Franchise Statistics 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Mia Scarlett | Last updated: August 12, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
U.S. franchising is projected to reach 845,000 establishments in 2026, up 12,479 units from 832,521 in 2025, generating $921.4 billion in output and employing close to 8.9 million people. Axis Intelligence Research finds that essentially all of that growth comes from opening units, not from selling more per unit: output per establishment moves just 0.05%.
Quick Answer
There are approximately 845,000 franchise establishments projected in the United States for 2026, producing $921.4 billion in economic output and $558.4 billion in GDP — close to 3% of the national total. Franchise borrowers default on SBA-backed loans at 3.9% versus 3.5% for non-franchise small businesses. Axis Intelligence Research’s Franchise Scale-to-Risk Premium Index (FSPI™) reads 3.27 at baseline.
Key Findings
- Axis Intelligence Research finds that U.S. franchise output per establishment will rise just 0.05% in 2026, from $1,089,822 to $1,090,414 — meaning the sector’s entire projected growth is unit count, not unit productivity.
- According to the International Franchise Association’s 2026 Franchising Economic Outlook, franchise establishments will grow 1.5% to 845,000 units, adding 12,479 locations.
- Federal Trade Commission analysis of 66,291 SBA-backed loans found franchise borrowers defaulted at 3.9% against 3.5% for non-franchise borrowers — a relative default premium of 11.43%, as calculated by Axis Intelligence Research.
- The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017 Economic Census Franchise Statistics Report counted 498,234 franchise establishments averaging $3.5 million in sales each, against $2.3 million for non-franchise establishments in the same industries.
- Axis Intelligence Research calculates that McDonald’s captured 12.76 cents of every dollar its franchisees sold in 2025 — a figure that includes rent, and roughly double the 4%–6% royalty range Yum! Brands discloses for its own store-level agreements.
How Many Franchise Businesses Are There in the United States?
Two figures circulate, they differ by 346,766 establishments, and almost every article about franchising picks one without saying which universe it belongs to.
The forward-looking figure comes from the International Franchise Association, whose 2026 Franchising Economic Outlook, prepared by FRANdata, projects growth from 832,521 establishments in 2025 to 845,000 in 2026. That is business-format franchising: the brands that sell a system, a manual and a trademark to independent operators.
The backward-looking figure is the government’s. The U.S. Census Bureau’s franchise report, released from the 2017 Economic Census, counted 498,234 franchise establishments representing 11.4% of all businesses in the industries it surveyed. It covers roughly 300 industries across 15 of the 18 NAICS sectors in the economic census — a different, narrower frame that nonetheless includes product-distribution franchising like new car dealerships, which business-format tallies exclude.
Neither number is wrong. They answer different questions, and they are seven years apart.
Why the Census Count Is Frozen at 2017
The Census Bureau’s franchise inquiry is the only true federal census of franchising, and its most recent published vintage remains the 2017 Economic Census, announced in August 2021. For a sector projected at $921.4 billion in output, the authoritative government count is now nearly a decade stale. That gap is why the IFA/FRANdata series has become the de facto reference — and why it matters that a trade association, rather than a statistical agency, supplies the number most journalists quote.
Mia Scarlett, Business: A credit analyst reading these two series side by side would not average them. They have different denominators, different collection methods and different sponsors, and merging them produces a figure that means nothing. What is worth pulling out is the direction of travel that both agree on — more units, thinner per-unit gains — and the fact that the only non-interested party in this data set stopped counting during the first Trump administration.
Franchise Establishments, Output and GDP: 2025 vs 2026
| Measure | 2025 | 2026 (projected) | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Establishments | 832,521 | 845,000 | +12,479 (+1.5%) | International Franchise Association |
| Economic output | $907.3B | $921.4B | +$14.1B (+1.6%) | International Franchise Association |
| GDP contribution | $549.9B | $558.4B | +$8.5B | International Franchise Association |
| Employment | ~8.8M | ~8.9M | +150,000 (+1.8%) | International Franchise Association |
| Output per establishment | $1,089,822 | $1,090,414 | +0.05% | Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
One line in that table deserves a footnote. The IFA press release states franchise GDP will “grow by 1.8% from $549.9 to $558.4 billion.” Those two dollar figures imply 1.55%, not 1.8% — a gap of a quarter of a percentage point. Axis Intelligence Research reports both: the published rate and the rate its own published dollars produce. We flag it rather than silently pick one.
Do Franchises Fail More Often Than Independent Businesses?
This is the question prospective franchisees actually type into a search bar, and until recently there was no credible federal answer to it.
There is one now. In its Issue Spotlight on risks to small business success in franchising, the Federal Trade Commission analyzed 66,291 SBA-backed franchise investment loans originated between January 1, 2013 and September 30, 2023. Franchise borrowers defaulted at 3.9%. Non-franchise small business borrowers defaulted at 3.5%.
That difference is small, statistically significant, and widely misread in both directions. It does not show that franchises are dramatically riskier. It also does not support the marketing claim that franchising materially de-risks small business ownership — at the level of loan performance, the franchise brand buys the borrower nothing measurable. The FTC itself cautions that it cannot attribute the gap to franchise status alone.
SBA Loan Default Rates by Franchise Sector
| Segment | Default rate | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Bars, taverns and nightclubs | 9% | Federal Trade Commission analysis of SBA data |
| Special food services (catering, delivery) | 8% | Federal Trade Commission analysis of SBA data |
| Restaurants | 5% | Federal Trade Commission analysis of SBA data |
| All franchise loans (average) | 3.9% | Federal Trade Commission analysis of SBA data |
| All non-franchise small business loans | 3.5% | Federal Trade Commission analysis of SBA data |
| Hotels | 1% | Federal Trade Commission analysis of SBA data |
The sector spread is the finding, not the average. A bar franchise is nine times likelier to default than a hotel franchise. The 3.9% headline conceals a distribution wide enough that it should never be used to evaluate an individual opportunity.
Brand-level dispersion is wider still. The FTC found that most franchise systems carried default rates of 1% or less, while Dickey’s Barbecue Pit borrowers defaulted at 20% — 5.1 times the franchise average, by Axis Intelligence Research’s calculation — with Edible Arrangements at 9% and Massage Envy at 8%. Loan size mattered too: each doubling of loan amount reduced default probability by 0.8 to 1.4 percentage points.
Lenders varied as much as brands. Celtic Bank Corporation originations defaulted at 19%, First National Bank of Pennsylvania at 11%, United Midwest Savings Bank at 9%.
Mia Scarlett, Business: Twenty percent is not a brand having a bad run. Twenty percent is an origination problem, and the fact that three lenders cluster at the top of the same table suggests the underwriting and the concept were failing together. The comment file backs this up — one Dickey’s franchisee described units being resold repeatedly after SBA defaults, each time at a fraction of build cost. When the same names appear in the complaint data and the default data, that is not coincidence, it is a single fact observed twice.
The Axis Franchise Scale-to-Risk Premium Index (FSPI™)
Franchising’s two best federal data sets have never been read against each other. The Census Bureau measures what a franchise location earns. The FTC, via SBA records, measures how often a franchise borrower fails. FSPI™ — the Franchise Scale-to-Risk Premium Index — divides the first by the second, producing a single number for how much revenue advantage the franchise model delivers per unit of additional credit risk it carries.
Formula and Inputs
FSPI = (0.60 × A + 0.40 × B) ÷ C
| Component | Definition | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Revenue scale premium: franchise vs non-franchise average sales per establishment | 52.17% | U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 Economic Census ($3.5M vs $2.3M) |
| B | Productivity premium: franchise vs all-establishment sales per employee | 15.29% | U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 Economic Census ($180,193 vs $156,295) |
| C | Relative default premium: franchise vs non-franchise SBA default rate | 11.43% | Federal Trade Commission analysis of SBA data (3.9% vs 3.5%) |
Weighted advantage = (0.60 × 52.17) + (0.40 × 15.29) = 37.42 FSPI = 37.42 ÷ 11.43 = 3.27
FSPI Baseline Reading: 3.27
Each additional 1% of relative default risk a franchise borrower assumes is accompanied by 3.27% of weighted revenue and productivity advantage. A reading above 1.00 means the model compensates for the incremental credit risk it introduces. At 3.27, it compensates by a wide margin — the franchise revenue premium is roughly three times larger than the franchise risk premium.
The weighting is editorial, so the reading is tested against alternatives: at a 0.50 weight on component A, FSPI is 2.95; at 0.70, 3.60; at 0.80, 3.92. The conclusion holds across the plausible range, which is the point of publishing the sensitivity rather than a single figure.
Scope. Components A and B are drawn from 2017 Economic Census data, the most recent federal franchise census available; component C spans 2013–2023 SBA originations. The index therefore measures a decade-scale relationship, not a 2026 snapshot, and it will be re-baselined when the Census Bureau publishes a newer franchise vintage. It reflects loan-level default, not franchisee profitability or owner compensation, and the Census sales premium partly reflects industry mix — franchising concentrates in higher-revenue formats like car dealerships. FSPI is a sector-level construct and is not a diligence substitute for any individual franchise system.
FSPI™ is an original metric of Axis Intelligence Research, licensed CC BY 4.0. Cite as: Axis Intelligence Research, Franchise Scale-to-Risk Premium Index (FSPI™), August 12, 2026, axis-intelligence.com/franchise-statistics/.
How Much Revenue Do Franchise Businesses Generate?
Census figures put franchise sales in covered industries at $1.7 trillion of $9.9 trillion total — franchises took 17.2% of the revenue while holding 11.4% of the locations, by Axis Intelligence Research’s calculation from Census data.
Franchise Share of Establishments, Employment and Sales
| Measure | Franchise | Total in covered industries | Franchise share | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Establishments | 498,234 | ~4.37 million | 11.4% | U.S. Census Bureau |
| Employment | 9.6 million | 63.3 million | 15.2% | Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
| Sales | $1.7 trillion | $9.9 trillion | 17.2% | Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
The ordering is the story: franchises punch above their unit count on employment, and above their employment on sales. Average sales per franchise establishment ran $3.5 million against $2.3 million for non-franchise establishments — 52% higher. Sales per employee ran $180,193 against $156,295.
Average Unit Volumes Vary More Within Brands Than Between Sectors
Franchisor filings expose how wide unit economics run inside a single portfolio. Yum! Brands’ FY2025 Form 10-K reports system sales and unit counts by division, and the implied average unit volumes are not close to each other.
| Division | Units | % franchised | System sales | Avg. system sales per unit | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taco Bell | 9,030 | 93% | $18,361M | $2,033,333 | Axis calc. from Yum! Brands 10-K |
| Habit Burger & Grill | 384 | 22% | $706M | $1,838,542 | Axis calc. from Yum! Brands 10-K |
| KFC | 33,897 | 99% | $36,434M | $1,074,844 | Axis calc. from Yum! Brands 10-K |
| Pizza Hut | 19,974 | 99% | $12,794M | $640,533 | Axis calc. from Yum! Brands 10-K |
| Yum! Brands total | 63,285 | 97% | $68,295M | $1,079,166 | Axis calc. from Yum! Brands 10-K |
A Taco Bell unit turns roughly 1.89 times the system sales of a KFC unit and 3.2 times a Pizza Hut unit. Yum began a strategic options review of Pizza Hut in 2025 — the division with both the second-largest unit count and the lowest average unit volume in the portfolio. The filing and the unit math point the same direction.
How Many People Do Franchise Businesses Employ?
Franchise employment is projected at close to 8.9 million in 2026, up more than 150,000 jobs. Axis Intelligence Research calculates that works out to 10.53 jobs per establishment.
Limited-service restaurants dominate the employment base. Census recorded 144,941 franchised limited-service restaurants in 2017 — 29.1% of all franchise establishments — employing 3,214,717 people, or 33.5% of all franchise employment. That is an average of 22.2 employees per location, and the industry added 609,508 franchise jobs between 2007 and 2017, more than any other.
The growth story sits elsewhere. Franchised fitness and recreational sports centers grew sales 171% between 2007 and 2017 to roughly $5.0 billion across 9,757 locations, with employment up 62% to 102,605. Average sales per franchised fitness location: $512,453.
Employment concentration also runs through the franchisee base, not just the brands. Yum! Brands discloses approximately 1,500 franchisees operating more than 61,000 franchised units — an average of 40.7 units per franchisee, by Axis Intelligence Research’s calculation. Roughly 40% of those units sit under master franchise programs, including over 17,000 in mainland China.
Mia Scarlett, Business: Forty units per franchisee is not small business ownership as the sector’s own marketing describes it. It is a mid-market operating company with a bank facility and a regional management layer. The IFA’s outlook language about single-unit franchisees “transitioning into multi-unit operators” is describing consolidation in gentler terms than a filing would. The relevant question for anyone entering now is not whether the model works, but whether it still works at one unit when the person across the parking lot has forty.
Which Franchise Industries and States Are Growing Fastest in 2026?
Child services alongside commercial and residential services lead at 3.2% year-over-year growth, per the IFA outlook. Preventive-healthcare-driven demand has pushed personal services to become the third-largest franchised category since the pandemic.
The 2026 outlook also flags a reversal worth watching: full-service restaurants are expected to outpace quick-service restaurants in output growth for the first time since the pandemic, as consumer preference tilts toward experiential dining over pure value.
Geographically, the Southwest leads at 2.5% growth and the Southeast at 1.7%. The ten fastest-growing states named in the outlook are Texas, Florida, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, Colorado, Michigan, Utah, Ohio and Maryland — with Michigan, Ohio and Utah entering the top ten on affordability and market-leadership headroom.
How Much Do Franchisors Actually Earn Per Franchisee Dollar?
Royalty rates are disclosed in filings, and they are lower than most readers assume. Yum! Brands states that store-level franchise agreements require continuing fees “typically between 4% to 6%” of restaurant sales, with its largest master franchisee, Yum China, paying 3% of system sales.
McDonald’s works differently, and its FY2025 Form 10-K makes the difference measurable. The company recorded $16,548 million in revenues from franchised restaurants against $129,675 million in franchised sales. Axis Intelligence Research calculates a franchisor take rate of 12.76 cents per dollar of franchisee sales — roughly double the top of Yum’s stated royalty range.
The gap is real estate, not a richer royalty. McDonald’s owned approximately 56% of the land and 80% of the buildings under its restaurants at year-end 2025 and collects rent alongside royalties; Yum’s franchisees supply their own sites. Two franchisors, two takes on the same dollar, and the difference is a property portfolio.
The Margin Asymmetry in One Comparison
| McDonald’s segment | Sales | Margin | Margin rate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company-owned and operated | $9,690M | $1,422M | 14.7% | McDonald’s FY2025 10-K |
| Franchised (franchisee sales / franchisor margin) | $129,675M | $13,930M | — | McDonald’s FY2025 10-K |
Franchised sales are 13.4 times company-operated sales and produce 9.8 times the margin dollars, with franchised margins accounting for roughly 90% of total restaurant margin. That asymmetry is why 95% of McDonald’s 45,356 restaurants are franchised and why the company opened 2,276 and closed 396 locations in 2025 without carrying the operating risk of most of them.
What Do Franchisees Complain About Most?
The FTC’s 2023 Request for Information drew 5,291 comments, of which 2,216 were posted publicly, referencing 154 distinct franchise systems. The resulting ranked list is the most systematic public inventory of franchisee grievance in existence.
| Rank | Concern | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unilateral changes to franchise operating manuals | Federal Trade Commission |
| 2 | Franchisor misrepresentations and deception | Federal Trade Commission |
| 3 | Fees and royalties | Federal Trade Commission |
| 4 | Supply restrictions and vendor kickbacks | Federal Trade Commission |
| 5 | Actual and feared retaliation | Federal Trade Commission |
| 6 | Non-competes and no-poach clauses | Federal Trade Commission |
| 7 | Franchise renewal problems | Federal Trade Commission |
| 8 | Franchisor refusal to negotiate terms | Federal Trade Commission |
| 9 | Franchise Disclosure Document issues | Federal Trade Commission |
| 10 | Private equity takeovers | Federal Trade Commission |
| 11 | Marketing fund transparency | Federal Trade Commission |
| 12 | Liquidated damages and early termination fees | Federal Trade Commission |
Positions split sharply by role. Almost 75% of franchisors supported the status quo against roughly 40% of franchisees; about 30% of franchisees supported regulating the post-sale relationship against about 5% of franchisors. Around a quarter of franchisee comments were filed anonymously, and about a quarter of those cited fear of retaliation as the reason.
Complaint volume moved with the attention. FTC Consumer Sentinel data cited in the Issue Spotlight show franchise and distributorship complaints rising from 1,027 in 2021 to 3,232 in 2023 — a 214.7% increase, by Axis Intelligence Research’s calculation — though the agency notes reporting-channel changes contributed to the rise.
One discrepancy in the federal record is worth logging. The FTC’s Issue Spotlight cites the 2017 Census franchise count as 498,328 establishments; the Census Bureau’s own publication states 498,234. The two federal documents differ by 94 establishments. Axis Intelligence Research uses the Census Bureau’s own figure throughout this report.
How Is Franchising Regulated in 2026?
The Franchise Rule, 16 C.F.R. part 436, is a pre-sale disclosure rule issued in 1978 and bifurcated in 2007, when business opportunities moved to a separate rule at part 437. It requires a Franchise Disclosure Document before sale; it does not regulate the ongoing franchisor–franchisee relationship, which is the gap most of the RFI comments were pointing at.
Three exemption thresholds adjust for inflation every four years. The current values took effect July 12, 2024:
| Exemption | Threshold (from July 12, 2024) | Prior (2020) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum payment | $735 | $615 | Federal Trade Commission |
| Large investment | $1,469,600 | $1,233,000 | Federal Trade Commission |
| Large entity net worth | $7,348,000 | $6,165,000 | Federal Trade Commission |
The large-investment threshold rose 19.19% in that cycle, by Axis Intelligence Research’s calculation — meaning a band of higher-value franchise sales moved outside mandatory federal disclosure between 2020 and 2024. The next adjustment falls due in 2028.
State law fills much of the remaining space: 14 states operate franchise registration regimes, four of which (California, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin) publish FDDs in public databases, and 16 states have relationship laws governing renewal. Minnesota and North Dakota prohibit liquidated damages clauses in franchise agreements outright. Washington banned no-poach and non-solicitation restrictions in franchise agreements in 2019; research cited by the FTC found earnings rose 6.6% in job vacancy data and 4% in worker-reported data afterward.
Enforcement exists but is rare. The FTC’s action against BurgerIM — brought in 2023, its first Franchise Rule case in 16 years — ended with a $56,226,689 default judgment against the corporate defendants and a suspended $43 million judgment against the founder, after more than 1,500 people had bought franchises.
Methodology
Collection. Every figure in this report was retrieved from a primary source document opened on August 12, 2026. Sources: the International Franchise Association’s 2026 Franchising Economic Outlook announcement; the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017 Economic Census Franchise Statistics Report and its accompanying America Counts analysis; the Federal Trade Commission’s Issue Spotlight on franchising, including its analysis of SBA 7(a) and 504 loan data; the FTC’s Franchise Rule exemption threshold notice; and the FY2025 Forms 10-K of McDonald’s Corporation and Yum! Brands, Inc. as filed with the SEC. No aggregator or secondary summary was used as a source.
Calculation. All 41 Axis-calculated figures were computed in Python and independently re-run in a second pass. Each carries a method_note in the accompanying dataset stating its formula and inputs. Where a source publishes both a rate and the underlying dollar figures, and the two disagree, both are reported.
Currency and periods. Figures are nominal U.S. dollars as reported, unadjusted for inflation. Fiscal periods differ by source: IFA figures are calendar-year projections for 2026; Census figures are the 2017 reference year; SBA loan data spans January 2013 to September 2023; company figures are fiscal years ended December 31, 2025.
Scope. The two headline establishment counts measure different universes and are not reconciled into a single number here, because their methodologies do not align. The SBA default analysis covers government-guaranteed loans only and may not represent franchise investments financed privately. Brand- and lender-level default figures are the FTC’s own and were not independently recalculated by Axis Intelligence Research.
About This Dataset
Title: Franchise Statistics 2026
Creator and publisher: Axis Intelligence Research
Contents: 187 rows covering U.S. franchise establishment counts, output, GDP, employment, sector and state growth, SBA loan default rates by segment, brand and lender, FTC regulatory thresholds and enforcement, franchisor unit economics from SEC filings, and the components and readings of the Franchise Scale-to-Risk Premium Index.
Temporal coverage: 2007–2026
Spatial coverage: United States; global where franchisor filings report worldwide systems
Format: UTF-8 CSV, one observation per row, with full source provenance columns License: CC BY 4.0
Citation
APA: Axis Intelligence Research, & Scarlett, M. (2026, August 12). Franchise statistics 2026: Units, revenue, jobs and SBA default data. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/franchise-statistics/
MLA: Axis Intelligence Research and Mia Scarlett. “Franchise Statistics 2026: Units, Revenue, Jobs and SBA Default Data.” Axis Intelligence, 12 Aug. 2026, axis-intelligence.com/franchise-statistics/.
Chicago: Axis Intelligence Research and Mia Scarlett. “Franchise Statistics 2026: Units, Revenue, Jobs and SBA Default Data.” Axis Intelligence, August 12, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/franchise-statistics/.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do franchise establishment counts differ by 346,766 depending on the source?
Because they count different things. The IFA/FRANdata figure of 845,000 for 2026 covers business-format franchising — brands licensing a full operating system. The Census Bureau’s 498,234 for 2017 covers franchise establishments across roughly 300 surveyed industries, a frame that includes product-distribution franchising such as new car dealerships but excludes industries outside the survey. The seven-year gap between vintages accounts for part of the rest.
What is a realistic franchise failure rate?
SBA-backed franchise loans defaulted at 3.9% across 2013–2023, against 3.5% for non-franchise small business loans. Loan default is not the same as business closure — an owner can sell or close without defaulting — so this understates failure while being the most rigorous federal proxy available. Sector matters far more than the average: 9% for bars and nightclubs, 1% for hotels.
Does a franchise Item 19 financial performance representation have to be accurate?
The Franchise Rule requires any financial performance representation to have a reasonable basis and written substantiation. It does not require franchisors to make one at all, and it does not standardize the format — a recurring complaint in the FTC’s comment file was that Item 19 figures excluded weaker locations or reflected a different operating model than the one being sold.
Can a franchisor add fees that were not in the FDD?
The FTC’s July 2024 staff guidance states that imposing or collecting a fee not disclosed in the FDD and franchise agreement — including through a unilateral operating manual change — may be an unfair act or practice under Section 5 of the FTC Act. Unilateral manual changes were the single most common franchisee concern in the RFI.
Are franchise non-compete clauses covered by the FTC’s non-compete rule?
No. The Commission’s non-compete rulemaking addressed non-competes arising out of employment, and expressly noted that franchisor–franchisee non-competes remain subject to state common law and federal and state antitrust law, including Section 5. Franchisee-facing non-competes were the sixth-ranked concern in the RFI.
What royalty rate should a prospective franchisee expect?
Yum! Brands discloses continuing fees typically between 4% and 6% of restaurant sales for store-level agreements, with an additional required advertising contribution. Rates outside quick-service vary widely, and the headline royalty is rarely the full cost — technology, marketing fund and required-vendor charges were the third and fourth most-cited concerns in the FTC comment file.
Why is McDonald’s take rate roughly double a typical royalty?
Because McDonald’s is also the landlord. It owned approximately 56% of the land and 80% of the buildings under its restaurants at year-end 2025, so its $16,548 million in franchised revenues includes rent as well as royalties. Measured against $129,675 million in franchisee sales, that is 12.76 cents per dollar — a structure, not a higher royalty.
Is private equity ownership of a franchisor something a buyer should diligence?
Franchisees raised it as the tenth-ranked concern in the FTC’s RFI, describing higher fees, reduced support and altered renewal terms following acquisition. The FDD discloses the franchisor’s ownership and litigation history; a prospective buyer can also check whether the system appears in the FTC’s brand-level default data and whether the state regulators in California, Indiana, Minnesota or Wisconsin publish its FDD.
How many units does a typical multi-unit franchisee operate?
At Yum! Brands, approximately 1,500 franchisees operate more than 61,000 units — an average of 40.7 units each, though that average is pulled upward by master franchisees, who hold roughly 40% of units including over 17,000 in mainland China. Multi-unit consolidation is explicitly identified in the 2026 IFA outlook as an ongoing pattern.
When will there be newer federal franchise data?
The Census Bureau’s franchise inquiry is tied to the Economic Census, conducted for years ending in 2 and 7. Until a franchise statistics report is published from a more recent economic census, the 2017 vintage remains the most recent federal franchise census, and the IFA/FRANdata series remains the only current annual estimate.