Customers dine at a KFC restaurant. (Photo by Moses Robinson/Getty Images for KFC)
Dining out offers a level of convenience when you don’t have the time to prepare a home-cooked meal. But eating fast food can be expensive and isn’t beneficial for your long-term health.
Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that prices at "limited-service restaurants" increased by an average of 3.2% between August 2024 and August 2025, surpassing inflation.
RELATED: Average cost of a fast food meal now tops $10 in all major cities
WalletHub released a new report to determine where fast food purchases cost people the largest amount of their income. To gather this data, researchers evaluated the prices of fast-food burgers, fried chicken sandwiches and pizza in 100 of the largest U.S. cities.
Top cities spending the most on fast food
Why you should care: After assessing the cost of the major fast food meals, WalletHub, then calculated the individual costs and adjusted the resulting figure to the median monthly income in each city, then used these results and used data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Council for Community and Economic Research to create their rankings.
- Cleveland
- Detroit
- Newark, New Jersey
- Baltimore
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Hialeah, Florida
- Buffalo, New York
- Milwaukee
- Toledo, Ohio
- Miami
- Cincinnati
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Memphis
- Winston Salem, North Carolina
- El Paso, Texas
- New Orleans
- St. Louis
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Norfolk, Virginia
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
To see WalletHub’s complete list of cities, click here
WalletHub’s breakdown of the top three cities spending the most on fast food
Dig deeper: WalletHub ranked Cleveland, Detroit, and Newark, New Jersey among their top cities where residents spend the most on fast food not only on their metrics but also additional factors.
Cleveland
According to WalletHub, Cleveland residents pay more for fast food related to their income than people in any other city in the nation. The report found that buying a hamburger, fried chicken sandwich, and a small pizza can cost Cleveland residents roughly 0.68% of their monthly household income.
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The main reason Cleveland ranks first on WalletHub’s list is due to the city having the lowest median household income in the U.S., at $39,187 annually. The city’s fast food prices are reasonable because it has the 37th-most expensive burgers and chicken sandwiches, and 56th-most expensive pizzas.
Detroit
Detroit ranks second on the list because the cost of a small pizza, a burger and a fried chicken sandwich accounts for 0.67% of residents’ median monthly household income because it only represents three meals out of an entire month.
WalletHub reported that the area is the 23rd-most expensive city for chicken sandwiches, but only the 37th-most expensive for burgers and the 56th-most expensive for pizza. But Detroit has the second-lowest median household income in the U.S., at $39,575 annually.
Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey, is the third-most expensive city for fast food compared to residents’ incomes. A chicken sandwich, burger, and a small pizza accounts for 0.62% of residents household income in the area.
Newark is also the most expensive city for burgers in the nation. In comparison, the area is the 30th-most expensive city for chicken sandwiches and the 41st-most expensive for pizza.
In addition to expensive hamburger prices, Newark ranks third in WalletHub’s report because it has the sixth-lowest median household income in the U.S., at $48,416 annually.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by a WalletHub report which gathered data by determining where fast food purchases cost people the biggest portion of their income. The personal finance website assessed the prices of fast-food burgers, fried chicken sandwiches and pizza in 100 of the largest U.S. cities. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.