The 10 states that shockingly have the most Panera Bread restaurants

Florida has more Panera Bread restaurants than any other state, but it falls outside the top ten when population is taken into account. Virginia, with barely half as many cafés, climbs to first place per capita. That is a surprising reversal for a chain with locations stretching from coast to coast.

As Panera reshapes its restaurant footprint, its café map reveals some unexpected regional strongholds. Panera’s official U.S. café locator, checked October 26, 2026, lists 2,247 locations, including 12 in Washington, D.C. The two state rankings below use the U.S. Census Bureau’s July 1, 2025 population estimates for comparison.

The 10 states with the most Panera Bread restaurants

1. Florida — 196 restaurants
2. California — 191 restaurants
3. New York — 133 restaurants
4. Ohio — 129 restaurants
5. Illinois — 120 restaurants
6. Texas — 118 restaurants
7. Pennsylvania — 114 restaurants
8. Virginia — 101 restaurants
9. North Carolina — 86 restaurants
10. New Jersey — 85 restaurants

Florida claims the top spot with 196 cafés, narrowly beating California’s 191. New York follows with 133, just four ahead of Ohio. Despite its smaller population, Ohio has almost as many Panera restaurants as New York, underscoring the chain’s substantial presence in the Midwest.

Texas is another surprise. The nation’s second-most-populous state has only 118 Panera locations, putting it sixth on the raw-count list. Virginia takes eighth with 101, while North Carolina and New Jersey claim the final two spots. Missouri misses this top ten entirely, even though it becomes a leading state in the second ranking.

The 10 states with the most Panera Bread restaurants per capita

Now the comparison shifts to restaurants per 100,000 residents. The figures below use the same café counts but divide by each state’s 2025 population. Rankings are based on unrounded rates, so displayed figures can sometimes look tied.

1. Virginia — 101 restaurants; 1.14 per 100,000 residents
2. Missouri — 69 restaurants; 1.10 per 100,000 residents
3. Ohio — 129 restaurants; 1.08 per 100,000 residents
4. New Hampshire — 14 restaurants; 0.99 per 100,000 residents
5. Illinois — 120 restaurants; 0.94 per 100,000 residents
6. Connecticut — 33 restaurants; 0.89 per 100,000 residents
7. Massachusetts — 64 restaurants; 0.89 per 100,000 residents
8. New Jersey — 85 restaurants; 0.89 per 100,000 residents
9. Pennsylvania — 114 restaurants; 0.87 per 100,000 residents
10. Maryland — 53 restaurants; 0.85 per 100,000 residents

Virginia takes first place with 1.14 cafés per 100,000 people. It ranks only eighth by total locations, but its 101 restaurants give it the country’s highest population-adjusted concentration. Ohio also places strongly in both lists, rising to third per capita with 129 cafés.

Missouri provides an even bigger twist. Its 69 cafés leave it outside the ten largest state totals, yet it ranks second per capita at 1.10. New Hampshire is more dramatic still: just 14 Panera restaurants are enough for fourth place because the state has a relatively small population.

Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey all round to 0.89 restaurants per 100,000 people, although their unrounded rates differ. Connecticut edges Massachusetts by the smallest of margins. That helps explain why an unrounded calculation matters when states sit so close together.

Florida, the overall leader, drops to twelfth per capita at about 0.84 cafés per 100,000 residents. California’s 191 locations work out to roughly 0.49, also well outside the population-adjusted top ten. Even Texas’s 118 restaurants translate to only about 0.37 per 100,000 people.

Panera’s locator lists no cafés in Alaska or Hawaii. Elsewhere, the contrast between the two rankings shows that a big restaurant count does not necessarily mean a chain has an unusually dense local presence.

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