McDonald's says nearly 9 in 10 Americans eat its food at least once a year Summary List Placement Nearly nine in every 10 Americans order from McDonald's at least once a year, Joe Erlinger, the president of McDonald's USA, said at its earnings call Thursday. The chain owns 14,000 restaurants across the US – about one restaurant per 24,000 people . Discussing the loyalty app that McDonald's plans to launch nationally later this year, Erlinger said a pilot in New England and Phoenix was well received by both restaurant operators and customers. "85% plus of the US population actually comes to McDonald's at least one time a year," he said. "And so if loyalty can build frequency, given the base that we have of customers in the US, this is just a tremendous unlock for us." Read more: These 6 restaurant chains skyrocketed in growth during the pandemic and now are courting new franchisees. Here's what it takes to open and run an El Pollo Loco, Jack in the Box, Noodles and Company, and others. Erlinger did not say where or when he got his data from, but data from Placer.ai , which records retail foot traffic from smartphones , shows that the number of people visiting McDonald's restaurants is rebounding after plummeting in 2020. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]