The battle for America’s favorite salad dressing has a decisive victor. According to new CivicScience data spanning January 2023 to July 2025, ranch dressing claims a commanding 61% of preferences when Americans are forced to choose between ranch and Italian, leaving Italian with 39% among those who picked a side.
What makes this particularly interesting is how consistent ranch’s dominance remains across age groups. Unlike many food preferences that shift dramatically between generations, ranch maintains a steady lead across all demographics. The youngest adults (18-29) show the closest split at 56% ranch to 44% Italian, while middle-aged groups (30-44 and 45-64) both settle at 61% ranch. Even seniors 65+ stick with ranch at 57%, suggesting this creamy dressing has achieved rare cross-generational appeal.
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Regional patterns tell a more nuanced story, however. The Northeast stands as the lone holdout, split perfectly even at 50-50 between ranch and Italian—perhaps reflecting stronger ties to traditional Italian-American cuisine. The Midwest emerges as ranch territory with 63% preference, while the South (56%) and West (65%) also lean heavily toward the buttermilk-based favorite.
Several lifestyle factors align with dressing preferences in unexpected ways:
Social media engagement: Ranch lovers show slightly more digital restraint—28% avoid social media entirely compared to 30% of Italian dressing fans who are daily users. This suggests ranch fans may be less plugged into online trends.
Food adventurousness: Italian dressing enthusiasts are more willing to experiment, with 42% saying they seek out new foods compared to 37% of ranch devotees. This aligns with Italian dressing’s association with more sophisticated palates.
Spice tolerance: The biggest difference emerges around heat preferences—72% of Italian dressing fans enjoy spicy food versus just 61% of ranch supporters. This makes sense given Italian dressing’s herb-forward profile versus ranch’s cooling properties.
What seems like a straightforward condiment choice actually reflects deeper cultural and personal preferences. While ranch has clearly won the American palate war, the regional holdouts and lifestyle correlations suggest that salad dressing preferences connect to broader attitudes about tradition, adventure, and flavor intensity in ways that extend far beyond the dinner table.
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This article’s data comes solely from CivicScience’s database, which contains nearly 700,000 poll questions and 5 billion consumer insights.