There’s a reason fast-food chains like McDonald’s are struggling: they can’t rely on the under 18 market in the same way they once could.
A new study reveals that while nearly a third of U.S. kids still eat fast food on any given day, that figure has fallen nearly 20 percent over the span of just a few years.
Researchers found that between 2003 and 2004, nearly 39 percent of kids ate fast-food everyday; between 2009 and 2010, that number had dropped to just under 33 percent. The study, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, relies on self-reported data from children ages 4 to 19 collected through the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
The segment that has been hit the hardest is not the average burger joint, but the pizza industry.