Do States With More Hispanics Have More Taco Bells? Find Out What Taco Bell Franchise Count Means

Taco Bell is considered to be an incredibly profitable U.S. franchise -- the fast food chain creates close to $7 billion in revenue each year -- as it allows Americans to quickly get their hands on "Mexican" food. While the brand's marketing may allege that the cuisine offered is Mexican, and certain menu items may resemble authentic Mexican cuisine, the general consensus is that Taco Bell is not Mexican food.

That said, it has long been said that the states with the highest Hispanic population also have the most Taco Bells, suggesting that the franchise is Hispanic-approved or implying that the food is, in fact, close to being authentic. The Daily Meal decided to look into the previous statement to see if, in fact, there is a correlation between Hispanic population and the number of Taco Bells.

"To conduct this experiment, we looked at the states with the most Taco Bells, and then analyzed both their Hispanic population and their overall population," writes The Daily Meal. "We also compared the number of Taco Bells in each state with the number of Wendy's (the closest chain in size to Taco Bell, with 5,877 locations)."

The Daily Meal found that the states with the most Taco Bells are California, Texas, and Florida -- and incidentally, those three states also rank in the top 10 states with the highest Hispanic populations. That said, they also point out that California, Texas, and Florida also are the most populated states, in general, which offers up an alternative explanation as to why there are so many Taco Bells.

As such, they looked into states with high Hispanic populations but low overall populations: New Mexico and Arizona. They found that New Mexico has 46 Taco Bells and Arizona has 192 -- a number that has no correlation with Hispanic population but does have a significance to their overall population.

Whether or not there is a correlation between the Hispanic population and the number of Taco Bell franchises, there's one essential thing to point out: It doesn't make a difference. Even if there is a strong correlation and Hispanics chose to consume Taco Bell or they love it, it doesn't change the fact that the cuisine is not authentic. Hispanics are allowed to like whatever they choose to eat.

The lack of authenticity of Taco Bell's menu is not a bad thing -- if the food is delicious, then consumers will come. And if Taco Bell's revenue is any indication, people love their food regardless of how authentic it is.