STATISTICS Fast food by the numbers

Percentage of consumers who agree that meals prepared at a restaurant or fast-food establishment are essential to the way they live: 30.
Of the 844,000 eateries in the United States, the number serving fast food: 177,000.
Percentage of calories Americans consume outside the home: 34.
Total fast-food sales projected for 2003, in billions: $120.9.
Percentage of the restaurant-industry share of the food dollar today: 46.1.
Percentage in 1955: 25.
Percentage of schoolchildren who can identify Ronald McDonald: 96.
Sources: The U.S. Department of Agriculture; the National Restaurant Association; the Center for Science in the Public Interest; "Fast Food Nation," by Eric Schlosser