The number of restaurants is boomingThe number of restaurants is booming

This post is part of the On the Margin blog.

Want to know why restaurant industry traffic is down? Here’s a pretty good reason: At the end of the first quarter, there were 620,208 restaurants in the U.S., according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

That’s up 13,904 locations over the past year — or 2.3 percent.

Indeed, the restaurant industry has exploded since the end of the recession. Between the first quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2017, the number of restaurants has grown by 13 percent — another 71,163 locations. 

By comparison, the U.S. population over that time has grown just 4.9 percent.

In other words, restaurants are adding locations at about a 1.7-percent clip per year since the recession ended, or 99 bas...