Download App
Despite the negative connotation that fast food has, it’s still widely consumed every single day, by people all over the world. Despite its unhealthy label, it can be cheap, convenient, and incredibly tasty.
It can be perfect if you don’t have much time to cook, and it can be a delicious treat if you want to celebrate your latest sports betting win.
Here at Betsperts, we wanted to find out which states in the US have the most fast food restaurants, which countries have the most McDonald’s, as well as which fast food restaurants are the most popular in the US and around the world.
States with the Most Fast-Food Restaurants
We wanted to find out which states in the US have the most and least fast-food restaurants per 10,000 people.
1. Alabama – (6.3 fast-food restaurants per 10,000 people)
Alabama is America’s fast-food capital with 6.3 fast-food restaurants per 10,000 people. Alabama was one of four states whose favorite fast food was Chick-fil-A. Starbucks and McDonald’s followed behind as the second and third most popular fast-food restaurants respectively.
2. Nebraska – (5.4 fast-food restaurants per 10,000 people)
Nebraska takes second place with 5.4 fast-food restaurants per 10,000 people. Nebraska’s favorite fast-food restaurant was McDonald’s, followed by Starbucks and Taco Bell.
3. West Virginia – (5.3 fast-food restaurants per 10,000 people)
West Virginia completes our top three with 5.3 fast-food restaurants per 10,000. West Virginia’s favorite fast-food restaurant was also McDonald’s, with Starbucks and Chick-fil-A following behind in second and third place respectively.
3. Oklahoma – (5.3 fast-food restaurants per 10,000 people)
Sharing the top three spot with West Virginia is Oklahoma who also have 5.3 fast-food restaurants per 100,000 people. Oklahoma’s top three favorite fast-food restaurants are also identical to West Virginia’s.
States with the Fewest Fast-Food Restaurants
We wanted to find out which states had the fewest fast-food restaurants per 10,000 in the US.
1. Vermont – 1.9 fast-food restaurants per 10,000 people
Vermont has the fewest fast-food restaurants with just 1.9 per 10,000, more than three times less than Alabama who have the most. Vermont’s favorite fast-food restaurant is McDonald’s.
2. New Jersey – 2.0 fast-food restaurants per 10,000 people
New Jersey has the second-fewest fast-food restaurants with just 2 per 10,000 people. New Jersey’s favorite fast food is Starbucks, followed by McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A.
3. Mississippi – 2.1 fast-food restaurants per 10,000 people
Mississippi completes a top three that is separated by just 0.1 fast-food restaurants. Mississippi has just 2.1 fast-food restaurants per 10,000 people, with Chick-fil-A being the most popular.
3. New York – 2.1 fast-food restaurants per 10,000 people
New York shares third place with Mississippi, with just 2.1 fast-food restaurants per 10,000 people. New York’s favorite fast food restaurant is Starbucks, followed by McDonald’s and Burger King.
America’s Favorite Fast Food
We’ve looked at search data to find out which fast-food restaurants are being searched for the most, and reveal each state’s favorite fast-food restaurant.
1. Starbucks – (favorite in 24 states)
Starbucks takes the crown as the USA’s favorite fast food, with almost half the states searching for this fast food restaurant the most. Although it’s often misconstrued as a cafe, Starbucks actually counts as a fast-food restaurant and therefore follows fast-food wage laws. The top five most populated states in America all have Starbucks as their most searched fast-food restaurant.
2. McDonald’s – (favorite in 22 states)
Closely behind is McDonald’s which was the most searched fast food restaurant in 22 of the 50 states in America. Just two of the top ten most populated states, Ohio and Michigan, had McDonald’s as their favorite fast food. However, California, where McDonald’s was founded, was actually searching for Starbucks more frequently.
3. Chick-fil-A – (favorite in 4 states)
Chick-fil-A completes our top three with four states searching for this fast food restaurant the most. Those four states were Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina. Chick-fil-A’s headquarters are in the capital of Georgia, Atlanta, which is also where the fast-food company was founded.
Most McDonald’s Restaurants Around the World
McDonald’s is one of the biggest fast-food chains in the world, so we wanted to find out which countries had the most restaurants. We’ve calculated the number of McDonald’s per 1 million people.
1. United States – (39.2 McDonald’s restaurants per 1 million people)
America unsurprisingly takes the top spot with almost 40 restaurants per 1 million people. The US has over 13,000 restaurants, almost 9,000 more than any other country.
2. Australia – (37.5 McDonald’s restaurants per 1 million people)
Australia takes second place with 37.5 McDonald’s restaurants per 1 million people. Australia’s total of 981 restaurants is the tenth highest in our list of countries.
3. Canada – (36.4 McDonald’s restaurants per 1 million people)
Canada completes our top three with 36.4 McDonald’s restaurants per 1 million people. America’s northern neighbor has 1,400 restaurants in total which is the seventh highest in our list.
Related: Country with the Most McDonald’s Restaurants
The World’s Favorite Fast Food
We looked at search data to find out what fast food restaurants different countries around the world are searching for the most, and revealed every country’s most popular fast food restaurant.
McDonald’s – (most popular in 29 different countries)
McDonald’s takes first place this time as the most popular fast-food restaurant around the world. McDonald’s was the most searched for in 29 of the 38 countries we looked into. Out of the 29 countries, 26 of them were European, and the final three were part of the Americas.
Starbucks – (most popular in 4 different countries)
Starbucks takes second place with just four countries searching for the coffee chain the most. Those countries were Japan, South Korea, Turkey, and the US.
Domino’s – (most popular in 2 different countries)
Completing our top three is Domino’s. Just two countries were searching for the pizza chain the most, and they were New Zealand and Iceland. Spain, Mexico, and Canada were searching for Burger King, Little Caesars, and Tim Hortons the most, respectively.
Related: Most Popular Fast Food in the World
Methodology
We took the top 30 from Wikipedia’s list of the largest fast-food restaurant chains.
We then used Data Infiniti to discover the number of fast-food restaurants per 10,000 people. This gave us the states with the most and least fast-food restaurants.
We then used Google Keyword Planner to find out the most popular fast-food restaurants per US state.
We used Wikipedia’s list of countries with McDonald’s restaurants to find out which countries had the most.
We then used the list of OECD members to get our list of countries, before using Google Keyword Planner once again to find out the most popular in each country.