Guess what kind of food Americans like best?

OK, besides American cuisine, which 91 percent of U.S. residents say they like. (Gotta feel bad for the 9 percent of Americans who don’t like American cuisine, eh?)

The national cuisine Americans like most is … Italian food. According to an International survey conducted by YouGov, 88 percent of Americans surveyed said they have tried and like Italian cuisine. Judging from the fact that pizza and pasta are undeniable U.S. diet staples, that’s not surprising.

The next most popular cuisine among U.S. residents was Mexican, with 86 percent saying they liked it, followed by Chinese (84 percent), Spanish (79 percent) and Japanese (74 percent) cooking.

The survey, for which the market research and data analytics firm polled more than 25,000 people in 24 markets, asking them which of 34 national cuisines they had eaten and whether or not they liked them, also determined that Italian food was the most popular food not only in the U.S., but worldwide, averaging 84 percent in popularity across all 24 nations surveyed. While popular nearly everywhere, Italian food was most popular with Italians themselves; 99 percent of Italy residents had a favorable opinion of Italian food. (Because … duh.)

While Italian cuisine emerged as the most popular in the world, both Chinese food and Japanese food were not too far behind, with, respectively, 78 percent and 71 percent of those surveyed around the world expressing a favorable attitude towards those cuisines.

American cuisine, meanwhile, was not admired quite as much the world over as it is at home, but it still fared fairly well in the polling, ranking 7th out of 34 cuisines globally, with 68 percent of people around the world saying they had tried American food and liked it.

Burgers and fries, hot dogs and apple pie -- they’re delicious in any language.

Photo: iStock

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