How Many People Will A 16-inch Pizza Feed?

By Kitchen Warrior | Pizza Baking and Cutting Tips

16 inches pizza

Depending upon where you live and the pizza options that are near to you, you might be a bit surprised to see a 16-inch pizza on the menu of a new pizza joint. Well, there’s certainly no shame in that - the vast majority of people around the world are familiar with pizzas being sized as ‘small’, ‘medium’, and ‘large’. That makes an awful lot of sense, and it’s sure to make things a little easier for the majority of pizza eaters from the outset of things

A 16-inch pizza is often the largest size that a pizza place will offer, which means that, when you’re looking for a wide range of options on the date of a pizza party, this large size might seem like a great idea. To be sure that you’ve got a great idea on hand, though, we might suggest that you consider the size of a 16-inch pizza.

A 16-inch pizza will easily feed a large crowd of people - it’s essentially an extra-large pizza at most places, as a regular large pizza typically measures about twelve inches across. Those extra few inches can be vital, though, so make sure to consider them for a group of people. If you’re looking for a quick answer, here it is: a single sixteen-inch pizza can generally feed five to six people with ease. They really are very big.

How many slices are in a 16-inch pizza?

This is a bit of a strange question, though it’s the first that came to our mind when we were considering the size of this pizza. At the end of the day, a 16-inch pizza can be sliced into any number of slices that you might prefer. This means that the question can be very hard to actually, properly answer.

A 16-inch pizza is a large option, best suited to a family. The overall size of the pizza is just a little over two hundred square inches - that’s a lot of food for anyone to eat, regardless of how much of a pizza lover they might be.

Personally, we prefer to slice enormous slices out of a pizza. That way, it’s easier to portion the pizza out among different people that might want it in your home, plus people can feel that they’ve had a little more to eat. Having that much more to eat will allow you to feel fuller, which is always a pleasant thing.

On average, though, we would say that most pizza places would generally cut a pizza into twelve slices, in total. That number of slices is ideal for four or five people, meaning that you can easily feed a crowd with a sixteen-inch pizza.

We do want to make it extra obvious, though - you can cut any size of pizza you want into any number of slices that might work best for you. With that in mind, don’t be afraid to slice your pizza into the ideal number for those that are eating with you.

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How many people will a 16-inch pizza feed?

Okay, so the good news in this regard is that a 16-inch pizza really is quite big indeed. This means that it could be expected to feed a crowd with ease.

We would say that a sixteen-inch pizza will feed four or five people with roughly average appetites. By this, we mean that if you’ve got a hungry teenager at your party, for example, they would be expected to eat a little more. A slight, dainty grandmother, though, might be expected to eat less.

pizza party

To be on the safe side of things, we would consider a sixteen-inch pizza enough for four people. That’s around fifty square inches of pizza per person, which is around the same as an eight or nine-inch individual pizza. Therefore, it’s a good portion for most people.

If you were a little worried about the pizza stretching that far, though, you might consider picking up some sides from the pizza place or perhaps getting something for dessert.

The best way to consider things is to try to balance who will be at the party, and the budget that you’re working with. If you’re on a limited budget, then going for a four-people-to-a-pizza rule will work for a sixteen-inch pizza. If you’re not on a limited budget, though, we would recommend overordering by one pizza. That will ensure that you’ve got plenty of food. If you end up with a few leftovers, however, you can always freeze them to be reheated later.

How to best slice a 16-inch pizza for sharing

There are a few different ways to slice a pizza, which is why we’re going to spend a few words speaking about it here.

First of all, we have the obvious option - slice it according to how many people will be eating. For example, if you have four people to your pizza, then slice the pizza into quarters, and divide those quarters into two or three pieces each. That will allow each person to have a few slices of pizza, thereby feeling like they’re not at all shortchanged by the pizza-slicing process.

cutting pizza

You could, alternatively, go for gigantic slices. This is something we love to do when eating at home - enormous slices the size of a quarter of the pizza will feel like a huge treat, and it can make for an exciting meal.

Finally, we go for our favorite option when offering pizza to a crowd - thin slices! Slice a pizza in half down the center, and then rotate by ninety degrees, and cut long strips perpendicular to the first cut that you made. This makes for a strange pizza experience, but it’s really simple and doesn’t require any math. If you’re in a hurry, this is definitely the method that we would recommend.

Knowing how to feed a crowd of people coming to your home can be a pickle, and we hope that we’ve helped by sharing our knowledge and advice around sixteen-inch pizzas with you.