The UK’s Favourite Sandwich

Whether it’s bacon, ham and cheese, or tuna mayo, we are undoubtedly a nation of sandwich lovers. A staple part of packed lunches eaten at office desks and in school canteens across the land, the humble sandwich has become a British institution.

But what is our favourite sandwich? Here at Furniture At Work, we decided to commission a survey to find out the nation’s favourite sarnie, as well as some of the more questionable sandwich fillings people admitted to eating, and how much we’re paying for our butties.

The nation’s favourite sandwich

We surveyed just over 1,000 people from cities up and down the UK and found that the UK’s most popular sandwich is (drumroll please…) ham and cheese! An absolute classic, 10.3% of the population plumped for this safe bet as their sandwich of choice. Egg mayonnaise proved the UK’s second most popular sandwich, with 8% of the vote, while cheese and onion ended up with 7.4% of nominations and the bronze medal.

Pre-tournament favourites like bacon and BLT finished in surprisingly lowly fifth and seventh places respectively, while the least popular butty in the survey was the club sandwich.

These are the results in full of the nation’s favourite sandwich:

Interestingly, there is a difference when it comes to men and women in the survey, with men picking the all-conquering ham and cheese as their favourite sandwich and women going for egg mayonnaise. We’re not sure how well-received the more pungent choices like egg mayo are in offices up and down the country, but the stats don’t lie and there’s no denying their popularity!

As well as uncovering the nation’s favourite sandwiches, we also decided to find out which were the most popular sandwiches by city. From cheese and pickle in Nottingham to chicken and bacon in Belfast, the diversity of sandwich fillings across Britain is vast, as visualised by the sandwich map of the UK that we put together:

The cost of sandwiches

As well as the most popular sandwiches throughout the land, we also looked at the cost of sandwiches in some of the UK’s biggest cities to find the nation’s most expensive and cheapest sandwiches.

While many might expect London to boast the country’s steepest sarnies, it’s actually Manchester where people pay the highest average price for a butty. We asked respondents how much they usually pay for a sandwich, and Manchester’s average price is a whopping £4.51. This places it above runners-up Belfast and London, where the average price is £4.26. This is all the more shocking when you consider that Mancunians’ favourite sandwich is the humble cheese and onion!

At the other end of the spectrum, residents of Sheffield pay a much more palatable £2.84 on average for their sandwiches, followed by the also reasonable Cardiff and Edinburgh, at £2.98 and £3.11 per butty respectively.

This is the full UK map of sandwich prices:

As well as cost by city, we also decided to delve into the different industries throughout the UK to find out who’s paying the most and least for their sandwiches.

It turns out that those working in the creative arts and design niche are splashing out the most on their sarnies, forking out a staggering £4.78 a sandwich! Those in IT and science and pharmaceuticals were the next highest spenders, splashing out £4.71 and £4.67 respectively for a butty.

Retail workers spend the least on their sandwiches, it turns out, with an average expenditure of just £2.98 – not bad going considering the current cost of living. They’re followed by those in media and internet roles, at £3.13, and respondents working in law enforcement and security, who spend £3.28.

The UK’s weirdest sandwiches

In addition to asking for the public’s overall favourite sandwich, we also quizzed them on whether there were any unusual sandwich fillings they enjoy. The results, as you can imagine, were quite something…

A stunning 7.4% of people admitted to enjoying cold baked beans as a sandwich filling. The next time you’re in a group of 13 people, look around – statistically one of them is a cold baked bean sandwich fan! 7% of respondents listed banana mayo butties as a guilty pleasure, while a further 6.3% of people enjoy a tuna and banana sandwich. Surely that blows the ham and pineapple on pizza debate out of the water!

Some of the other bizarre fillings that respondents suggested include chips and jam, marmalade and coleslaw, and jam and cornflakes. So, while the comforting beige-ness of ham and cheese may reign supreme throughout the country, there are certainly enough avant-garde sandwich eaters to balance that out!

Sandwiches by calories

Finally, we decided to do some digging into the calorie count of the nation’s favourite sandwiches to find the highest and lowest options, whatever your goals. The most calorific sandwich is the club, coming in at 504 calories, closely followed by the classic BLT at 435. Cheese and onion, bacon, and coronation chicken make up the remainder of the top five.

The simple ham sandwich is the lowest calorie option, at a mere 248 calories, with tuna and sweetcorn and prawn mayonnaise not far behind. The full calorie count for the nation’s top sandwiches is as follows:

So, there you have it, our comprehensive survey of the nation’s sandwich habits! From our favourite sandwiches across the UK, to the downright bizarre fillings some of us are putting inside our butties, it’s fair to say that we’re a nation of sarnie obsessives.