Top Fast Food Countries
American Companies & Consumers Lead World in Outside Casual Dining
Fast food sales continue to boom despite warnings about obesity & food poisoning in Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation book & Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me movie.
The United States spends more on convenience meals than any other country.
Among the top ten fast food nations, America accounted for almost two-thirds of the US$229.2 billion spent on casual dining during 2004.
Total Spending on Fast Food
And, as the list below shows, Japan's outlay for convenience dining is a distant second to the total spending on fast food in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
- United States. … US$148.6 billion (64.8% of top 10 country fast food sales)
- Japan … $13.9 billion (6.1%)
- Canada … $12.7 billion (5.5%)
- United Kingdom … $12.1 billion (5.3%)
- China … $9.8 billion (4.3%)
- South Korea … $9.3 billion (4%)
- Germany … $7.4 billion (3.2%)
- Australia … $5.7 billion (2.5%)
- Brazil … $5 billion (2.2%)
- India … $4.9 billion (2.1%)
Per Capita Spending on Fast Food
Just as revealing are fast food per capita spending statistics, calculated based on each country’s population size.
- United States (population 302.2 million) … US$492 per capita
- Canada (32.9 million) … $387
- Australia (20.4 million) … $279
- United Kingdom (60.6 million) … $199
- South Korea (49 million) … $189
- Japan… (128 million) $108
- Germany (82.3 million) … $89.63
- Brazil (189 million) … $26.28
- China (1.3 billion) … $7.41
- India (1.1 billion) … $4.34
The above numbers clearly show that Americans, Canadians and Australians spend much more per capita on fast food meals than the average Chinese or Indian eater does.
However, it is important to note that the list focuses solely on fast foods – not other meals consumed outside the home. While fast food represents 84.5% of American sales for eating out, fast food contributes only 9.8% of what Chinese spend on outside meals and just 5.6% of Indian expenditures on eating out.
If other outside food like restaurant meals are included, China and India spend $76 and $77 per capita respectively.
Fast Food Corporate Giants
Given China and India’s vast populations and proven consumer demand for meals outside the home, large multinationals like McDonalds and Starbucks have targeted these developing economies as key to growing their fast food revenues.
America’s leadership in consuming fast foods is due principally to the fact that major casual dining chains and convenience snack retailers have their roots in the U.S.
Below is a list of the world’s leading public fast food companies and their 2006 revenues. Headquarter locations are shown in brackets.
- McDonalds (Oak Brook, Illinois) … US$21.6 billion in 2006 revenues
- Yum! Brands including KFC (Louisville, Kentucky) … $9.6 billion
- Starbucks (Seattle, Washington) … $7.8 billion
- Darden Restaurants (Orlando, Florida) … $5.6 billion
- Brinker International (Dallas, Texas) … $4.2 billion
- Wendy’s (Dublin, Ohio) … $2.5 billion
- Burger King (Miami, Florida) … $2.1 billion
- Domino’s Pizza (Ann Arbor, Michigan) … $1.6 billion
- Applebee’s International (Overland Park, Kansas) … $1.3 billion
American fast food corporations continue to develop international consumer markets for outside-the-home convenience meals, mindful not so much of serving healthy fast food choices around the world as delivering handsome profits from global consumers.
Sources for this Article
This article presents independent calculations and insights based on data drawn from the 2007 World Population Data Sheet, hoovers.com and Euromonitor "The World Market for Consumer Foodservice, 2004".
