U.S. Restaurant Landscape: Numbers & Notes

Current Restaurant Count,

*As of August 1, 2024, there are 786,206 restaurants operating in the United States.

*Openings & Closings:

*New Openings: A steady pace of 550-650 new restaurant locations are opening each week.

*Chain vs. Independent Openings: Only about 10-12% of these new openings are chain restaurants, a significant decrease from pre-pandemic levels when chains accounted for 25-33% of new locations.

*Closings: While there have been anecdotal reports of an increase in restaurant closures, reviews of major online platforms (Yelp, Google Maps, OpenTable, TripAdvisor) show no significant change in closure rates.

*Closures in 2024: The first 6 months of 2024 saw a total of 15,977 restaurant closures.

8,956 closures occurred in the last 3 months (April-June), compared to 7,021 in the first 3 months (January-March).

2,712 of these closures were chain restaurants, while 13,265 were independent establishments. Since the pandemic, Independent restaurants are opening at a higher rate, but also account for the majority of closures.