Where is Thanksgiving dinner grown?
Most of the food on an American Thanksgiving table comes from a small number of states. Minnesota and North Carolina raise the most turkeys, Wisconsin grows most of the cranberries, North Carolina grows well over half the sweet potatoes, Idaho and Washington grow more than half the potatoes, Illinois leads for pumpkins, Georgia for pecans and California for Brussels sprouts.
The Thanksgiving map by Esri ArcGIS StoryMaps, drawn by David Asbury from USDA Census of Agriculture data, plots production of eight holiday foods county by county [1]. It is a good way to see how spread out some crops are and how tightly others cluster. The figures below come from the USDA’s latest annual surveys, which give state totals the map doesn’t [2][3][4][5].
The main Thanksgiving foods and the states that grow them
| Food | Leading states | Latest USDA figure |
|---|---|---|
| Turkeys | Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, Indiana | 198.5 million raised in 2026 (forecast), Minnesota 34.0 million |
| Cranberries | Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Oregon, New Jersey | 7.47 million barrels used in 2025, Wisconsin 61% |
| Sweet potatoes | North Carolina, California, Mississippi | 32.5 million cwt in 2025, North Carolina 58% |
| Potatoes | Idaho, Washington, Wisconsin, Oregon | 418 million cwt in 2025, Idaho and Washington 55% |
| Pumpkins | Illinois, California, Indiana, Michigan | 14.7 million cwt in 2025, Illinois 36% |
| Pecans | Georgia, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona | 284 million pounds in 2025, Georgia 39% |
| Green beans | Wisconsin, Florida, Oregon, Illinois, Michigan | 11.6 million cwt in 2025, Wisconsin 43% |
| Brussels sprouts | California | Not covered by the USDA’s annual vegetable survey |
A cwt (hundredweight) is 100 pounds. Percentages are each state’s share of the national total in the same USDA table (our calculation).
Turkeys
The USDA forecasts 198.5 million turkeys raised in the United States in 2026, up 3% on the 193.5 million raised in 2025 [2]. Minnesota is the largest producer at 34.0 million, then North Carolina (29.5 million), Arkansas (21.0 million), Indiana (20.0 million), Missouri (16.0 million) and Virginia (14.5 million). Those six states raise 68% of the country’s turkeys [2].
On the county map the biggest single circles sit in North Carolina and Virginia, because turkey farms there are packed into a few counties. Minnesota’s flocks are spread over more counties, so it raises more birds in total even though no single circle is as large. That is worth bearing in mind with any county map: it shows where production is concentrated, not which state produces the most.
Cranberries
Cranberries are cool weather wetland plants, which is why they are grown in so few places [1]. Wisconsin is by far the biggest producer, with 4.59 million of the 7.47 million barrels used in 2025, followed by Massachusetts (1.91 million), Oregon (528,000) and New Jersey (449,000) [3]. A barrel is 100 pounds of fruit. The 2025 crop was 14% smaller than 2024, and only about 4% of it went to the fresh market. The rest was processed [3].
Potatoes and sweet potatoes
Idaho grew 140 million cwt of potatoes in 2025 and Washington 91 million, together 55% of the US crop of 418 million cwt [4]. Most US potatoes are processed: 173 million cwt went into frozen fries and other frozen products and 58 million cwt into chips [4]. The mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving are a small part of the market.
Sweet potatoes are even more concentrated. North Carolina grew 18.9 million of the country’s 32.5 million cwt in 2025, about 58%, ahead of California (6.0 million) and Mississippi (4.7 million) [5]. The 2025 crop was 31% larger than 2024’s [5].
Pumpkins, pecans and pie
If your pumpkin pie uses canned filling, it very likely came from Illinois. The state harvested 14,800 acres of pumpkins in 2025, almost twice as many as Indiana (7,700), and produced 5.3 million of the country’s 14.7 million cwt [5]. The StoryMap notes that nearly 80% of Illinois pumpkins are processed into pie filling and other products [1]. Across the country it is the other way round: about two thirds of the 2025 crop (9.6 million of 14.5 million cwt used) was sold fresh, much of it for carving and decoration [5].
Pecan trees are native to the southern US. Georgia grew 111.5 million of the 284 million pounds used in 2025, with New Mexico second on 76 million, mostly from the Mesilla Valley in Doña Ana County, then Texas (41.6 million) and Arizona (40.8 million) [1][3]. New Mexico can overtake Georgia in some years. In 2023 the two were almost level at about 108 million pounds each [3].
Green beans and Brussels sprouts
Green beans, which the USDA calls snap beans, are grown in many states, but a fairly small number of large farms grow most of them [1]. Wisconsin produced 5.0 million of the 11.6 million cwt in 2025, well ahead of Florida (1.9 million cwt), Oregon and Illinois [5].
Brussels sprouts are almost all grown in California, in mild, foggy coastal counties on the central coast, with a second area in Southern California [1]. They are not in the USDA’s annual vegetable survey, so the five-yearly Census of Agriculture is the main source of US figures.
Using the Thanksgiving map in class
The StoryMap is listed as a classroom resource by National Agriculture in the Classroom, which links it to two lessons on the geography of Thanksgiving dinner, one for grades 6 to 8 and one for grades 9 to 12 [6]. A simple exercise is to have students pick one food, find its top state on the map, then check the latest USDA total for that state and work out its share of the national crop.
Questions about the Thanksgiving map
Which state raises the most turkeys?
Minnesota, with 34.0 million turkeys forecast for 2026, followed by North Carolina with 29.5 million and Arkansas with 21.0 million [2]. The US total is about 199 million.
Where are most cranberries grown?
Wisconsin grows about 61% of US cranberries, with Massachusetts a distant second at about 26% [3]. Oregon and New Jersey grow most of the rest.
Which state grows the most pumpkins?
Illinois, which produced about 36% of the US pumpkin crop in 2025 and has almost twice the pumpkin acreage of the next state, Indiana [5].
Where do sweet potatoes come from?
Mostly North Carolina, which grew about 58% of the US crop in 2025. California and Mississippi are the next largest growers [5].
Why are some Thanksgiving foods grown in so few states?
Mostly climate and soil. Cranberries need cool wetlands, Brussels sprouts like mild, foggy coastal weather, pecans are native to the South and North Carolina’s hot, moist climate suits sweet potatoes [1].
Sources
- Esri ArcGIS StoryMaps, Mapping the Thanksgiving Harvest, cartography by David Asbury, data from the USDA Census of Agriculture. The original source of this map.
- USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Turkeys Raised, released 25 September 2026.
- USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Noncitrus Fruits and Nuts 2025 Summary, May 2026.
- USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Potatoes 2025 Summary, September 2026.
- USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Vegetables 2025 Summary, 2026.
- National Agriculture in the Classroom, Mapping the Thanksgiving Harvest, Curriculum Matrix.
Last reviewed 9 November 2026
