By Grant Guggisberg
Trying to decipher which United States city has the most restaurants per capita is like guessing how many stars are in the sky. Everyone has an opinion, but nobody seems to know.
The myth floating around the Sunflower State and beyond is that Wichita ranks second in the nation in restaurants per person. This is an impressive statistic to boast – most likely why the claim appeared in a Wichita visitor’s bureau pamphlet, despite the nonexistent statistics to back it up.
Yet, if you’ve ever been to Wichita, you know there are plenty of places to eat out. It seems fairly logical to assume Kansas’ largest city could be near the top of the list in restaurants per capita.
One of the knocks on Wichita, and really Kansas in general, is the assertion that there’s nothing to do for fun. With no Rocky Mountains, major professional sports or even major tourist attractions, there’s certainly some truth to the claim. In Wichita, people go out to eat, and they do it often.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2000, the Wichita metropolitan area had a population of 545,220, good for the most in Kansas. The U.S. economic census, conducted every five years, reported in 2002 that Wichita had 1,088 restaurants in the area. That gives Wichita roughly 501 people per restaurant.
So how does that rate on a national scale? The following statistics were obtained the exact same way from the U.S. Census Bureau for every metropolitan area with a population of at least 400,000 in the year 2000. There were 102 cities that made the cut and Wichita ranks 13th on the list.
Not bad, but not quite No. 2 either.
The No. 2 spot goes to Honolulu, Hawaii, most likely because of all the tourists visiting the island. The top spot belongs to Madison, Wisc., which had 1,146 restaurants catering to just 426,526 people.
For Wichita to be 13th on the list is impressive because of the lack of tourism in the area. Nearby cities such as Denver, Kansas City and Oklahoma City all have more going on in the area of tourism and attractions. However, these cities also have large populations to go with it, meaning the restaurants per person actually goes up. This means Wichita is supporting its 1,088 restaurants from mostly loyal customers.
One good thing for the city of Wichita is that the number of restaurants is growing at a rate disproportional to the population growth. Lisa Graham, marketing and communications director for the Kansas Hospitality and Restaurant Association, said the city of Wichita now has around 1,052 places licensed to sell food.
“Those are places that have a license to serve food, so that would be a safe estimate,” Graham said. “However, the list I’m looking at was last updated in December 2009. So we haven’t gotten the most current one for this year yet.”
Graham mentioned that this would include just food licenses issued to addresses with Wichita as the city, meaning neighboring cities like Andover and Derby that get lumped into the metro area statistics are omitted.
The U.S. Census Web site estimates that the population for the city of Wichita – not the metropolitan area – was 366,046 in 2008. More concrete data will be available after the 2010 Census is completed. Regardless, using those figures, Wichita has 347 people per restaurant. This would rate first on the list, giving the Wichita visitor’s bureau something to really brag about.
This statistic creates the biggest problem. If you called every state’s restaurant association and obtained similar statistics, you might find that all of the top cities on this list would lower their numbers. So until the U.S. Census releases its 2010 numbers, consider this the most concrete answer on restaurants per capita.
In the end, this only reaffirms the obvious: Wichita has a ton of restaurants and a loyal base of customers that go out to eat for entertainment.
