How Many Restaurants Are in the US?
258,626 employer full-service restaurants in the United States in 2023 — 7.7 for every 10,000 residents. 43% of them have fewer than ten employees.
The number, and what it counts
A business with at least one paid employee, in the Census industry code for this trade.
The figure comes from the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns, which every year counts establishments by industry and location from payroll tax records. It is the most reliable public count of businesses in the country, and it has one important boundary: it counts employer businesses. A full-service restaurant that is one person with no payroll — and in some trades that is a large share — is not in this number. Treat 258,626 as a floor for the trade, not a ceiling.
The industry code is NAICS 722511, Full-Service Restaurants. The Census code used here, NAICS 722511, is full-service restaurants — table service. Fast food, cafés and bars are separate codes and are not included in this count.
Of the 258,626, 67,995 — 26% — have fewer than five employees, and 43% have fewer than ten. This is a trade of small businesses.
Restaurants by city
The seven largest US metros, densest first. New York leads at 11.3 per 10,000; Maricopa County is lowest at 6.1.
| Census scope | Restaurants | Per 10,000 residents | Under 10 employees | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 9,341 | 11.3 | 57% | 1 of 7 |
| Cook CountyChicago area | 4,330 | 8.5 | 47% | 2 of 7 |
| Los Angeles CountyLos Angeles area | 8,214 | 8.5 | 44% | 3 of 7 |
| Philadelphia | 1,209 | 7.8 | 55% | 4 of 7 |
| Harris CountyHouston area | 3,574 | 7.4 | 43% | 5 of 7 |
| Bexar CountySan Antonio area | 1,472 | 7.1 | 47% | 6 of 7 |
| Maricopa CountyPhoenix area | 2,789 | 6.1 | 34% | 7 of 7 |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 722511 (Full-Service Restaurants), and Population Estimates 2023. Counts are employer establishments — businesses with at least one paid employee. Sole operators with no payroll are not included.
The first column is what the Census actually measured. Business counts are published by county, not by city, so for Houston the number is Harris County, for Chicago it is Cook County, and so on. Two of the seven — Philadelphia and New York City — are coterminous with their counties, so there the city name is exact. Density is county establishments divided by county population, so both sides of the fraction cover the same ground.
Reading the table
Density says more than the raw count. A big county has more of everything.
The national average is 7.7 full-service restaurants per 10,000 residents. New York is 46% above it; Maricopa County is 21% below. The spread between the densest and the sparsest of these seven is roughly 1.9×, which is typical for a local-service trade: the count tracks households and commercial activity, not population alone.
The "under 10 employees" column is the one that matters if you are sizing a market to sell into. It is the share of the trade made up of independent operators who make their own decisions. Where it is high, the trade is fragmented; where it is lower, larger firms or chains hold more of it.