Michelin by Numbers

A global review of how Michelin has distributed ratings

Introduction to Michelin by numbers

In the future, I will be commenting on the historic rise of Michelin and it’s current challenges and loss of consistency. This post is more of a factual look at how Michelin has applied their ratings worldwide to provide myself and readers with a common base of reference. I will provide an opinion or two on the way to the conclusions below. As warm up: Here is a history of Michelin from Michelin

The ratings

• Michelin - Recommended: The food is above average, but not at star or Bib level

• Bib Gourmand: offering a three course meal at a reasonable price (odd description)

• One MICHELIN Star: High-quality cooking - Worth a stop.

• Two MICHELIN Stars: Excellent cooking - Worth a detour.

• Three MICHELIN Stars: Exceptional cuisine - Worth a special journey.

• Green Star - highlights restaurants at the forefront of sustainable gastronomy

• Total ratings 17,279: Total ratings from each country of the above 6 categories

I have created a spreadsheet with every (most) Michelin rating by country and calculated each countries total ratings and ratings per capita. Per capita is related to total population of a country or in the case of USA and Japan - an estimate of populations in the cities covered.The spreadsheet is organised by country and region and each country is listed in order of the total ratings - and here is what can be learned:

Global stats - France and Iceland are the kings of Michelin ratings

• There are 16.5k ratings globally of which Europe is 11k (France is 3K)

• There are 3498 starred restaurants of which ⭐️⭐️⭐️ = 150, ⭐️⭐️ = 470 and ⭐️ = 2878

• Europe has 60% of ⭐️⭐️⭐️, 67% of ⭐️⭐️ and 66% of ⭐️

• Europe has “only” 1/2 the Bib Gourmands but more than 70% of the recommended

• France has more of every category in the world including green stars with 3k+ listings

• Italy is next with 2k+ and Japan is far behind with 1.1 but Michelin only reviews Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka`

Europe dominates at the top and the bottom of the market with 57% of three stars and 67% of Bib Gourmand and Recommended. The rest of the world is relatively stronger with 52%+ of one and two star restaurants.

On a per capita basis here are the 8 foodiest countries vs an avg index of 21:

1. Iceland - Index 290: A remarkable # of listings with a tiny population

2. Macau '- Index 81: Fancy restaurants for gamblers with a small local poulation

3. Switzerland - Index 64: Excellent food relative to a medium population

4. Belgium - Index 64: Excellent food relative to a medium population

5. Japan - Index 61: Only 3 cities and 18m population reviewed '- great food

6. Singapore - Index 49: Excellent food relative to a medium population

7. France - Index 45: This couldn’t be biased 😀

8. Italy - Index 35: The king of one ⭐️ restaurants

9. Hong Kong - Index 29: 7 (dubious?) 3 ⭐️ restaurants

10. Netherlands- Index 29: Excellent food relative to a medium population

Other notable rankings: Spain = 27 and Denmark = 22 . Both score lower due to a low relative number of one ⭐️ restaurants. Spain has 100 fewer than Italy for example.

USA = 17 and Germany = 16 do less well due to a relatively high population and cynics might add…worse food.

For data going back a number of years '- check out

Gerhard Huber

´s excellent web site: Foodle Pro

Europe

As mentioned, France has the most of every category and each country in the Europe data base has a similar ratio of listings relative to population. The two notable exceptions are Germany who is 4th in population but tied for last with the UK (Which deserves to be last?) due to the high 83m population.

The other deviation from norm are the high per capita scores for Switzerland and Belgium due to high per capita scores in every category.

Scandinavia - It´s all about Iceland

One might think that Iceland is tops per capita because of it´s tiny 333k population but actually it dominates Scandinavia in absolute terms as well. Tied for 2nd after Denmark for total stars and Bib Gourmand and leader in recommendations with more than Norway and Finland combined.

There can be only two reasons for this: 1. The food is really good in Iceland or 2. The Icelandic inspectors are out of control!

USA and Canada - Weak showing well deserved?

USA and Canada suffer from low relative performance across all categories relative to Europe and Asia. The only consolation would be scoring better than Latin America. One notable exception is 3 stars where 16 spots rivals Spain and Italy. This got a boost from the (deserved) addition of addition Somni and Providence in LA.

It should be noted that in this years 2025 World´s 50 Best list only one restaurant made it on for USA: Atomix and Mexico (which is listed as part of North America had a higher rated restaurant: Quintonil. It may just be that the USA and Canada have the least exciting food in the world?

Latin America: Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Rio and Buenos Aires

Lightly covered by Michelin and lightly awarded. The issue in countries like these is that the best food is generally street or rustic food. The fine dining scenes with the notable exception of Lima, are underdeveloped. Michelin without the draw of big starred destinations cançt afford to dedicate inspectors to lower value - lower priced Bib Gourmand and Recommended restaurants of which there are many. One would suspect the tourist board of Lima would cough up for a Guide and put Latin America more firmly on the gastronomic map.

Asia - Macau (81) and Japan (61) are tops in Asia

These results are to be expected as Macau has a high number of starred restaurants vs a tiny local population whileJapan has the highest ratio of great restaurants relative to a large population.

Singapore (49) merits an honorable mention benefiting from great food for a small local population.

Green stars - Seems made up

I’ll look at this some other day.

Below the Paywall are my favorite Michelin starred restaurants from around the world including USA, Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Mexico.