Our hunger for fast foods spurred on by pandemic

Almost 16 million Australians aged 14 or more now order take away food each month, according to the latest research from Roy Morgan.

Almost one in five of us eat fast food 10 times per month.

That number of 75.3 per cent of Australians eating take away food each month from 2020 has risen from 63.7pc in 2019.

McDonald's, KFC, Hungry Jack's and Domino's Pizza are Australia's favourite takeaway outlets, Roy Morgan says.

The local fish and chips shop, pizza shop or convenience store also rated highly.

Australians made increasing use of food-ordering services such as Uber Eats, Menulog, HelloFresh, Deliveroo and DoorDash while spending time at home during nationwide lockdowns.

There are now 10 quick service restaurants with at least one million Australian customers buying food there each month.

McDonald's is again the leading restaurant with over 8.1 million customers per month.

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KFC (6.8 million customers) came runner up with Hungry Jack's (4.2 million), Domino's Pizza (4.1 million), Subway (3.2 million customers) and Red Rooster (2.1 million customers).

According to Roy Morgan, on average Australians make 4.8 visits to quick service restaurants per month.

Millennials (1976-1990 and now aged from 30-45 years old) are the biggest customers for the top 3 - McDonald's, KFC & Hungry Jack's.

Older generations are less frequent customers of fast food outlets, but McDonald's remains the leading choice for Generation X, Baby Boomers and Pre-Boomers ahead of KFC and Hungry Jack's.

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said fast food outlets were one of the beneficiaries of the last year as Australians stuck at home turned to food delivery services to order out.

"The latest Roy Morgan data shows over three-quarters of Australians aged 14+, 15.9 million, ate take away food from fast food outlets in an average four weeks during 2020, up from 13.3 million (63.7pc) in 2019 before anyone had heard of COVID-19.

"This represents significant growth on a year earlier but the trend of increasing patronage at fast food outlets has been consistent over the last few years."