Greek Yogurt in the US: Statistics and Facts 2026

Greek yogurt in the United States

Greek yogurt is yogurt that has been strained to remove much of its liquid whey, leaving a thicker product with more protein and less sugar per spoonful. It was a niche product in the United States until the late 2000s, when Chobani, founded in upstate New York in 2005, and other brands brought it into mainstream supermarkets. Within a decade Greek styles had become almost half of the spoonable yogurt market.

There is no federal definition of Greek yogurt. The FDA standard covers yogurt in general, and companies decide whether to strain the product or thicken it with added milk protein. Official statistics also do not separate Greek from regular yogurt, so this report combines USDA nutrient data, production and consumption figures for all yogurt and company disclosures. The wider yogurt category is covered in our report on the yogurt market.

Nutrition: 10.2 g of protein per 100 g

USDA FoodData Central gives the clearest picture of how Greek yogurt differs. Per 100 grams, plain nonfat Greek yogurt has 59 calories, 10.2 g of protein, 3.6 g of carbohydrates and 3.24 g of sugars. Plain skim yogurt has 56 calories, 5.73 g of protein and 7.68 g of sugars. Straining concentrates the protein and removes some of the lactose, which is the sugar in milk.

More protein, less sugar: nonfat Greek yogurt has 1.8 times the protein and 58 percent less sugar than plain skim yogurt.

Straining also removes minerals that dissolve in whey. Nonfat Greek yogurt has 110 mg of calcium per 100 g against 199 mg in plain skim yogurt, and 36 mg of sodium against 77 mg. Whole-milk Greek yogurt contains 97 calories, 9.0 g of protein and 5.0 g of fat per 100 g, while regular whole-milk yogurt has 61 calories and 3.47 g of protein.

For a typical 170 g (6 oz) cup, these values mean about 17 g of protein for nonfat Greek yogurt against about 10 g for plain skim yogurt. That gap, at a similar calorie count, is the main reason Greek yogurt became popular with consumers looking for high-protein foods. Flavoured varieties can contain much more sugar than the plain products shown here.

Market share: from 4 percent to 46 percent of spoonable yogurt

The most detailed public data on Greek yogurt sales come from the registration statement that Chobani filed with the SEC in November 2021, which cites Nielsen retail data. Greek yogurt grew from 4.4 percent of US spoonable yogurt sales in 2009 to 46.3 percent in 2021, about 3.3 billion dollars of a 7.1 billion dollar spoonable market.

Ten times larger share: Greek styles went from a niche 4.4 percent of spoonable yogurt sales to almost half in 12 years.

In the same filing, Chobani reported a 43.5 percent share of the Greek yogurt segment and a 20.2 percent share of all US yogurt, the largest of any brand, for the 13 weeks to October 16, 2021. Chobani now describes itself as the number one yogurt brand in America. More recent share data from retail panels are not published by an official source.

US production: a record 5.29 billion pounds in 2025

USDA NASS reports total US yogurt production, plain and flavored, without a Greek breakdown. Output was about 4.76 billion pounds in 2014, then slipped to a low of 4.38 billion pounds in 2019. It recovered to 4.74 billion pounds in 2021, dipped to 4.47 billion pounds in 2022, and then rose strongly: 4.59 billion pounds in 2023, 4.87 billion pounds in 2024 and a record 5.29 billion pounds in 2025, up 8.5 percent.

A new record: US yogurt output jumped 8.5 percent in 2025 to 5.29 billion pounds, after years of decline in the late 2010s.

The decline from 2014 to 2019 followed the 2013 peak in per capita consumption. The recent rise coincides with renewed demand for high-protein yogurt: Danone reports double-digit growth in its high-protein range in North America. Production peaked in March 2025 at 460.6 million pounds in a single month.

Consumption: 14.5 pounds per person in 2024

USDA ERS estimates that Americans ate 14.5 pounds of yogurt per person in 2024, other than frozen yogurt. Consumption more than doubled from 6.5 pounds in 2000 to a peak of 14.9 pounds in 2013, during the rapid growth of Greek yogurt. It then fell to 13.3 pounds in 2019 before recovering.

More than doubled since 2000: Americans eat 14.5 pounds of yogurt a year, close to the 2013 peak set during the Greek yogurt boom.

Frozen yogurt has moved the other way, falling from 1.37 pounds per person in 2015 to 0.71 pounds in 2024. Frozen desserts more broadly are covered in our ranking of top ice cream brands, and high-protein drinks, a competing category, in our report on sports drinks.

New York: the largest yogurt-producing state

New York is the centre of US Greek yogurt production. The state Department of Agriculture and Markets reports that New York made 1.12 billion pounds of yogurt in 2025 and ranks first in the nation, ahead of every other state. Output has grown by two thirds since 2015, when it was 668 million pounds, with the fastest growth since 2022.

Up 67 percent in ten years: New York yogurt output passed 1.1 billion pounds in 2025, about 21 percent of US production.

New York accounted for about 21.1 percent of US yogurt production in 2025, up from 20.3 percent in 2024. The state has nearly 3,000 dairy farms that produced 16.1 billion pounds of milk, according to the Governor, and Chobani alone buys more than 1 billion pounds of New York milk a year.

Companies: Chobani, Danone and Lactalis

Chobani was founded in 2005 by Hamdi Ulukaya in New Berlin, New York. It now makes products in New York, Idaho, Michigan and Australia. In its 2021 SEC filing it reported net sales of about 1.4 billion dollars for 2020 and more than 2,000 employees. In October 2025 it announced a 650 million dollar equity raise to support growth, without disclosing a valuation or new sales figures.

In April 2025, Chobani broke ground on a 1.2 billion dollar plant in Rome, New York, which New York State describes as the largest investment ever in natural food production in the United States. The plant will cover 1.4 million square feet on 150 acres, process about 12 million pounds of milk a day with up to 28 production lines and create more than 1,000 jobs, supported by up to 73 million dollars in state tax credits.

Danone, which sells Oikos Greek yogurt in the United States, reported that its high-protein yogurt business grew at a double-digit pace in North America in 2025, led by the Oikos Pro range, even as total North American sales growth slowed to 2.0 percent like-for-like. General Mills, the former owner of Yoplait in the United States, sold its North American yogurt business for 2.1 billion dollars. Lactalis took over the US business, including Yoplait, Go-Gurt, Oui and :ratio, on June 30, 2025; the US business had about 1.2 billion dollars of net sales in fiscal 2025.

Similar brand dynamics in a neighbouring market are covered in our report on the yogurt market in Canada, where Sodiaal took over Yoplait and Liberte from General Mills in January 2025.

FDA rules: what can be called yogurt

The FDA updated the federal standard of identity for yogurt in a final rule published on June 11, 2021, with a compliance date of January 1, 2024. Yogurt must contain at least 3.25 percent milkfat before bulky flavourings are added, unless it is labelled low fat or nonfat, and at least 8.25 percent milk solids not fat. Separate standards for low-fat and nonfat yogurt were revoked.

A 2023 amendment set the acidity requirement at a pH of 4.6 or lower, measured within 24 hours of filling. Products that claim to contain live and active cultures must have at least 10 million colony-forming units per gram at manufacture. The standard does not define Greek yogurt; the FDA notes only that permitted dairy ingredients help manufacturers reach the protein content desired for Greek-style yogurt.

Acid whey: the by-product of straining

Straining has an environmental cost. Researchers estimate that producing 1 kg of strained Greek yogurt leaves 2 to 3 kg of acid whey, a sour liquid that cannot simply be released into rivers. A USDA-funded Cornell University project reported that a single Chobani plant in New Berlin was shipping 39 tanker trucks of acid whey a day, at a cost of about 6 million dollars a year.

Producers now use acid whey as animal feed, as a fertiliser on farms and as a feedstock for biogas digesters, and researchers are testing ways to turn it into higher-value chemicals. The volumes involved are one reason some brands thicken yogurt with added milk protein instead of straining it, although official data do not show how much US Greek yogurt is made each way.

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