Where Pasta Is Often (or Rarely) on the Menu

According to Statista Consumer Insights, 54 percent of respondents from the U.S. say they eat pasta regularly. But that's nothing compared to the European home of pasta, Italy, where 75 percent regularly have pasta on their menu. The food staple is equally (or almost) as popular in Belgium, France and Spain, where between 72 and 75 percent of respondents count it as a regular fixture on their shopping list

As our map suggests, countries where rice is traditionally the base of a large portion of meals, such as India, Japan or China, seem to have a much smaller gap to fill in their diets with something like pasta. In India, 30 percent of respondents said they regularly eat pasta, while in China, this figure goes down to just 17 percent. The low figure in China requires, nevertheless, further explanation, given that the Middle Kingdom has a millennia-old noodle tradition. In fact, the survey questionnaire only refers to pasta (like spaghetti), and not specifically to Asian noodles, which may lead to bias in the responses in this region.