The Growth 40

A Closer Look: The following data is from American Express Business Insights. According to the company's experts, each quick serve will watch different factors to decide whether expansion into an area is right. But negative numbers don't always tell the full story. For example, if a city posts a declining transaction size but its number of real transactions is up, it may be a good place for operators to expand, if their concepts rely on high traffic and low ticket averages.

Click row headers to re-sort the chart.

Ranking	Metropolitan Area	Population Change (2000-10)	Change in Spend (2000-10)	Change in # Transactions (2000-10)	Change in Avg. Transaction Size (2000-10)	Score
2	Seattle, WA	395,931	34%	28%	5%	29
9	Minneapolis, MN	311,027	25%	26%	-1%	57
31	New York, NY	574,107	19%	24%	-4%	105
37	Providence, RI	17,855	16%	23%	-5%	124
11	Boston, MA	161,058	23%	23%	0%	63
18	Baltimore, MD	157,495	20%	22%	-2%	84
15	Detroit, MI	-156,307	22%	22%	0%	80
8	Miami, FL	557,071	22%	21%	0%	57
12	San Francisco, CA	211,651	22%	21%	1%	63
24	Pittsburgh, PA	-74,802	20%	21%	-1%	91
1	Orlando, FL	489,850	23%	20%	2%	28
29	Charlotte, NC	427,590	15%	20%	-4%	96
16	Los Angeles, CA	463,210	19%	19%	0%	82
14	San Jose, CA	101,092	19%	19%	0%	75
3	Portland, OR	298,128	28%	19%	7%	38
32	Chicago, IL	362,789	16%	18%	-1%	107
4	Riverside, CA	970,030	19%	18%	1%	45
25	Jacksonville, FL	222,846	16%	18%	-2%	91
33	Columbus, OH	223,842	15%	18%	-3%	114
27	San Diego, CA	281,480	16%	18%	-1%	95
21	Raleigh, NC	333,419	15%	18%	-2%	87
7	Washington, DC	785,987	19%	18%	1%	56
13	Sacramento, CA	352,270	18%	18%	0%	67
6	Las Vegas, NV	575,504	18%	18%	0%	55
39	New Orleans, LA	-148,746	16%	18%	-2%	129
34	Memphis, TN	110,896	15%	18%	-2%	116
30	Rochester, NY	16,492	19%	17%	1%	96
36	St. Louis, MO	114,209	16%	17%	-1%	118
20	Salt Lake City, UT	155,339	17%	17%	0%	84
17	Cleveland, OH	-70,903	23%	17%	5%	83
10	Denver, CO	364,242	19%	17%	2%	62
5	Austin, TX	466,526	19%	16%	3%	54
38	Virginia Beach, VA	95,313	14%	16%	-1%	129
35	Atlanta, GA	1,020,879	14%	16%	-2%	117
26	Birmingham, AL	75,809	18%	16%	2%	91
19	San Antonio, TX	430,805	16%	16%	0%	84
40	Kansas City, MO-KS	199,296	14%	15%	-1%	130
22	Nashville, TN	278,145	16%	15%	1%	89
23	Richmond, VA	161,294	17%	15%	2%	90
28	Houston, TX	1,231,393	15%	14%	1%	96

Methodology: The Growth 40 cities are ranked based on a cumulative score. That cumulative score is made up of population rank, spending rank, number of transactions rank, and average transaction size rank. Population data is based on the 2010 U.S. Census. Spending, number of transactions, and average transaction size data were provided by American Express Business Insights. Ties in the cumulative scores were decided based on raw population data, with the larger metro ranking higher.

Return to the story.