I have made four new maps showing the number of American fast food chains per capita in each European country and compared to the United States, India, China and Japan.
McDonald's are the most popular in Northern and Western Europe, except in Iceland where the chain withdrew completely from the country due to competition from the local burger joints. Also very popular in Cyprus, Israel and Kuwait.
I was surprised that France had so many McDonald's, considering how French people usually look down on American fast food. But when we think that there are over 80 million tourists in France each year (more than the country's population), it helps explain the situation. McDonald's is particularly common in big cities and tourist spots, just like Starbucks.
Spain tops the list of Burger Kings per capita in Europe. Note that there are quite a lot of them in Saudi Arabia too.
Iceland makes up for its lack of McDonald's and Burger Kings by having one of the highest per capita ratio of KFC's in the world. Britain, Cyprus and Kuwait all have more KFC per capita than the US itself. This is also true of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Belgium is the European country with the least KFCs per capita (excluding countries where KFC is absent of course). The chain only started expanding in the last few years.
Like for KFC, English-speaking countries took an immediate liking to Starbucks, probably because they lacked a strong coffee culture (Britain and Ireland are the biggest tea drinkers in the world). In contrast, Italians are very proud of their coffee culture and actively shun Starbucks. There are only 11 stores in Italy at present and the are mostly concentrated in international airports and central Rome, where they cater almost exclusively to tourists.
Here is a fifth map showing the price (converted in US$) of a Big Mac in each country. I couldn't find data for Serbia and Bosnia. If someone here knows the current price, please let me know.
Obviously the cheap prices in Russia and Turkey are due to the political troubles that mare both presidents and have caused the Russian rouble and Turkish lira to drop to historically low levels. The yen is also quite undervalued at the moment, making the Big Mac cheaper in Japan than in China!
McDonald's are the most popular in Northern and Western Europe, except in Iceland where the chain withdrew completely from the country due to competition from the local burger joints. Also very popular in Cyprus, Israel and Kuwait.
I was surprised that France had so many McDonald's, considering how French people usually look down on American fast food. But when we think that there are over 80 million tourists in France each year (more than the country's population), it helps explain the situation. McDonald's is particularly common in big cities and tourist spots, just like Starbucks.
Spain tops the list of Burger Kings per capita in Europe. Note that there are quite a lot of them in Saudi Arabia too.
Iceland makes up for its lack of McDonald's and Burger Kings by having one of the highest per capita ratio of KFC's in the world. Britain, Cyprus and Kuwait all have more KFC per capita than the US itself. This is also true of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Belgium is the European country with the least KFCs per capita (excluding countries where KFC is absent of course). The chain only started expanding in the last few years.
Like for KFC, English-speaking countries took an immediate liking to Starbucks, probably because they lacked a strong coffee culture (Britain and Ireland are the biggest tea drinkers in the world). In contrast, Italians are very proud of their coffee culture and actively shun Starbucks. There are only 11 stores in Italy at present and the are mostly concentrated in international airports and central Rome, where they cater almost exclusively to tourists.
Here is a fifth map showing the price (converted in US$) of a Big Mac in each country. I couldn't find data for Serbia and Bosnia. If someone here knows the current price, please let me know.
Obviously the cheap prices in Russia and Turkey are due to the political troubles that mare both presidents and have caused the Russian rouble and Turkish lira to drop to historically low levels. The yen is also quite undervalued at the moment, making the Big Mac cheaper in Japan than in China!
