LA County home to the most Mexican restaurants in the country, new study says
A new analysis from the Pew Research Center shows that Los Angeles County is home to more than 5,000 Mexican restaurants, the most in the country.
Researchers found over 100,000 restaurants serving Mexican food in the United States, according to data from SafeGraph. The report widdled these numbers down to about 92,000 after cross-referencing active restaurants on Yelp. The data showed that about 11% of restaurants served Mexican food and that 85% of U.S. counties had at least one Mexican restaurant.
These eateries were mainly concentrated in the two most populated states in America: California and Texas. Both accounted for 40% of all Mexican restaurants in the country, with California edging out Texas with a share of 22% compared to 17%.
L.A. County's 5,484 entries into the analysis accounted for 30% of the state's Mexican restaurants. The next highest amount in the United States was 2,362 in Harris County, Texas.
While California has the most in the country, Mexican restaurants make up for a larger share of restaurants in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. Of all the restaurants in New Mexico, 22% serve Mexican cuisine compared to Texas' 20%, Arizona's 18% and California's 17%.
There are 10 counties in the country where Mexican restaurants account for more than 33% of eateries; most are in Texas and along the U.S.-Mexico border.
