This Survey Says that Filipinos Are the Biggest Foodies in the World

It’s no secret that Filipinos love to eat. We’re always excited whenever there’s a new restaurant or café in town. A recent survey by global market research firm YouGov affirms this, and also shows that our love for food is unmatched in the world.
We asked 25,000 people in 24 countries how much they liked 34 national cuisines. Here are the top 5:
— YouGov (@YouGov) March 12, 2019
1. Italian cuisine - average of 84% in each country who have tried it say they like it
2. Chinese - 78%
3. Japanese - 71%
4. Thai - 70%
5. French - 70%
https://t.co/zLtuk3GJhk pic.twitter.com/qZzkTpSOQs
The study collected data from over 25,000 participants in 24 countries, all of whom were asked if they have tried and liked the cuisines of 34 cultures. And one of its findings was how Filipinos were the most likely to enjoy food from other countries.
“It’s Filipinos who are the most likely to appreciate international cuisine,” wrote Matthew Smith, lead data journalist of YouGov. “An average of 67 percent of Filipinos who had tried any given cuisine said they liked it, with only five types of food being liked by fewer than half.”
Filipinos’ favorite food
At the top of the menu for Filipinos is, of course, the country’s own cuisine, with 97 percent of participants saying that they enjoy eating Filipino food. It was a common finding across a majority of the cultures surveyed by YouGov—99 percent of Italian foodies like their own cuisine, while 98 percent of the participants from Thailand said they enjoy Thai food.
Coming in second is American cuisine, which 93 percent of Filipinos appreciate. Tying for third are Italian and Japanese food, which were both enjoyed by 90 percent of Filipinos.
On the other side of the list is Lebanese cuisine, which only 40 percent of Filipinos like according to the YouGov survey. The four other national cuisines that less than half of Filipinos enjoy eating are Norwegian, Saudi Arabian, Finnish, and Peruvian.
Is Filipino cuisine popular?
One other aspect of the YouGov survey that Filipino foodies would find interesting is how other countries liked the Philippines’ own cuisine. Unfortunately, Filipino food is among the least popular of the cuisines surveyed.
On average, only 36 percent of the participants said that they like Filipino food, tying for the second least popular cuisine with Saudi Arabian food. Both Peruvian and Finnish cuisines tied for least popular with only 32 percent of participants saying they liked them.
Excluding the Philippines, Australian foodies had the most positive reception to Filipino cuisine, with 56 percent of them saying they enjoy it. Meanwhile, Japanese foodies were the least impressed, with only 21 percent liking Filipino food.
Italian food proved to be the most popular among the 34 cuisines surveyed, with 84 percent of participants saying they liked it. Not far behind was Chinese cuisine at 78 percent, and completing the top three was Japanese food at 71 percent.