By the numbers
Wisconsin’s dining scene soared in 2024, adding a net 541 dining and drinking establishments to reach 12,635 bars and restaurants, a record, figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show. Employment in bars and restaurants rose to 198,583, finally passing its pre-COVID peak.
The 2024 total represents a 4.5 percent increase from the 12,094 restaurants and bars in Wisconsin in 2023, and it’s the largest single-year change since 2011, the earliest figures for which comparable BLS data are available. Compared to 2011, Wisconsin has 9.1 percent more bars and restaurants. The largest single-year decrease was in 2014, a decline of 262.
Wisconsin’s bar and restaurant employment in 2024 exceeded the pre-pandemic peak of 197,600. The sector saw a loss of 33,000 jobs, about 16.7 percent, between 2019 and 2020, with only 13,250 jobs regained by 2021.
These figures are from the BLS’ employer survey, and are the sums of establishments and their employment in NAICS subsectors 7224, “drinking places,” and 7225, “restaurants and other eating places.”
