Number of Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants worldwide 2010-2021

Global fast food chain KFC, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, accounted for nearly 27 thousand restaurants worldwide during the 2021 financial year. This reflected an increase over the previous year's total of 25 thousand.

KFC's history

KFC is a quick service chicken restaurant chain, founded by Harland Sanders commonly known as Colonel Sanders. The first restaurant was opened under the name Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1952 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The name was formally changed to KFC in the 1990s in an attempt to create a healthier brand image. Despite the restaurant chain’s efforts to appear healthier to consumers, KFC’s most famous dishes are still fried chicken based, such as their original recipe buckets, popcorn chicken and fried chicken wings. As of 2021, KFC operated in 149 countries across the globe.

Is KFC the largest QSR chain in the world?

KFC’s international expansion has helped it to become one of the most recognizable quick service restaurant brands in the world. Yet despite its solid performance year-over-year, it was unable to beat other leading QSR chains in the market. Still on the lead was McDonald’s which had an estimated brand value of about 154.92 billion U.S. dollars in 2021.