Fast Food Loving States Research Summary
The state that loves fast food the most is Alabama, where there are 6.3 restaurants for every 10,000 residents.
The state that with the least fast food restaurants is Vermont, where there are only 1.9 restaurants for every 10,000 residents.
There are 194,395 fast food restaurants in the U.S.
As of 2022, the U.S. fast food industry has a market size of $331.4 billion.
Fast food restaurants employ a staggering 4,593,559 people in the US as of 2021.
Every state in the country has workers bagging, ringing up, and taking orders so you can get your food fast and affordable. However, all those delicious foil-wrapped burgers, fries, and other treats aren’t spread evenly across the country. In fact, some states and cities eat way more fast food than others.
We analyzed the numbers to find out what states have the most fast food joints (and you might have the best shot of getting a Big Mac or McJob), along with other fun facts.
Other Fun Fast Food Facts
In general, the south has a disproportionately high amount of fast food joints, while the northeast has far less.
Subway is the most common fast food restaurant- followed by McDonald’s and then Burger King.
Over 12 million people work fast food across the globe.
While 30% of fast food workers are teenagers, the other 70% of fast food workers are over 20.
In fact, half of all fast food workers are 23 or older.
More than 30 percent of fast food workers have at least some college education.
Below you can see some breakdowns on the states nomming the most (and least) on fast food, along with how we figured this out.
Southern states clearly enjoy their combo meals. Alabama in particular has an impressive 6.3 fast food places for every 10,000 residents. Sadly, none of those are an In-and-Out. Some Midwestern states, Nebraska and Indiana, did break the top 10– showing that they too enjoy their Whoppers.
Where is fast food least beloved?
Vermont must be too full from all that maple syrup, because the bed and breakfast state has the fewest fast food restaurants per capita. In fact, the northeast as a whole is queuing up in fewer drive-thrus than other parts of the country, especially the south.
One surprising exception? Mississippi, notorious for loving their food, doesn’t have a lot of fast food joints to show for it. We guess their favorite food doesn’t come in a combo.
Keep reading to see where your state landed.
How We Determined This
This one was pretty simple. We turned to the data powerhouse Datafiniti.
Datafiniti used their extensive database of business data to extract information on fast food restaurants and their locations. From there, we simply compared the numbers to population sizes to find which states are Supersizing it (have the most fast food restaurants per 10,000 residents).
For the fun facts throughout the article, we turned to reputable sources such as the ACS Census.
Would you like fries with that?
According to Gallup, 80% of Americans eat fast food at least once a month.
Even those who might not enjoy the food might find themselves as one of the millions of Americans earning a living there.
In general, the south and Midwest are home to a disproportionate number of fast food joints for their size (and presumably a disproportionate number of fast food jobs.) Meanwhile, the northeast and west have far less.
To put it into perspective, Alabama in 1st place has 6x the fast food joints as Vermont in last place. That’s a big difference.
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Author
Kathy is the head of content at Zippia with a knack for engaging audiences. Prior to joining Zippia, Kathy worked at Gateway Blend growing audiences across diverse brands. She graduated from Troy University with a degree in Social Science Education.
