The 10 states that mindblowingly have the most Subway restaurants per person

California leads the country in Subway restaurant listings, but Wyoming is the real surprise: it has more Subways per resident than any other state. Although one community recently lost its Subway, the sandwich chain still has an extensive footprint across the country.

A September 2026 state-by-state study shows almost 2,000 locations in California and more than 1,800 in Texas. Neither cracks the top ten when the rankings are adjusted for population. Instead, the per-capita list is dominated by states with much smaller populations.

The 10 states with the most Subway locations

1. California — 1,986 locations
2. Texas — 1,873 locations
3. Florida — 1,167 locations
4. Ohio — 948 locations
5. Illinois — 913 locations
6. New York — 779 locations
7. Michigan — 741 locations
8. Georgia — 711 locations
9. North Carolina — 666 locations
10. Pennsylvania — 619 locations

California leads Texas by 113 locations, followed by Florida in a distant third. Ohio outranks New York, a result that might surprise anyone expecting restaurant numbers to simply follow state population. Illinois, Michigan and Georgia all land in the top ten as well, underscoring the chain’s particularly broad geographic reach.

The 10 states with the most Subway locations per capita

These figures measure locations per 100,000 people, using the U.S. Census Bureau’s July 1, 2025 state population estimates. The unrounded rates determine the order; figures shown here are rounded to two decimal places.

1. Wyoming — 59 locations; 10.02 per 100,000 residents
2. Mississippi — 288 locations; 9.75 per 100,000 residents
3. West Virginia — 165 locations; 9.34 per 100,000 residents
4. South Dakota — 85 locations; 9.09 per 100,000 residents
5. Louisiana — 416 locations; 9.01 per 100,000 residents
6. North Dakota — 68 locations; 8.51 per 100,000 residents
7. Nebraska — 170 locations; 8.42 per 100,000 residents
8. Arkansas — 256 locations; 8.22 per 100,000 residents
9. Iowa — 262 locations; 8.09 per 100,000 residents
10. Indiana — 560 locations; 8.03 per 100,000 residents

Wyoming’s 59 listings are enough to produce 10.02 Subway locations per 100,000 residents. Mississippi ranks second at 9.75, followed by West Virginia at 9.34. Those figures reflect population size as much as the number of sandwiches sold; the calculation does not measure restaurant traffic or popularity.

The Dakotas make a memorable showing. South Dakota reaches fourth place with only 85 listed restaurants, while North Dakota takes sixth with 68. By comparison, giant California has far more Subways overall but a much lower concentration relative to its nearly 40 million residents. Indiana is the only state in the per-capita top ten with more than 500 locations.

One important limitation: the nationwide count of 20,572 includes 1,813 listings flagged as temporarily closed, or 8.8% of the total. Permanently closed listings were excluded. These are recorded-location rankings, not a count of restaurants confirmed open right now; Washington, D.C., is excluded from the state lists.

Location counts come from SphereScout’s state-by-state Subway data, dated September 8, 2026. Different restaurant-location directories sometimes report different totals because their collection dates and inclusion rules differ. Both lists above consistently use this single dataset.

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