The map of McDonald’s in France: the densest mesh in Europe
With 1,530 restaurants claimed by the chain in 2024 across the metropolitan and DOM-TOM territory, McDonald’s is without question the most established chain in France — and one of the densest in Europe relative to the population (one restaurant for ~44,000 inhabitants).
The tagged perimeter in our database
Our SIRENE indexing identifies 23 franchised companies explicitly linked to the McDonald’s group (group_id = 'mcdonald-s'), operating 96 establishments declared, of which 62 are open. This is a sub-ensemble that vastly under-represents the reality (the majority of franchisees operate under SARLs whose name does not contain “McDonald’s”). For an exhaustive mapping, the chain itself publishes a store-locator on mcdonalds.fr.
Top 5 departments in our sample
| Rank | Department | Tagged Companies |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paris (75) | 10 |
| 2 | Val-de-Marne (94) | 9 |
| 2 | Seine-et-Marne (77) | 9 |
| 4 | Rhône (69) | 6 |
| 5 | Hauts-de-Seine (92) | 5 |
The Parisian concentration is expected: the Île-de-France region represents about 18% of French McDonald’s, or ~270 restaurants.
Population density: a key indicator
To identify areas of opportunity, the key indicator is the number of inhabitants per McDonald’s. Areas where this ratio is low (1 McDo for < 30k inhabitants) are saturated; those where it is high (> 70k inhabitants) are under-served.
Particularly under-served areas in 2024:
- Cantal, Lozère, Creuse, Corrèze: less than 5 restaurants for entire departments
- Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence: seasonal coverage linked to tourism only
- Corsica: 4 restaurants on the entire island
- Overseas territories: heterogeneous density, mainly present in Reunion and Martinique
Planned opening strategy for 2025-2030
According to McDonald’s France communications:
- 40-50 openings per year over the decade
- Priority to medium-sized cities 30k-80k inhabitants that are still unserved
- Density of highway zones (corridors A6, A7, A20 in particular)
- Development of drive-thru only for peri-urban activity zones
- Some urban flagship stores in central Paris-Lyon-Marseille (image logic)
Comparison with other chains
| Chain | Restaurants France | Inhabitants per restaurant |
|---|---|---|
| McDonald’s | 1,530 | 44,000 |
| Burger King | ~500 | 134,000 |
| KFC | ~380 | 176,000 |
| Subway | ~400 | 168,000 |
| Domino’s Pizza | ~480 | 140,000 |
McDonald’s mesh is 3 to 4 times denser than that of its direct competitors. This is a structural barrier to entry: for a newcomer (Five Guys, Shake Shack, Wendy’s) to threaten McDonald’s, it would need to replicate an equivalent real estate investment effort.
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