Popping Popcorn

Orville Redenbacher would be proud. The legendary food scientist, businessman, and popcorn promotor’s home state, Indiana, has popped into the nation’s leading grower and producer of popcorn. Nebraska and Indiana have a history of competing for the top spot in popcorn production. And in recent years, Indiana has buttered its way to the top. Kelly Brunkhorst, executive director of the Nebraska Corn Board, said that recent data shows Indiana outpaced Nebraska as the top state in acres in popcorn in 2025 with over 86,000 acres to Nebraska’s roughly 77,000 acres (Figure 1). Acres between the two states were nearly even in 2024.

While Nebraska producers may plant fewer acres, those acres will outyield Indiana in some years because of irrigation. Curt Arens of Nebraska Farmer reported last year that 85% of Nebraska’s popcorn production is under irrigation. However, the USDA Census of Agriculture showed Nebraska produced 333 million pounds of popcorn in 2022 while Indiana produced 400 million pounds. Lincoln County was Nebraska’s top producing county with nearly 81 million pounds.

Around 1 billion pounds of popcorn are produced each year in the U.S. with Nebraska accounting for 34%-44% of the total. Arens said Americans eat about 17 billion quarts of popcorn every year, enough to fill the Empire State Building 18 times. Nebraska producers play a large role in filling those quarts of popcorn.

Figure 1. Acres in Popcorn, 2025 vs. 2024

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