In the latest CensusAtSchool survey, 39,000 students weighed in on the contentious debate: does pineapple belong on
pizza? The results are in, showcasing a tight divide among Kiwi youth. While 47% advocate for its inclusion, 41% reject
the idea of the South American fruit on top of their pizza. Surprisingly, 12% remained undecided.
According to Wikipedia, a Greek Canadian restauranter, Sam Panopoulos, inspired by the sweet-sour flavours of Chinese
cuisine, added the first pineapple to a pizza just over 60 years ago and called it the Hawaiian pizza. The name
“Hawaiian” surprisingly didn’t stem from the U.S. state but rather from the canned pineapple brand used at the time.
Initially met with skepticism and slow adoption, this unconventional topping took time to win over pizza enthusiasts to
become one of the most popular.
These statistics come from CensusAtSchool TataurangaKiTeKura, a non-profit online educational project that brings
statistics to life in English and Māori-medium classrooms. Supervised by teachers, students anonymously answer questions
in English, te reo Māori, Lea Faka Tonga, Gagana Samoa, Kūki ‘Airani Māori, or Vosa Vakaviti. The project is run by the
Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Stats NZ.
The eleventh biennial edition of CensusAtSchool was launched last year and will continue until the end of this year. See
the questions, which schools are taking part, and a live dashboard on CensusAtSchool’s website: www.censusatschool.org.nz.