Global Consumerism: Who Eats The Most Fast Food?

Fast Food. Everybody loves it. C’mon, admit it, even if greasy burgers aren’t your thing, you like at least one type of fast food. Sesame noodle stir fry? Take-away sushi? Falafel wrap? Raspberry-topped frozen yoghurt on the go?

The fast food industry is HUGE. Just to give you an idea of the magnitude of the figures involved, global consumer expenditure on fast food in 2011 totalled US$583.2 billion. That’s not just people gorging themselves on burgers, fries and buckets of coke, mind, but it encompasses all manner of fast food, including Asian, Middle Eastern and bakery fast food, etc.

The largest global market for fast food is – no surprise here – the US, followed by China, Japan, Brazil and the UK. In terms of annual per capita spend, Australia leads (ahead of the US!) with US$653 in 2011. US consumers forked out US$630 per person, closely followed by Canadians.

In per capita terms, the US clocked up the highest spend on burger fast food, a whopping US$295 in 2011. Surprisingly, France also features in the top ten, with US$116 per head.

The Romans brought fast food to Toledo. Erm… OK… maybe not, but this Toledo restaurant seems keen to convince us!

Burger fast food is the biggest fast food category, accounting for almost one third of total global fast food in terms of value. After burgers, Asian fast food is the second-largest category, and the fastest growing.

McDonald’s is the world’s leading fast food chain. As you can see, Toledo’s historic town centre has not been spared

Pizza fast food was worth nearly US$10 billion in 2011. Again, the US is the largest market, followed by Italy and Russia. In per capita terms, though, Swedes and Finns spent the most. Scandinavians are well known for being totally pizza crazy, they also top the per capita spend charts of frozen supermarket pizza.

Why cough up €2.50 for an abstemious slice, when you can get twenty times as much grub for only ten times the price?!

As you’d perhaps expect, the UK is the biggest marked for fish fast food. Yes, that’s down to the infamous ‘national dish’ that is fish’n’chips, on which the Brits fritter away US$2.3 billion annually – that’s one third of what the category is worth on a global level.

 

[For data source, click here]