pasta by the numbers

Ranking of pasta in Oxfam's recent survey of the world's favourite foods: 1.

Total value of pasta sold worldwide in 2010: US$16 billion.

2011 kg per capita consumption of pasta in...

Italy: 26
Venezuela: 12.3
Tunisia: 11.9
Greece: 10.5
Switzerland: 9.3
US: 8.8
Canada: 6.5
Japan: 1.7

Number of times a week in 2011 average Italian ate pasta: 5.

Number of shapes and sizes of pasta: 310.

Number of names these shapes and sizes are known by: 1300.

Century when mass production techniques introduced in Naples made pasta available to the masses for the first time (prior to this it was a luxury food): 18th.

As for the the age-old Italy vs China debate about who invented pasta, this should settle it...

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