Restaurant Franchise Statistics: A State Index of Franchise Share

Restaurant franchise statistics: what the Census counts

The only U.S. count of franchise restaurants by state comes from the Census Bureau’s Economic Census, and its latest franchise tables are for 2017. This index ranks the 50 states and the District of Columbia on the share of restaurant establishments that operated as franchises in 2017, using the 2017 Economic Census bulk file.

Limited-service restaurants (NAICS 722513) are places where patrons order or select items and pay before eating; the Census definition names fast-food, fast casual, takeout sandwich shops and pizza delivery shops as examples (NAICS 2022). Full-service restaurants (NAICS 722511) are places where patrons order and are served while seated and pay after eating (NAICS 2022).

An establishment is one location. A franchise establishment is a location that operates under a franchisor’s trademark or brand, owned either by a franchisee or by the franchisor itself. State tables exist only for these two restaurant industries; all-industry state shares are in our franchise statistics by state report.

Treat every Census share here as a floor. A Census Center for Economic Studies paper found that many franchise locations answer the form as non-franchise, and that recoding them would raise the unweighted 2017 franchise count by 22% to 42% (CES-WP-19-20, 2019).

State Restaurant Franchise Index: limited-service restaurants, 2017

Franchises ran 57.3% of U.S. limited-service restaurant establishments in 2017: 144,941 of 252,884 (2017 Economic Census). In 37 of 51 jurisdictions (50 states plus DC), franchises were more than half of limited-service restaurants in 2017, and in 13 the share was 70% or higher.

The highest 2017 limited-service franchise shares were in Mississippi (78.0%), Kentucky (77.8%), Wyoming (77.5%), North Dakota (76.5%), Arkansas (75.0%). The lowest were in New York (31.1%), New Jersey (31.4%), District of Columbia (32.9%), Hawaii (33.6%), Maine (37.2%). The 46.9-point spread between Mississippi and New York is the main finding of the index: the national 57.3% hides very different local markets.

The median state had a 63.3% limited-service franchise share in 2017, above the national figure, because several states with many restaurants have below-average shares, including New York (31.1%) and California (48.8%). California had the most franchise restaurant establishments in 2017, 18,826 limited- and full-service combined, followed by Texas (16,249) and Florida (10,885).

Full-service vs limited-service: most sit-down restaurants are independent

Franchises were 12.5% of U.S. full-service restaurant establishments in 2017: 31,418 of 250,843 (2017 Economic Census). The limited-service franchise share in 2017 was 4.6 times the full-service share.

Across the four Census restaurant industries combined (NAICS 7225), franchises were 34.7% of establishments in 2017: 198,610 of 572,745. Snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars, which include coffee shops, ice cream parlors and juice bars (NAICS 2022), were 33.2% franchised in 2017, and cafeterias and buffets 21.5%.

Franchise locations are larger employers than their count suggests. Franchise establishments held 71.5% of limited-service restaurant employment and 17.9% of full-service restaurant employment in March 2017 (2017 Economic Census). Size and sales comparisons between franchise and non-franchise units are covered in our franchise vs independent business study and are not repeated here.

The full-service pattern follows the limited-service one. The highest 2017 full-service franchise shares were in Mississippi (25.1%), Kentucky (23.7%), Arkansas (23.2%), Georgia (22.9%), Alabama (22.8%); the lowest were in Connecticut (2.9%), District of Columbia (3.7%), Rhode Island (4.2%), Massachusetts (4.6%), Vermont (5.5%). Across the 51 jurisdictions, the two shares are strongly correlated (Pearson r = 0.77), so states where franchise brands dominate counter-service food also tend to have more franchised sit-down restaurants.

Franchisee-owned vs franchisor-owned restaurants by state

Most franchise restaurants are owned by franchisees. In 2017, franchisors owned 18,546 of the 144,941 U.S. limited-service franchise establishments (12.8%) and 6,693 of the 31,418 full-service franchise establishments (21.3%) (2017 Economic Census).

Company ownership is higher in sit-down chains. The franchisor-owned share of full-service franchise establishments exceeded the limited-service share in 37 of the 46 states where both were published in 2017.

By state, the franchisor-owned share of limited-service franchise establishments in 2017 ranged from 19.4% in Utah and 18.5% in Maryland to 0.8% in North Dakota; the median state was 10.8%. In Georgia, franchisors owned 43.1% of full-service franchise establishments in 2017 (715 of 1,658).

Small-state shares rest on small counts. DC’s 47.1% franchisor-owned full-service share in 2017 is 16 of 34 establishments. Census withheld or did not publish the full-service ownership split for Alaska, Delaware, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wyoming (marked n/p).

Change from 2012 to 2017 by state

The U.S. limited-service franchise share rose from 54.3% in 2012 to 57.3% in 2017, a 3.0-point increase (2012 Economic Census and 2017 Economic Census, NAICS 722513 in both years). Limited-service franchise establishments grew 18.8% from 2012 to 2017, while non-franchise limited-service establishments grew 5.1%.

The full-service franchise share was flat: 12.5% in 2012 and 12.5% in 2017. The limited-service share rose in 35 jurisdictions and fell in 16 from 2012 to 2017; the median change was 3.0 points.

The largest measured swings are in small states and look partly like measurement noise. Vermont went from 19.9% to 41.4% (from 77 to 178 franchise establishments) and South Dakota from 79.3% to 70.6% between 2012 and 2017. Among the largest states, Florida rose from 54.5% to 61.5% and Texas fell from 66.8% to 62.8%.

Read the change with care. The 2017 form asked whether a location operates under a franchisor’s “trademark or brand”, a rewording meant to reduce under-reporting, and the 2012 count received less manual review than the 2007 count (CES-WP-19-20). Part of the 2012 to 2017 rise can therefore be better reporting rather than more franchising.

Firm-level view: franchise restaurant firms in 2023

The Annual Business Survey (ABS) counts firms rather than locations, and it has newer data than the Economic Census. In data year 2023 (the 2024 ABS), 19.6% of responding employer firms in restaurants and other eating places (NAICS 7225) operated all or partly as a franchise, with a standard error of 0.7 points (ABS 2023 file). Across all sectors the 2023 share was 4.7%.

The firm share and the establishment share measure different things: one firm can operate many locations, and the ABS does not separate limited-service from full-service restaurants. Franchise firms held 41.1% of employment at responding restaurant firms in 2023, but the standard error on that estimate is 12.9 points, so we do not rank on it.

By owner, 31.6% of responding veteran-owned restaurant firms operated as franchises in 2023 (standard error 4.2), compared with 19.1% of nonveteran-owned firms. Male-owned restaurant firms (22.3%) were more often franchised than female-owned firms (12.9%), and Hispanic-owned firms had the lowest share shown (10.0%).

These are shares of firms that answered the franchise question. Census states that these tables are not weighted for nonresponse and should not be read as totals of all firms (ABS methodology, 2024).

SBA lending to restaurant franchises, FY2020 to June 2026

SBA loan files give the most current signal on restaurant franchising. From FY2020 through June 30, 2026, SBA approved 42,380 7(a) loans to food services businesses (NAICS 722), and 10,850 of them (25.6%) carried a franchise code (SBA FOIA, as of 2026-06-30). Franchise-coded loans were 32.3% of approved restaurant 7(a) dollars in the same period.

The SBA split mirrors the Census split. Franchise-coded loans were 47.1% of limited-service restaurant 7(a) loans and 10.6% of full-service restaurant loans from FY2020 to June 30, 2026.

Restaurant franchise loans mostly open new locations. Lenders classed 57.0% of franchise-coded restaurant 7(a) loans as startups (loan funds open the business) from FY2020 to June 30, 2026, against 24.0% of other restaurant 7(a) loans. The median franchise-coded restaurant loan was $420,000, against $190,700 for other restaurant loans.

The yearly franchise-coded share dropped to 18.4% in FY2024, but that is a coding artifact rather than a lending shift. SBA stopped publishing its Franchise Directory on May 11, 2023 (88 FR 21074) and announced on April 22, 2025 that it would reinstate it (SBA) under SOP 50 10 8, effective June 1, 2025 (SOP version history). The franchise-coded share of restaurant 7(a) loans was 30.9% before the rule, 17.3% from October 2023 to February 2025 and 26.3% from June 2025 to June 2026.

SBA-backed restaurant franchising is spread across many brands: 1,150 different franchise codes appear on restaurant 7(a) loans since FY2020, and the 15 most frequent account for 27.5% of franchise-coded loans. Table 6 lists them by loan count only. Loan counts reflect how often borrowers used SBA financing, not brand size, quality or outcomes. All-industry SBA franchise lending is covered in our SBA franchise loans report.

Fees, disclosure and turnover in food franchise FDDs

Our three FDD studies each read the same 259 Franchise Disclosure Documents filed in Minnesota, including 27 food and beverage brands (Minnesota CARDS). The figures below are copied from those published reports, not recomputed, and the food group includes coffee, dessert and beverage concepts as well as restaurants.

• Royalty: the median food and beverage royalty was 5.5% of sales (24 brands with a percentage royalty, FDDs issued 2025 to 2026), against 6% across all 259 brands; see franchise royalty rates.
• Initial investment: the median Item 7 estimate for food and beverage brands ran from $482,500 to $959,374, against $240,800 to $534,730 for all brands; our franchise costs guide explains what Item 7 includes.
• Item 19: 20 of 27 food and beverage FDDs (74.1%, 95% interval 55.3 to 86.8) included a financial performance representation, against 77.2% of all 259; see Item 19 disclosure.
• Turnover: across 23 food and beverage brands with 9,356 franchised outlets, the median brand’s exits (terminations, non-renewals, reacquisitions and ceased operations) equaled 5.3% of start-of-year outlets in the latest fiscal year, against 4.7% across all sample brands; see franchise closure rates.

Twenty-seven brands is a small group, so these are cross-references, not restaurant benchmarks. Anyone weighing a specific restaurant brand should read its current FDD; our guide to buying a franchise lists the items to check.

Where the restaurant data stops

No newer state count exists. The Census 2022 Economic Census release schedule (page revised April 30, 2026) lists no U.S. franchise status table; the only 2022 franchise table covers retail trade in Puerto Rico (Census release schedule), and the Census Data API has no 2022 franchise dataset (API request returns 404). In 2021, Census staff said they planned to keep publishing franchise data for the 2022 census (Census webinar slides).

For current context only: the Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 269,945 private limited-service restaurant establishments and 264,800 full-service ones in 2025 (QCEW annual averages; BLS 722513, BLS 722511). QCEW has no franchise flag, and its reporting units are not comparable with Census establishments, so we do not apply 2017 shares to 2025 counts.

A private chain database gives a different lens. Technomic, as reported by Bar & Restaurant on June 27, 2025, put franchisees or licensees at 74% of U.S. chain restaurant locations (Bar & Restaurant). That figure covers chains only and includes licensees, so it is not comparable with the Census share of all restaurants.

Nothing on this page measures restaurant profits or owner income. This research is general information, not legal, tax, financial or investment advice.