How Much Do We Spend as a Nation on Takeaways?

From seaside fish and chips to the traditional Sunday dinner, Britain is well-known for its cuisine. But with eating habits changing, has it become easier for Brits to order-in rather than go through the lengthy process of preparing and then cooking a meal? We worked with DLM Distributions, the service providers of newspaper distribution, to investigate.  

How much are we spending?

The digital world is taking over and it’s now much easier to order fast food. Think JustEat, Deliveroo and UberEats for example. According to research, ordering takeaways cost Britons £1,000 per year — around £80 per month on average.

If you live in the capital, the cost is even higher. Research showed that monthly takeaways cost £107 per person in London. Although they are likely to order the same number of takeaways on a monthly basis, the cost of them differs since London is notoriously expensive in all areas compared to other regions here in the UK. To work out the difference, we take a look at how much regions are spending on their weekly shop and the price of a takeaway.

The South East are the ones who spend the most on their weekly shop — racking up £59.20! This was soon followed by Northern Ireland (£59.00) and London (£57.50).

Those who live in the North East fork out the least on food shopping — spending only £45.50. This was followed by Yorkshire & the Humber (£47.30) and Wales (£48.60).

Calculating a weekly cost of takeaways totalled at £20. Once this total has been removed from the North East (the region that spends the least on its weekly shopping), it would leave a total spend of £25.50.

Which takeaway is our favourite?

Payment Sense conducted their own research where they discovered that Chinese is Britain’s favourite takeaway — 35% of individuals said this. This was soon followed by Indian food at 24%, pizza with 13%, and what we hold close as a staple British meal, fish and chips at 7%.

When we visit a restaurant however, our taste for food changes. Most Brits preferring to go to an Italian restaurant (19%) in fact. Indian food followed closely with 16%, then, traditional pub food at 12%. At 10%, English and Chinese food scored low — showing that our tastes for eating out are different to our tastes for eating in.

Men or women, who enjoys takeaways more?

We found that men ordered more than women! However, in contrast, women spent a larger sum on their takeaways than men.

Which takeaways do men prefer?

Studies found that men preferred chinese food online order than Indian, which was soon followed by Italian, fish and chips and English dishes.

What about women?

They also preferred Chinese, Indian and then Italian — followed by fish and chips then Thai food!

A lot of us order a takeaway via phone (56%). This evidently shows that takeaway menus are still essential for direct marketing — as only 18% of people order through an app (where the menu will be available). The second most popular location was online, at 37% — 30% of people go out of their way to travel to the shop and order in store, highlighting that Brits are taking easier options to ordering food in the UK.

Charlotte Giver

Charlotte is the founder and editor-in-chief at Your Coffee Break magazine. She studied English Literature at Fairfield University in Connecticut whilst taking evening classes in journalism at MediaBistro in NYC. She then pursued a BA degree in Public Relations at Bournemouth University in the UK. With a background working in the PR industry in Los Angeles, Barcelona and London, Charlotte then moved on to launching Your Coffee Break from the YCB HQ in London’s Covent Garden and has been running the online magazine for the past 10 years. She is a mother, an avid reader, runner and puts a bit too much effort into perfecting her morning brew.