Three-peat. Pumpkin pie continues to be North Carolina holiday favorite

Published November 22, 2023

By High Point University Poll

In the latest High Point University Poll, more North Carolinians (24%) chose pumpkin pie as their favorite pie to eat during the holidays than any other type of pie. This is the third consecutive year pumpkin pie has been in that spot.

Other popular pies during the holidays in North Carolina include pecan (17%), sweet potato (16%) and apple (15%).

Less popular pies, chosen as favorites by less than 10% of North Carolinians, included chocolate (8%), cherry (4%), blueberry (3%), peach (3%) and strawberry (3%).

Previous HPU Polls found pumpkin pie to be the holiday favorite in 2022 and 2021. Pecan pie settled for second place in both those years, as well.

NC residents – Favorite Type of Holiday Pie (November 2023)

What is your favorite type of pie to eat during the holidays?

Pumpkin Pie – 24%

Pecan Pie – 17%

Sweet Potato Pie – 16%

Apple Pie – 15%

Chocolate Pie – 8%

Cherry Pie – 4%

Blueberry Pie – 3%

Peach Pie – 3%

Strawberry Pie – 3%

Other – 4%

Unsure – 2%

HPU Poll 99 was fielded by the High Point University Survey Research Center on Nov. 6 through Nov. 12 as an online survey using a panel of respondents recruited and maintained by Dynata. Dynata sent invitations to its panel of N.C. respondents and the SRC collected 1,010 responses on its Qualtrics platform. The SRC did all data analysis. The online sample is from a panel of respondents, and their participation does not adhere to usual assumptions associated with random selection. Therefore, it is not appropriate to assign a classic margin of sampling error for the results. In this case, the SRC provides a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points to account for a traditional 95% confidence interval for the estimates (plus or minus 3.1 percentage points) and a design effect of 1.2 (based on the weighting). The data is weighted toward population estimates for age, gender, race, ethnicity and education based on U.S. Census numbers for North Carolina. Factors such as question wording and other methodological choices in conducting survey research can introduce additional errors into the findings of opinion polls. Percentages may not add to 100 because of rounding.