at home for so long, the surge in demand for takeaway food is not very surprising, with more people than ever also undertaking all nature of home improvement (more information here), DIY and other work to their homes. With more us doing many of those jobs that we have been needing and meaning to do for quite some time, we all need to be properly fuelled and nourished, thus the move towards the convenience of takeaways.
Interestingly, with more restaurants and eateries opening up in the coming weeks and months, more people are expected to make the move from takeaways for convenience to eating out for leisure, which is expected to help the economy recover and the population fill their stomachs.