Ice Cream Industry Statistics: Consumption, Shops and Flavors

By Rapamar Container Co. | Updated November 2026

Americans eat about 4 gallons of ice cream per person each year, and U.S. makers produced 1.23 billion gallons in 2025. Here are the latest ice cream industry statistics on production, consumption, prices, shops and favorite flavors, with every number linked to its original source.

We pull these numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and other primary sources. We update this page as new data comes out each year.

1. Key Ice Cream Statistics at a Glance

2. How Much Ice Cream the U.S. Makes

U.S. ice cream makers produced 1.23 billion gallons of ice cream in 2025, according to IDFA. USDA's Dairy Products 2025 Summary breaks that down by type:

The long-term trend

Americans are making less hard ice cream than they did 20 years ago:

• 2005: 888.7 million gallons of regular hard ice cream (USDA, 2005 summary)
• 2015: 775.2 million gallons (USDA, 2016 summary)
• 2025: 722.1 million gallons, down 19% from 2005 (USDA, 2025 summary)

Frozen yogurt fell even faster, from 74.2 million gallons in 2015 to 34.1 million in 2025, a drop of 54%.

3. How Much Ice Cream Americans Eat

The average American eats roughly 18 pounds of ice cream a year, or about 4 gallons, according to IDFA. USDA's Economic Research Service tracks each type separately. Here is its per capita consumption data, in pounds per person:

Each American eats about a third less regular ice cream than in 1975. But the trend may be leveling off. Per person, regular ice cream rose 1.8% from 2023 to 2024, from 11.8 to 12.0 pounds.

4. Ice Cream Production by Month

Ice cream is a summer business. Here is U.S. regular hard ice cream production for each month of 2025, from USDA NASS, in millions of gallons:

• July is the peak at 69.5 million gallons, about 42% more than December's low of 49.0 million.
• March through August make up about 54% of the year's production.
• Production stays high into October, at 61.1 million gallons, then drops in November and December.

This is factory production, not shop sales, so it runs a little ahead of what customers buy. Shops in warm states have a flatter year. See where shops stay busy in our post on ice cream sales in winter.

5. Ice Cream Sales in Stores

• Ice cream: $7.5 billion in U.S. store sales, down 1%, for the 52 weeks ending Nov. 2, 2025. Units fell 3% to 1.55 billion. (Circana via Dairy Foods)
• Frozen novelties such as bars, sandwiches and cones: $9.2 billion, up 3%, for the 52 weeks ending Dec. 28, 2025. (Circana via Dairy Foods)
• Premium and regular ice cream make up 80% of the market, according to ice cream makers surveyed by IDFA.

These two Circana numbers cover slightly different periods, so do not add them together.

6. Ice Cream Prices

The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks the average U.S. price of a half gallon of regular ice cream at the store (series APU0000710411):

That is up 21% in five years and 26% in ten years, but down about 9% from the August 2025 record. The BLS consumer price index for ice cream and related products fell 2.4% in the 12 months to September 2026, while prices for food away from home rose 3.5% (BLS CPI, September 2026).

7. Ice Cream Shops by the Numbers

• 12,781 ice cream shop businesses operated in the U.S. in 2025, with about $7.4 billion in revenue. The number of shops grew about 4.1% a year from 2020 to 2025. (IBISWorld)
• 72,985 snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars operated in 2021, a Census category that includes ice cream parlors along with coffee shops and juice bars. (U.S. Census Bureau)
• 20% of Americans say an ice cream shop is their favorite place to enjoy ice cream. Home is first, at 58%. (IDFA 2026 survey)

The big scoop shop brands

Thinking about opening a shop? Our guide to ice cream shop startup costs breaks down the full budget, and our free ice cream shop business plan template helps you put it on paper.

8. Favorite Flavors, Toppings and Cones

IDFA's National Ice Cream Trends Survey, run by Morning Consult with 2,205 U.S. adults in April 2026, found that chocolate is back on top (IDFA, July 2026). Here is how the top 5 changed since the 2024 survey (IDFA, July 2024):

Rounding out the 2026 top 10 are brownie, chocolate chip, cookie dough, birthday cake and mint chocolate chip (IDFA).

Toppings, cones and buying habits (2026)

• Top toppings: hot fudge 31%, whipped cream 27%, caramel sauce 21%, nuts 19%, chocolate sauce 18%
• Favorite way to eat it: waffle cones 30%, bowls 23%, waffle bowls 12%, sugar cones 11%
• What matters most when buying: flavor is "very important" to 72%, price to 48%, and the size of the cone or container to 39%
• Cone habits: 59% lick the ice cream first
• How many like it: 97% of adults love or like ice cream

9. Ice Cream Makers and Jobs

• 25,431 people worked in U.S. ice cream and frozen dessert manufacturing in 2024, on average (BLS).
• 442 ice cream and frozen dessert plants operated in 2021, with 22,767 paid employees (U.S. Census Bureau).
• $11.6 billion in total economic impact, 26,704 direct jobs and $1.9 billion in direct wages, according to IDFA.
• The Magnum Ice Cream Company, Unilever's former ice cream business, became its own company in December 2025, listed in Amsterdam, London and New York (Unilever).

States with the most ice cream factory jobs (2024)

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Economics Daily, July 2025. Utah has the highest share of its workforce in ice cream manufacturing, at 2.44 times the national rate.

10. Imports and Exports

The U.S. buys more ice cream from abroad than it sells. These figures come from U.S. customs data reported to the UN Comtrade database under trade code HS 2105, ice cream and other edible ice.

• Top export markets, 2025: Mexico ($81.2 million), Saudi Arabia ($28.7 million), Canada ($21.1 million), Australia ($20.5 million) and the United Arab Emirates ($16.9 million)
• Top import sources, 2025: Italy ($69.3 million), Brazil ($39.5 million), South Africa ($39.3 million), South Korea ($37.4 million) and Slovenia ($37.0 million)

Imports are valued including shipping and insurance (CIF).

11. Ice Cream History Facts

• July is National Ice Cream Month. President Ronald Reagan created it with Proclamation 5219 on July 9, 1984 (American Presidency Project).
• The same proclamation said ice cream was "enjoyed by over ninety percent of the people in the United States" and that over 887 million gallons were eaten in 1983.
• National Ice Cream Day falls on the third Sunday in July. In 2026 it was Sunday, July 19 (IDFA).

12. What This Means for Ice Cream Shops

• Plan stock for the summer peak. Production runs about 42% higher in July than in December. Order containers and supplies before spring, not during it.
• Chocolate and butter pecan earn a spot in the case. Keep the classics, then use limited flavors to bring people back.
• Price for the shop experience. A half gallon costs about $5.93 at the store, so a scoop shop sells something more than ice cream: the trip, the cone and the moment.
• Know your servings. Use our scoop size chart and scoops per tub calculator to find your real cost per scoop.

13. Frequently Asked Questions

Journalists and researchers are welcome to cite these statistics. Please link to this page and to the original sources above.