Sometimes all you need is a quick meal like a juicy burger. This mood tends to strike when you are miles away from any decent stops. Scavenging on late-night gas station offerings is not a sustainable way to live. Thankfully, there are plenty of places across the U.S. that are sanctuaries for fast food joints.
Living in an area with plenty of fast food restaurants presents a double-edged sword. The good news is you could always have a Taco Bell 12 Pack to keep you company. The bad news is living near fast food and its sodium-laden charms correlates with greater food consumption and higher obesity rates in children. One study even concluded that “fast food can inhibit savoring, producing negative consequences for how we experience pleasurable events.”
The data scientists at FindTheHome, part of the Graphiq network, identified places that have the highest density of fast food restaurants in each state. Using company classification information from Dun & Bradstreet, we calculated the number of fast food restaurants per 10,000 people. We then identified the city within each state with the highest density of fast food restaurants. Only cities with a population threshold over the 95th percentile of the state were considered in our analysis.
Note: For the sake of simplicity, we round the “Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People” to the nearest hundredth, which results in ties. Ties do not exist in the unrounded list. The order of the list reflects ranking based on the original calculation. The cities displayed in the accompanying visualization do not represent all the cities that were considered, just the cities with the top density of fast food restaurants.
#50. Connecticut: Norwalk
Population: 87,214
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 1.84
Notable Restaurant: Five Guys
#49. Massachusetts: Fall River
Population: 88,756
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 1.92
Notable Restaurant: Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits
#48. New Hampshire: Rochester
Population: 29,883
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 2.68
Notable Restaurant: Wendy's
#47. New Jersey: Vineland
Population: 60,985
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 2.95
Notable Restaurant: Stewart's Drive-In
#46. Rhode Island: Warwick
Population: 82,065
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 3.29
Notable Restaurant: Walt's Roast Beef
#45. Maine: Bangor
Population: 32,800
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 3.66
Notable Restaurant: Chipotle
#44. Hawaii: Hilo
Population: 44,549
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 4.27
Notable Restaurant: Cafe 100
#43. New York: Watertown
Population: 27,590
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 4.35
Notable Restaurant: Sonic Drive-In
#42. Washington: Lakewood
Population: 58,890
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 4.42
Notable Restaurant: Church's Chicken
#41. Utah: Sandy
Population: 89,521
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 4.58
Notable Restaurant: The Philadelphian
#40. Arizona: Tempe
Population: 166,975
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 4.61
Notable Restaurant: French Fry Heaven
#39. Wisconsin: Eau Claire
Population: 67,036
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 4.62
Notable Restaurant: Culver's
#38. Florida: Boca Raton
Population: 88,187
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 4.65
Notable Restaurant: Chipotle
#37. Colorado: Grand Junction
Population: 59,731
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 4.69
Notable Restaurant: McAlister's Deli
#36. Nevada: Paradise
Population: 223,182
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 4.71
Notable Restaurant: Izzy's Burger Spa
#35. California: Costa Mesa
Population: 111,635
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 4.75
Notable Restaurant: In-N-Out Burger
#34. Michigan: Southfield
Population: 72,480
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 4.83
Notable Restaurant: Lou's Deli
#33. Idaho: Rexburg
Population: 26,301
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 4.94
Notable Restaurant: Jimmy John's
#32. Oregon: Redmond
Population: 27,002
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 5.19
Notable Restaurant: Dairy Queen
#31. Maryland: Hagerstown
Population: 40,295
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 5.21
Notable Restaurant: Burkett's Deli
#30. Minnesota: Mankato
Population: 39,871
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 5.52
Notable Restaurant: Jersey Mike's Subs
#29. North Dakota: Devils Lake
Population: 7,218
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 5.54
Notable Restaurant: McDonald's
#28. South Dakota: Mitchell
Population: 15,490
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 5.81
Notable Restaurant: Quiznos
#27. Vermont: South Burlington
Population: 18,378
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 5.99
Notable Restaurant: Al's French Frys
#26. Texas: Longview
Population: 82,030
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 6.22
Notable Restaurant: Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers
#25. Delaware: Dover
Population: 36,826
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 6.25
Notable Restaurant: Wayback Burgers
#24. Illinois: Belleville
Population: 43,296
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 6.47
Notable Restaurant: Rally's
#23. Wyoming: Rock Springs
Population: 23,684
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 6.76
Notable Restaurant: Burger King
#22. Pennsylvania: Kingston
Population: 13,105
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 6.87
Notable Restaurant: Abe's Hot Dogs
#21. Indiana: Marion
Population: 29,403
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 7.14
Notable Restaurant: Penguin Point
#20. Iowa: Spencer
Population: 11,177
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 7.16
Notable Restaurant: Dairy Queen
#19. Montana: Lockwood
Population: 6,943
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 7.20
Notable Restaurant: Burger King
#18. Kansas: Arkansas City
Population: 12,316
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 7.31
Notable Restaurant: Long John Silver's
#17. Ohio: Zanesville
Population: 25,444
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 7.47
Notable Restaurant: Wendy's
#16. Virginia: Danville
Population: 42,704
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 7.49
Notable Restaurant: Bojangle's Famous Chicken 'n Biscuits
#15. Georgia: Dalton
Population: 33,336
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 7.50
Notable Restaurant: Krystal
#14. Tennessee: Kingsport
Population: 52,835
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 7.57
Notable Restaurant: Pal's
#13. Alabama: Bessemer
Population: 27,202
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 7.72
Notable Restaurant: Chick-fil-A
#12. Missouri: Farmington
Population: 17,213
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 8.71
Notable Restaurant: KFC
#11. Nebraska: Lexington
Population: 10,189
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 8.83
Notable Restaurant: Taco John's
#10. South Carolina: Florence
Population: 37,512
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 9.06
Notable Restaurant: Five Guys
#9. North Carolina: Statesville
Population: 25,132
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 9.15
Notable Restaurant: Taco Bell
#8. Arkansas: Russellville
Population: 28,581
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 9.45
Notable Restaurant: Feltner's Whatta-Burger
#7. New Mexico: Gallup
Population: 22,189
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 9.46
Notable Restaurant: Sonic Drive-In
#6. Mississippi: Ridgeland
Population: 24,209
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 9.50
Notable Restaurant: Whataburger
#5. Alaska: Wasilla
Population: 8,406
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 9.52
Notable Restaurant: Arby's
#4. Louisiana: Slidell
Population: 27,372
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 10.23
Notable Restaurant: Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers
#3. West Virginia: Beckley
Population: 17,529
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 10.84
Notable Restaurant: DQ Grill and Chill
#2. Oklahoma: Durant
Population: 16,507
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 10.90
Notable Restaurant: Jack in the Box
#1. Kentucky: Paducah
Population: 25,046
Fast Food Restaurants per 10K People: 13.18
Notable Restaurant: Burger King
