Michelin-starred restaurants per capita by country (Europe + rest of the world)

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Ever wondered which countries have the most Michelin starred restaurants per capita? Here is the ranked list.
  1. Luxembourg: With 9 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of approximately 625,000, Luxembourg has about 14.4 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  2. Switzerland: Home to 119 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of around 8.7 million, Switzerland boasts approximately 13.7 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  3. Belgium: With 143 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of about 11.5 million, Belgium has approximately 12.4 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  4. Malta: Featuring 5 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of approximately 514,000, Malta has about 9.7 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  5. Hong Kong: Featuring 71 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of about 7.5 million, Hong Kong has approximately 9.5 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  6. France: Leading in absolute numbers with 639 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of around 67 million, France has approximately 9.5 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  7. Singapore: With 51 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of around 5.7 million, Singapore has approximately 8.9 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  8. Italy: Boasting 395 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of around 59 million, Italy has approximately 6.7 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  9. Netherlands: Home to 117 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of about 17.5 million, the Netherlands has approximately 6.7 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  10. Denmark: With 39 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of approximately 5.8 million, Denmark has about 6.7 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  11. Spain: Featuring 271 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of approximately 47 million, Spain has about 5.8 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  12. Slovenia boasts 10 Michelin-starred restaurants. With a population of approximately 2.1 million, this equates to about 4.7 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  13. Japan: With 547 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of about 125.7 million, Japan has approximately 4.4 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  14. Germany: With 340 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of about 83 million, Germany has approximately 4.1 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  15. Portugal: With 40 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of around 10.3 million, Portugal has approximately 3.9 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  16. Croatia has 11 Michelin-starred restaurants. Given its population of around 3.85 million, this results in approximately 2.86 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  17. United Kingdom: With 185 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of about 67 million, the United Kingdom has approximately 2.8 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  18. Norway: With 14 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of about 5.4 million, Norway has approximately 2.6 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  19. Sweden: Featuring 26 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of around 10.4 million, Sweden has approximately 2.5 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  20. Austria: Boasting 19 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of approximately 8.9 million, Austria has about 2.1 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  21. Taiwan has 44 Michelin-starred restaurants. With a population of approximately 23.2 million in 2025, this equates to about 1.9 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  22. Greece has 12 Michelin-starred restaurants. With a population of approximately 9.94 million in 2025, this equates to about 1.21 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  23. Hungary boasts 9 Michelin-starred restaurants. Given its 2025 population of around 9.87 million, this results in approximately 0.91 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  24. United States: Boasting 223 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of around 331 million, the United States has approximately 0.7 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
  25. South Korea: With 31 Michelin-starred restaurants and a population of approximately 51.7 million, South Korea has about 0.6 Michelin-starred restaurants per million inhabitants.
 
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It's important to know that that in the United States Michelin only reviews restaurants in 6 states at the moment plus Washington DC and Atlanta, so the number of Michelin starred restaurants per capita is not representative of the whole country. Here is the ranking by state.

  1. Washington, D.C. : 36.26 Michelin stars per million people
  2. New York (primarily NYC) : 3.59 Michelin stars per million people
  3. California : 2.20 Michelin stars per million people
  4. Illinois (Chicago only) : 1.64 Michelin stars per million people
  5. Florida : 1.21 Michelin stars per million people
  6. Colorado : 0.86 Michelin stars per million people
  7. Texas : 0.52 Michelin stars per million people
  8. Georgia (Atlanta only) : 0.47 Michelin stars per million people.
So if Washington DC was a country— and it has about the same population as Luxembourg— it would have the most Michelin starred restaurants per capita in the world. However a lot of people working and dining in Washington DC do not live in DC itself but in the neighbouring states of Virginia and Maryland. So it would be more accurate to take into account the population of the Washington DC metropolitan area, which is 5.6 million people instead of only 650,000. This gives us 4.46 Michelin-starred restaurants per million people, which is still the highest in the US.

New York ranks in between Portugal and Croatia, California fits between Sweden and Austria, while Florida has exactly the same numbers of stars per capita as Greece.

Michelin tends to concentrate on the big cities in the US, but that's usually where the top chefs and finest restaurants are located, so covering the whole state in detail would probably not alter the ratio by much. For example in New York state 67% of the population resides within New York City's metropolitan area. What's more, top restaurants in New York also serve people who live in the adjoining states of New Jersey and Connecticut, and their population is not counted in the per capita statistics. The whole New York metropolitan area including neighbouring states is 19.1 million people which is the same population as New York stated itself (19.5 million). So the Michelin stars statistics for New York are very comparable for those of European countries.

In Illinois 73.5% of the population lives in the Chicago metropolitan area. Most of the rest of the population lives in rural area like farms, so it's unlikely that there would be many haute cuisine or gourmet restaurants in rural Illinois.
 
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It's also noteworthy that in Japan Michelin only reviews restaurants in the Greater Tokyo area as well as in Kyoto and Osaka. So it would be fairer to recalculate the number of Michelin starred restaurants per capita in these regions instead of the whole country.

Tokyo metropolitan area has approximately 4.59 Michelin-starred restaurants per million people.

To calculate this figure:
  • Number of Michelin-starred restaurants in Tokyo: 170
  • Population of the Tokyo metropolitan area (2025 projection): 37,036,000
  • The calculation yields:
    • (170 / 37,036,000) * 1,000,000 ≈ 4.59 Michelin-starred restaurants per million people.
If we take into account the population of the greater Kyoto and greater Osaka we get:
  • 20.61 Michelin-starred restaurants per million people for Kyoto.
  • 3.81 Michelin-starred restaurants per million people for Osaka.
 
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