States with most fast food restaurants per capita (fit in, house)

[MrDee12345]

I thought that this would be a fun one to discuss. Here's the list in descending order:

51. Vermont: 1.9 per capita
50. New Jersey: 2.0 per capita
49. New York: 2.1 per capita
48. Mississippi: 2.1 per capita
47. Connecticut: 2.4 per capita
46. Rhode Island: 2.5 per capita
45. Alaska: 2.6 per capita
44. Massachusetts: 3.1 per capita
43. Maine: 3.1 per capita
42. Washington: 3.1 per capita
41. Hawaii: 3.2 per capita
40. Pennsylvania: 3.2 per capita
39. New Hampshire: 3.2 per capita
38. Florida: 3.3 per capita
37. California: 3.6 per capita
36. Oregon: 3.6 per capita
35. Utah: 3.6 per capita
34. North Dakota: 3.6 per capita
33. Minnesota: 3.7 per capita
32. Montana: 3.8 per capita
31. Idaho: 3.8 per capita
30. Maryland: 3.9 per capita
29. Wisconsin: 4.0 per capita
28. Michigan: 4.0 per capita
27. Colorado: 4.0 per capita
26. Wyoming: 4.1 per capita
25. Delaware: 4.1 per capita
24. Virginia: 4.3 per capita
23. South Dakota: 4.3 per capita
22. New Mexico: 4.3 per capita
21. Texas: 4.3 per capita
20. Louisiana: 4.4 per capita
19. Illinois: 4.5 per capita
18. North Carolina: 4.5 per capita
17. Arizona: 4.6 per capita
16. Iowa: 4.7 per capita
15. Kansas: 4.7 per capita
14. Arkansas: 4.7 per capita
13. Ohio: 4.7 per capita
12. Nevada: 4.7 per capita
11. Kentucky: 4.8 per capita
10. South Carolina: 4.9 per capita
9. Missouri: 4.9 per capita
8. Georgia: 4.9 per capita
7. Washington, DC: 5.0 per capita
6. Indiana: 5.0 per capita
5. Tennessee: 5.2 per capita
4. Oklahoma: 5.3 per capita
3. West Virginia: 5.3 per capita
2. Nebraska: 5.4 per capita
1. Alabama 6.3 per capita

What I find a bit funny is how many chains Alabama has, yet MS has one of the lowest per capita.




https://www.thrillist.com/news/natio...nts-datafiniti

[masssachoicetts]

Massachusetts is so much higher than I thought, Dunkin/Papa Gino's/D'Angelo's probably the bulk of them.

[btownboss4]

This must be per thousand or maybe even per 10k or something. Cause Alabama does not have 36,000,000 businesses or all kinds combined

[AshbyQuin]

I always thought Philly was a fast-food desert.

[Nemean]

It's per 10K.

Unfortunately, the link to the data in the article is dead (it's from 2018). This is the closest I could find, and it still doesn't have the full list.

But it does look to be checking if there's a drive through, I'm guessing. So there's a lot of McAlister's Deli or Mellow Mushroom, for example. Bates House of Turkey is a singular location (It's notable as one of the I-65 landmarks between the notoriously boring drive between Montgomery and Mobile, like Priester's Pecans and the Conecuh Sausage Store), but it's listed twice. A quick check shows a decent number of other duplicate locations. Likewise, there's some multi-location chains with singular entries on the list, like Dreamland or Hamburger Heaven. I hadn't checked other states either, so the issues could be elsewhere, too. Also, as this was 2018, the population of Alabama was notably underestimated (not enough to affect the placing of the state itself, but paired with duplicate entries and oddly defined restaurants as fast food could do it. I really doubt "Buffet City" would be a fast food restaurant.).

[jjbradleynyc]

Some thoughts--

New Jersey is surprising! As-is New York. Wow, the least amount per capita. I think that's a good thing.

The south is most of the top 10. Not surprised with Tennessee (my home state), because in my old hometown, most options for eating out is fast food in a city of roughly 50,000.

[btownboss4]

At per 10k almost half of all fast food restaurants in MA (1.3/10k) and Dunkin’s

[BigCity76]

Originally Posted by jjbradleynyc

Some thoughts--

New Jersey is surprising! As-is New York. Wow, the least amount per capita. I think that's a good thing.

The south is most of the top 10. Not surprised with Tennessee (my home state), because in my old hometown, most options for eating out is fast food in a city of roughly 50,000.

A very good thing indeed. It just means that we rely less on that crap fast food than every other part of the country. Not surprising as it's hard to eat fast food in these parts when you have sooo many great options across all types of cuisine at great prices.

[btownboss4]

Originally Posted by BigCity76

A very good thing indeed. It just means that we rely less on that crap fast food than every other part of the country. Not surprising as it's hard to eat fast food in these parts when you have sooo many great options across all types of cuisine at great prices.

The real reason is most fast food joints have standard plans for shops that are far easier to fit in suburban strip malls/shopping centers largely built to the same standards than old buildings in old city centers. As the latter require unique plans rather than copy and pasting stuff

It’s simply much more work to try to fit a Wendy’s in Queens than Cobb County. Which is why NJ, VT, NY, RI CT and MA pretty much the states with the oldest building stock in the country populate the bottom of the lists. And Alaska is logistics. It’s hard to expand to Alaska.

[BigCity76]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

The real reason is most fast food joints have standard plans for shops that are far easier to fit in suburban strip malls/shopping centers largely built to the same standards than old buildings in old city centers. As the latter require unique plans rather than copy and pasting stuff

It’s simply much more work to try to fit a Wendy’s in Queens than Cobb County. Which is why NJ, VT, NY, RI CT and MA pretty much the states with the oldest building stock in the country populate the bottom of the lists. And Alaska is logistics. It’s hard to expand to Alaska.

Then how do you explain Mississippi? Kinda kills your argument. The truth is there's a variety of factors as to why certain areas are more fast food dependent and they've always been that way. This isn't a groundbreaking phenomena.