Global: How often are consumers ordering takeaway food?

Eating out became a rare occurrence during the pandemic, with many restaurants offering takeaways and home deliveries in place of eat-in dining. But, with the world mostly on the mend, is the takeaway culture here to stay? Latest data from YouGov’s newest tool, Global Profiles, reveals how often consumers buy food from takeaway outlets – and as many as one in three of us are ordering in several times a week. Global Profiles tracks consumer thoughts, feelings, behaviors and habits, and monitors global trends and media consumption across 43 markets.

From the 22 markets in this piece, Taiwan (10%) and Thailand (9%) are the markets where people are most likely to buy takeaway food more than once a day.

‘Several times a week’ is the most popular choice among consumers in most of the markets we looked at. Singapore takes the top spot in this segment - they are most likely to say they eat takeaway food several times a week (36%). Consumers in other Asian countries like Taiwan (33%), Hong Kong (33%), Indonesia (30%), Thailand (29%) and Vietnam (28%) also share similar eating habits. Japan is the only Asian country where a third of consumers say they order takeaway less often than once a month (30%) and another 20% say they never buy takeaway.

Data suggests that ordering takeaway several times a week is also a popular option among consumers in the MENA region. Saudi Arabia (24%) and UAE (23%) register nearly a quarter of consumers, while Egypt has slightly less than two in ten consumers (17%) ordering takeaway multiple times a week. A similar number of Egyptians (18%) are also more likely to order-in several times a month.

Urban Mexicans are the most likely among all markets surveyed in this study to order takeaway food once a week (35%). A further 27% do so more often still. In the North American region, Canadians are most likely to order once a month or less often (20% each), while Americans reveal that they mostly order several times a month (21%).

According to the data, takeaway is not as popular in Australia and the European region. Australians are most likely to say they order takeaway less often than even once a month (22%). That figure goes up to 32% in Germany and 29% in Great Britain. French consumers register over a quarter of consumers in the ‘less often’ category (27%) and the French are also more likely to say ‘never’ (30%) than any other markets in this poll.

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Methodology: YouGov Global Profiles is a globally consistent audience dataset with 1000+ questions across 43 markets. The data is based on continuously collected data from adults aged 16+ in China and 18+ in other markets. The sample sizes for YouGov Global Profiles will fluctuate over time, however the minimum sample size is always c.1000. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from India and UAE, which use urban representative samples, and China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, which use online representative samples. Learn more about Global Profiles.