Most Popular Ice Cream Flavor by State

To determine the most popular ice cream flavor in each state, Holiday Calendar used a two-part methodology combining transactional purchase data with targeted survey research. First, we partnered with a leading consumer analytics firm to analyze anonymized grocery purchase data from over 12 million American households across major retailers, club stores, and regional grocery chains for the period of April 1st through July 10th, 2024—capturing peak ice cream buying season. Purchases were categorized by flavor across all major national and store-brand ice cream products, and mapped to the purchaser's home state. This approach provided high-confidence results for 35 states where purchase volume was sufficient to identify a clear winner. For the remaining 15 states where purchase data was inconclusive due to lower transaction volumes or close statistical margins between flavors, we conducted a supplementary online survey of 4,500 respondents (approximately 300 per state) between June 25th and July 10th, 2024. Survey respondents were asked to name their single favorite ice cream flavor. The combined methodology provides comprehensive coverage across all 50 states with a blended confidence level of 95%.