McDonald's Expansion Mapped: Every Country From 1940 to 2026
Watch 86 years of McDonald's global expansion unfold on a 3D globe — from a single restaurant in San Bernardino to 43,000 locations across 120+ countries. Every dot is a real McDonald's location.
The data covers 154 countries from 1940 to 2026. The USA alone has 13,400 locations (31% of all McDonald's worldwide), followed by China (5,500), Japan (3,000), France (1,500), and Germany (1,400). Not every country kept the golden arches — some went grey.
Key moments:
1940 — San Bernardino: the very first McDonald's opens in California
1967 — Canada & Puerto Rico: first international expansion begins
1971 — Japan & Europe: McDonald's crosses the Pacific and Atlantic
1990 — Russia: the iconic Pushkin Square opening during the fall of the USSR
2002 — Bolivia exits: first country to lose all McDonald's locations
2009 — Iceland exits: financial crisis closes all 3 restaurants
2022 — Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan exit: McDonald's leaves over the Ukraine war
2024 — Kenya: one of the most recent openings
Data sources: McDonald's corporate filings, national franchise reports, press archives
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