In my experience almost all cheese is not orange. Orange cheese is a processed American, and Red Leicester (among other varieties, I just picked a common one - Limburger anyone?) thing.
Almost all types of cheese are not orange, but almost all cheese is orange. The orange varieties are very popular.
Here in the USA, "orange cheese" usually refers to Cheddar, which is almost always orange. It has nothing to do with any place named Cheddar; the cheese would be overripe if shipped that far. You could just about say that this is our standard cheese.
I don't live in the USA. Very little cheese here is orange. I've never seen orange cheddar - I think that's a "USA Cheddar" thing.
Edit: I also know what Annatto is. I'm merely pointing out that claiming that "almost all cheese is orange" is very USA centric. (probably also limited to only some regions of the USA too, presumably ones you know about - while not living there I do consume a lot of American TV, and I don't notice all cheese being orange.)
I've lived in 4 states, widely spread around the country. I'm not an urban dweller.
In a typical supermarket, there might be dozens of types of cheese. Only a few types are orange. So going by type, it might be only 5% orange. Nevertheless, the majority of the cheese (by volume or by mass) is orange.
The store might stock one row of sliced baby swiss, for a total of 10 pounds. The store will do that for several ripenesses of Cheddar (mild, medium, sharp, extra sharp) times several brands, totaling perhaps 150 pounds of cheese... but that is just sliced cheese. The baby swiss is only available in slices. Cheddar is also available in small bags, giving another 200 pounds of cheese. Cheddar is also available in large bags, giving another 200 pounds of cheese. Cheddar is also available in half-pound blocks, in one-pound blocks, in five-pound blocks, in half-pound bags of cubes, and in one-pound bags of sticks. That is probably at least another 300 pounds of cheese. There could be half a ton of Cheddar on display. Add in 100 pounds of Colby and 100 pounds of American, and there is an awful lot of orange cheese.
FYI, most of the non-orange cheese is Mozzarella. Again, this is by volume or by mass.
People with simple taste in cheese can simply refer to it as "orange cheese" (Cheddar) and "pizza cheese" (Mozzarella).
The color is a very useful distinction. When you have both types of cheese in unlabeled containers in your refrigerator, color ensures that the pizza cheese goes on pizza and the orange cheese goes elsewhere. You don't mix them up. Without that color, you'd have to label the cheese or taste it before use.
Cheddar and Colby are both yellow cheeses in Australia. I only associate orange with "American" cheese, and what Subway calls "old English" which I suspect is also just American cheese rebranded for an Australian market.
Many traditional high quality English and French cheeses have been historically flavoured with additives that also dye them. It isn’t something only people ignorant of cheese do.
I am aware of that. I wasn't implying anything about the relative qualities of different kinds of cheese - just that "all cheese is orange" is a very USA-centric thing. (I suspect it's also a regional thing. Cheddar isn't orange in every state right?)
At every grocery store in the US where I've ever checked, they sell both "white" (off-white) and "yellow" (yellow/orange) cheddar. Yellow is more popular.
They also sell colby, which is a type of cheddar, also usually yellow.
What is regional in the US is the shape of sticks of butter! It's either "Eastern-pack" or "Western-pack" depending on which side of the Rocky Mountains. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter#United_States
Since the Rocky Mountains are the continental divide, that means you can stand in a spot where rain the falls to one side of you ends up in the Pacific Ocean and on its way passes by sticks of butter in one shape, and rain that falls on your other side ends up in the Atlantic Ocean and passes by differently shaped sticks of butter on its way.
I’m in MN (not quite Wisconsin but we love our cheese too) and there’s a ton of cheddar both white and orange. Pretty much any cheddar producer up here that makes orange would also make white. I don’t think it’s as ubiquitous as you’d expect.
