We recently compiled a detailed report on 30 US Cities With the Most Restaurants Per Capita and in this article, we will look at the city with the most restaurants per capita.

Overview of the Food and Drink Sector in the US 

Americans love to eat out, making the restaurant and food industry one of the most prominent sectors in the country. In fact, estimates by the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service show that agriculture, food, and related industries contributed around $1.53 trillion to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country in 2023. This translates to a 5.6% share of the total US GDP. American farms alone made up $203.5 billion of the total amount, which amounts to around 0.7% of the country’s GDP. Agriculture’s contribution to GDP is higher than 0.7% primarily because sectors related to the industry depend on agricultural inputs to provide a value addition to the economy. The sectors related to agriculture broadly include food services and eateries, food and beverage manufacturing, food and beverage stores, fishing, and forestry, among several others.

Agriculture, food, and related industries also provided 10.4% of the country’s employment as of 2022, which comes up to around 22.1 million. These industries supported an additional 19.6 million jobs in the country, of which eating and drinking places and food services took up the most significant chunk: around 12.7 million jobs. Food and beverage stores supported approximately 3.3 million jobs as of 2022. You can also look at Top 20 Most Valuable Restaurant Companies in the World for more insight into the restaurant industry.

How Much Do Americans Spend on Food?

On average, Americans spend around 12.8% of their household budgets on food, as of 2022. American expenditure on food ranks in the third place of the total living expenses, right after housing and transportation, which take up a 33.3% and 16.8% share, respectively. Data from the US Department of Labor shows that sales in food service went from $632 billion in 2012 to $898 billion in 2022. With the demand for food service increasing continuously, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that employment in the industry will grow by around half a million jobs between 2022 and 2032. In addition, it is projected that the industry will put out 2.6 million job openings every year through 2032, of which none would require more than a high school diploma or equivalent. The National Restaurant Association estimates that the restaurant industry sales will reach $1.2 trillion by 2030, with the workforce in the industry exceeding 17 million.

A number of restaurant chains across the United States are opening avenues for employment in the US, such as McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE:MCD), which alone employs more than 100,000 people as of 2023. The world-famous chain opened shop in 1940, and has now grown to become one of the largest restaurant chains by revenue in the world. The company’s Accelerating the Arches campaign has focused attention on expanding its operations to 50,000 restaurants by 2027, kickstarting an era of the fastest growth in the brand’s history. McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE:MCD) is also aiming to expand its loyalty programs from 150 million 90-day active users to 250 million users by 2027, all the while connecting its restaurants across the globe through Google Cloud technology. These growth plans are set to begin in 2024, and will usher in a new age of enhanced operations and customer experience for the brand, attracting more people and contributing to the growth of the restaurant industry as a whole.

However, pressure on the company is increasing due to the ongoing war in the Middle East, with people boycotting the chain after its Aloyana franchise in Israel announced free meals for the Israeli army. Aloyana has been running Israel’s McDonald’s restaurants for the past 30 years, with 225 franchises under its wing. On April 5, McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE:MCD) announced that it would be acquiring all 225 Aloyana-owned McDonald’s restaurants for undisclosed terms and will retain 5,000 employees. McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE:MCD) has faced decreasing sales in Muslim-majority countries and does not expect an improvement in its business until the war is over. However, the company is focused on its international expansion, and particularly, its expansion in China. The American fast food giant opened up 1,374 new stores in international markets, of which 925 were opened in China. By 2028, McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) plans to operate 10,000 outlets in China.

Our Methodology

We started our research with gathering data on Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas in the US that had at least 800 full-service restaurants. There were 51 such areas. Next we sourced the population estimates for these areas and computed the restaurants per capita for them. We have used the restaurants per capita metric for these areas as a proxy to rank the most populous cities within these areas. All of our data is sourced from the US Census Bureau, and is as of 2022. The cities are sorted in ascending order of the number of restaurants per capita.

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The US City With the Most Restaurants Per Capita

1. New York City, New York

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA): New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA Metro Area

Number of Full-Service Restaurants: 19,550

Population of MSA: 6,138,333 people

Number of Restaurants per Capita: 0.003184

The Big Apple ranks among some of the most popular cities in the United States. The futuristic city’s landscape is dotted with towering skyscrapers, making it one of the most prominent hubs in the country. It has 0.003184 restaurants per capita and is the principal city of the most populous metropolitan area in the United States: New York-Newark-Jersey City, Metro Area. It ranks first on our list of the 30 US cities with around 19, 550 full-service restaurants in the MSA. The Statue of Liberty, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, and the Empire State Building rank among some of the several popular tourist destinations in the city.

Curious to learn about other cities that have a lot of restaurants? Take a look at our detailed report on 30 US Cities With the Most Restaurants Per Capita.

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