We bet you won't be able to guess the country's No. 1 spot
Here’s Which City Eats the Most Hot Dogs—By a Lot!
Published on Jun. 30, 2025
Hot dogs are as American as apple pie … only without the apples and with a whole lot of processed (sometimes questionable) meat. But don’t think too hard about it—they’re delicious, and Americans consume a lot of them. We’re talking tens of billions in the United States alone. With 4th of July just around the corner, chances are you’ve already got hot dogs on the brain. And in some parts of the country, that’s doubly true, with new data revealing the cities that consume the most hot dogs.
The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (NHDSC) teamed up with the Nielsen Company to find out just how many hot dogs Americans eat each year, pulling retail scanner data at supermarkets and grocery stores. They also estimated the number of hot dogs sold at places like sporting events, fairs and restaurants where barcodes aren’t used. One thing is for sure: American really loves hot dogs!
Can you guess which city earned the No. 1 spot? Keep reading to find out who downs the most dogs and how people enjoy them in various cities.
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Which city eats the most hot dogs?
According to the NHDSC’s list of the Top Hot Dog Consuming Cities 2024, that distinction goes to Los Angeles! The residents (and visitors) of this California city consumed roughly 27.5 million pounds of hot dogs in 2024 alone, according to the NHDSC. That crazy figure also means that the people of Los Angeles also spent more than $90 million just on hot dogs.
Why the dog mania on the West Coast? It’s apparently at least partially due to the baseball games at Dodger Stadium, where a whopping 2.5 million–plus hot dogs, aka Dodger Dogs, are consumed by baseball fans each year.
What other cities ranked high on the hot dog list?
Here are the other cities across the country that are hot on Los Angeles’s heels, according to the NHDSC data.
- Los Angeles, California
- New York, New York
- Dallas, Texas
- Chicago, Illinois
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Houston, Texas
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Miami, Florida
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Washington, D.C.
So just how far ahead is Los Angeles? It’s about 8.8 million pounds ahead of New York, which earned the No. 2 spot with 18.7 million pounds of hot dogs purchased. Dallas, on the other hand, was quite a bit lower, rounding out the top 3 with just 13.6 million pounds.
How many hot dogs will Americans eat on the 4th of July?
If there’s one day to eat a hot dog, it’s on the 4th of July. On just that one day, Americans consume around 150 million hot dogs—and only a small fraction of those will be eaten during Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. To put the full number in context, if you took 150 million hot dogs and lined them up one in front of the other, they’d reach from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., more than five times over!
But the 4th of July isn’t the only day that hot dogs take center stage. During peak hot dog season, which begins on Memorial Day and runs through Labor Day each year, Americans eat roughly 7 billion hot dogs. In other words, Americans are consuming 818 hot dogs per second during that peak summer season.
If you are rethinking your life choices right now, you are not alone.
What other interesting stats did the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council uncover?
- At Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, people consume six times the amount of hot dogs as Los Angeles International Airport and New York’s LaGuardia Airport combined. (And we’re guessing the hot dog prices at the airport would also blow our minds.)
- Major League Baseball fans eat almost 20 million hot dogs per baseball season.
- In 2024, 896 million pounds of hot dogs were sold at retail stores, which translates into more than $3 billion in sales.
- In 2024, New Yorkers spent more than $111 million on hot dogs in retail stores, more than any other market in the United States.
- July is National Hot Dog Month, and 10% of annual retail hot dog sales take place during this month.
How are hot dogs different in various cities?
Even though hot dogs are an American classic, not all Americans enjoy them the same way. In fact, you’re likely to be served a very different dog depending on which city you visit. Here are some of the most noteworthy regional hot dog varieties include:
- Chicago dog: This hot dog is layered with yellow mustard, relish, chopped raw onions, a pickle spear, sport peppers, tomato slices and a dash of celery salt, served in a poppy seed bun.
- Cincinnati dog: The Cincinnati Coney is served with Cincinnati-style chili and a pile of grated cheese on top.
- Kansas City dog: This hot dog is served with sauerkraut and melted Swiss cheese on a sesame seed bun.
- New Jersey dog: The so-called Italian Dog features a hot dog wrapped in a thick pizza bread bun topped with onions, peppers and deep-fried potatoes.
- New York City dog: This famous NYC hot dog comes with steamed onions and a pale, yellow deli-style mustard.
- Texas dog: Everything’s bigger in Texas, including this hot dog that’s topped with chili, cheese and jalapeños.
- West Virginia dog: This Southern hot dog is topped with chili, mustard and coleslaw on a steamed bun.
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