How can this possibly be true?

CBS Sunday Morning reported that the average Brit eats fish & chips 312 times per year.  That is nearly every day. How can that be true?

I'd like to find their email address so I can ask them where they got their data, but I can't find one.

I am lucky if I eat fish and chips maybe once a month at the most......less now since we are not near anyplace that sells it......as for how average Brits eat fish and chips everyday....who knows......take care!!!!

CBS Sunday Morning reported that the average Brit eats fish & chips 312 times per year.  That is nearly every day. How can that be true?

I'd like to find their email address so I can ask them where they got their data, but I can't find one.

That is such a ridiculous number and would essentially mean that all Brits who are not veggies or vegans are eating fish and chips everyday.  Surely that should ping some fact-checkers radar!  I only eat "fish and chips" 4 or 5 times in the year, and Mr. K never!  We do eat a lot of salmon and tuna and other fish though, just not with chips!

I would guess their figures came from perhaps a restaurant or PR group saying XXX million fish and chips were sold, and then they divided that by the number of people living in the UK and came up with a number.  But even if you say half of those were eaten by tourists, that number is still wildly out of whack.  But I am pulling that explanation out of my butt every bit as much CBS is pulling those statistics out of theirs!   

It would be interesting to know where they got the data. The thought of 'so many sold per year divided by number of people in the country' does sound like one way it may have been done, but as you said, they'd have to take into account how many of those were eaten by tourists. But even at that it seems high.

I know of one or two people who have it once a week, but other than that everyone I know has it once every month or two, some even less.

Funnily enough, I know some people at CBS News in London, and after seeing this thread I asked them about the fish n' chips story.  The story in the link was done in New York, so the London bureau didn't have anything to do with it, but their response after hearing the "312 times a year" line was "that's ridiculous."

My guess (and it's just a guess) is they'll call their counterparts in New York and either 1) there's a real basis in fact for the number along the lines of what Karrit suggested, or 2) whoever produced the piece didn't do their math right, and the piece will get corrected or pulled off the website or whatever they do when there's a mistake in a story.

I'm English born and raised, but I've never eaten 'fish and chips' in my life... because I don't eat fish .

I've bought other things from a chip shop (sausages and chips, chicken and chips etc.), but I'd say it's been a good 5 years since I went into one (not since I was a student, I don't think)!

I've lived in two major seaside towns were people travel to them to get Fish and Chips, and I've maybe eaten fish and chips 10 times in my life. It's WAY too fatty to get more than once or twice a year surely?
I don't know anyone that eats it more regularly than a couple of times a year.

I think more doner kebabs are sold than Fish and chips

Used to have them once a week, and that was common pla(i)ce, now it's maybe once every couple of months.
DW doesn't like them so much which is why I don't have as often. She'll have them when we go to the coast as that's what you have there. so now I find I'll have them if we eat out at a pub whereas I never used to have them in the pub thinking I could easily have them from a takeaway so prefered something I'd not normally have!

Used to have them once a week, and that was common pla(i)ce, now it's maybe once every couple of months.

Forgive me if I groan. 

I thought curry had replaced fish and chips as the national dish anyway, since it is so popular. Seems I've read that somewhere.

I don't know anyone that eats it more regularly than a couple of times a year.

You need to get out more! 

We probably have them once every couple of months. More often in the summer. And I know plenty of people who have them far more often than that.

But that 312 number is definitely off.

Imagine how fat everyone would be if this were true?

We eat it every Friday, but homemade everything and breaded rather than battered, baked chips rather than fried...so not nearly as greasy. It just makes it easy to not have to think about what's for dinner on a Friday, plus it's the one meal I know I won't get a comment out of from the kiddo. 

I'd say we go to a chippy (or takeaway in general, really) probably 3 or 4 times a year.

Well, I don't know about the fish part, but I certainly know plenty of Scots that probably have chips at least 312 times a year (because you can count them in the canteen, chips at every meal!!)

I'd love to eat fish 'n' chips 312 times/year - I think it's food heaven!
Alas, I probably have proper fish 'n' chips from a chippie about 3-6 times a year. 

I was thinking about this later and thought it's probably the average over a lifetime.
Living til 70 it would work out at an average of about 6 times a year, which ties in what many people here have said.
I did a search online and found a Daily Mail article about the report - it's basically about the number of times Brits eat takeaways, and that figure of 312 for fish and chips, is indeed over a lifetime!
Sorry - I would post the link here but I can do it from this computer.

I did a search online and found a Daily Mail article about the report - it's basically about the number of times Brits eat takeaways, and that figure of 312 for fish and chips, is indeed over a lifetime!
Sorry - I would post the link here but I can do it from this computer.

I think this is it:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2074180/Average-Briton-eats-2-500-takeaways-lifetime-thats-46-year.html