How many people ate at a fast food restaurant last year? I guess this
would be total sales divided by check average.

Hello Buckinghammike,

Using the data below, I calculated that 37,150,000,000 people ate at
fast food restaurants.


=================
Check Average - $4.00
=================

According to Anna Martin, Nutrition, Family and Consumer Sciences
Advisor, at the University of California in a news release published
in April 2004, ?the average cost for a family of four to have a fast
food meal ( includes hamburger, fries and drink) is approximately
$16.00.?

That would be $4.00 per person.
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/filelibrary/2019/13993.pdf


According to Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president at Chicago
food-consulting firm Technomic Inc., ?Quick-casual customers spend
about $6 to $8 per average check as opposed to fast food's $3 to $4
average check.?
 
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
http://www.charleswarner.us/articles/wsjfastfood.htm



?The sweet spot to be in right now is to be in the ?quick serve?
market, which will cost about $7 a ticket. At most fast food
restaurants, your ticket is $4.?

Team Clark Howard?s Consumer action Center
http://clarkhoward.com/library/tips/food.html


============
Total Sales
============

According to Euromonitor, one of the leading providers of global
consumer market intelligence, total fast food sales is $148.6 billion.

Excerpt:

 ?The US market for fast food realized 2.6% growth in 2003 slightly
down on the previous year's growth of 3.4%, reaching a value US$148.6
billion in 2003.?

FAST FOOD: MARKET FORECASTS

?Over the 2004 to 2008 forecast period, the US fast food market is
expected to increase in value by only 1.7% to reach approximately
US$153.3 billion.?

Euromonitor Plc: June 2004
http://www.euromonitor.com/Fast_food_in_USA_(mmp)


"U.S. fast food market" billion
Average fast food meal price 
Average price OR cost of a fast food meal
Average check fat food


I hope you find this information useful!


Best regards,
Bobbie7

---

Clarification of Answer by bobbie7-ga on 09 Feb 2005 14:16 PST

Additional information that might interest you:

Every day about one quarter of the U.S. population eats fast food.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/31/health/main326858.shtml

Thank you very much. I appreciate the speed of your response, plus the
source data. I couldn't be happier.

There are only 6.5 billion people in the whole world.  The number
estimated (37.15 billion) by Bobbie7-ga, although accurately
calculated as requested by buckinghammike-ga, is the total number of
fast food meals served, not the number of people that ate them.  Most
of these meals were eaten by repeat customers.  Even if we take a
conservative number of repeat visits into account (for example, say
that the average person who eats fast food eats out 200 times a year),
then there are only approximately 185.8 million people who ate fast
food in 2004.  It would be interesting to know how many individuals
ate at a fast food restaurant last year.

I realized that when I got your answer...so I divided the answer by 52
to make the number more digestable, and changed the time frame to
weeks. Would it be accuate to the spirit of the statistic to suggest,
"Americans ate 715 million meals from fast food chains last week?"