Food stalls range from licensed mobile-food businesses to informal roadside vendors. The available statistics show a substantial U.S. mobile-food sector, strong employment growth, and very different operating patterns across New York City, Almaty, Ibadan, Dhaka, and the Bronx. Because the studies use different definitions, years, and sampling methods, each figure below is tied to its measurement period and geography.
Contents
- Sector size and scale
- Employment and vendor experience
- Who operates food stalls
- Locations, mobility, and operating conditions
- Foods and drinks sold
- Permits, language, and customer access
Sector size and scale
The clearest national benchmark comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 Economic Census classification for NAICS 722330, Mobile Food Services. The category counted 10,062 employer firms and 10,155 employer establishments in 2022. The distinction matters: firms are businesses, while establishments are operating locations or units reported within the business statistics. U.S. Census Bureau, “Accommodation and Food Services: Summary Statistics for the U.S., States, and Selected Geographies: 2022”
Those U.S. employer mobile-food establishments reported $3,019,256,000 in sales, shipments, or revenue in 2022. Annual payroll totaled $705,023,000. These figures describe employer businesses in the federal industry category; they do not represent every informal stall, temporary market stand, or individual street seller.
Local street-vending counts can be much broader. New York City was estimated to have 23,000 street vendors selling food and merchandise in public spaces in 2023, including 20,500 food vendors. Food vendors represented 89% of the city’s street vendors in that estimate. New York City Comptroller, “Safeguarding Outdoor Workers in a Changing Climate”
The international studies also show how much scale depends on the area covered and the definition used. Researchers mapped 686 ready-to-eat food-vending outlets in selected low-income urban communities in Ibadan, Nigeria, during 2021–2022. The mapped outlets included 319 traditional-food vendors, 268 processed-food vendors, and 98 unprocessed-food vendors. PLOS ONE, “Informal ready-to-eat food vending governance in urban Nigeria”
Employment and vendor experience
U.S. employment in private-sector Mobile Food Services reached 44,119 in 2024, compared with 4,383 in 2000. The Bureau of Labor Statistics described the change as a 906.6% increase between 2000 and 2024. This is an employment series for the U.S. industry category, not a count of stalls or a direct measure of sales. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Food trucks drive fast employment growth in mobile food services”
| Measure | Value | Period and geography |
|---|---|---|
| Private-sector Mobile Food Services employment | 4,383 | 2000, U.S. |
| Private-sector Mobile Food Services employment | 44,119 | 2024, U.S. |
| Employment increase | 906.6% | 2000–2024, U.S. |
| Employer firms | 10,062 | 2022, U.S. |
| Employer establishments | 10,155 | 2022, U.S. |
The vendor workforce is also prominent in the local studies. In Almaty, Kazakhstan, women accounted for 74.2% of observed street-food vendors in 2017. In Ibadan, 90% of surveyed informal ready-to-eat food vendors were female during 2021–2022. These percentages come from separate studies and should not be combined into a single global estimate. Almaty street-food study; Ibadan vending study
Ibadan’s survey also captured time in the trade. Forty-nine percent of surveyed food vendors had worked in vending for 5–10 years, while 19% had worked in vending for 16–20 years. The figures indicate that vending can be a long-running livelihood in the surveyed communities, although they do not describe every vendor in Ibadan or elsewhere.
Who operates food stalls
New York City’s 2023 street-vendor estimate provides detailed demographic and licensing context. Ninety-six percent of street vendors were born outside the United States, and 98% were people of color. Hispanic or Latino vendors represented 60% of street vendors, while Middle Eastern or North African vendors represented 22%. More than 50% spoke little to no English. New York City Comptroller, “Safeguarding Outdoor Workers in a Changing Climate”
The same report estimated fewer than 4,000 food-vending permits were available. It reported that 75% of New York City food vendors operated without a permit or rented one on the secondary market. In response to this constrained licensing environment, a 2021 city law created 4,450 additional food-vending licenses over ten years, equivalent to 445 additional licenses per year during 2022–2031.
Business ownership patterns varied within Almaty’s 2017 observations. Overall, 32.8% of observed street-food vendors owned the business. At mobile vending sites specifically, 71.4% of vendors were business owners. The difference suggests that vendor role and site type can affect whether the person working at a stall is also its owner. Almaty street-food study
Locations, mobility, and operating conditions
The Almaty research assessed 356 street-food vending sites after randomly selecting 10 of the 23 public markets identified by local authorities. Most sites were stationary: 92.7% of observed vending sites fell into that category. Among the recorded setup types, dukoni accounted for 59.6% and stands for 29.2%.
Basic infrastructure was common in the assessed Almaty sites. All 356 had access to drinking water. Toilet-facility access was recorded at 99.2%, and electricity access at 91.9%. These are observed-site measurements from selected public markets in 2017, not universal standards for food stalls.
The sites also operated on schedules that suggest regular, year-round activity. In Almaty, 94.7% operated six days per week, 91.0% operated throughout the whole year, and 97.2% operated under every type of weather. Weather tolerance in this study describes reported operating practice; it does not mean conditions were equally safe or comfortable for vendors and customers.
Ibadan’s mapped locations had a different distribution. Forty-one percent of food-vending locations were roadsides, 32% were community streets, 17% were market squares, and 10% were motor parks. The distribution highlights how food stalls can serve daily foot traffic outside formal market buildings. Ibadan vending study
Mobility was more visible in the Bronx study. Researchers identified 372 mobile food vendors during a 2010 street canvass. Nearly 33% changed selling locations day to day or within a day, and weather was a deciding factor for 86% of vendors. “Assessing mobile food vendors”
Foods and drinks sold
Almaty’s 2017 observations show a broad food mix. Food other than fruit was available at 93.5% of observed vending sites, while fruit was available at only 1.1%. Homemade food was available at 54.4% of sites, industrial food at 36.6%, and both homemade and industrial foods at 9.0%.
Among Almaty sites with homemade food, 77.3% offered cooked homemade foods and 37.9% offered uncooked homemade foods. These percentages use the subset of sites with homemade food as their denominator, so they should not be read as shares of all 356 sites. “Availability and Nutritional Composition of Street Food in Urban Central Asia”
Beverages were available at 46.6% of Almaty vending sites. Among beverage-selling sites, soft drinks were available at 61.5%, traditional beverages at 51.8%, water at 37.9%, and energy drinks at 33.1%. The categories can overlap: a site could offer more than one kind of beverage.
Permits, language, and customer access
The Bronx canvass illustrates how difficult it can be to collect information from a mobile vendor population. Of the 372 identified vendors, 38% did not answer the brief interview questions, 19% were in transit when approached, and 15% refused the brief interview. Only 34% had a visible permit or license. These results come from a 2010 street canvass and should not be treated as a current compliance rate.
Language shaped the interaction as well. Among responding Bronx vendors, 75% felt most comfortable speaking Spanish, while 5% preferred other non-English languages. The study’s response figures describe the vendors who answered, not necessarily all vendors identified by researchers. “Assessing mobile food vendors”
Earlier estimates from Dhaka, Bangladesh, place the number of prepared-food street vendors at 90,000–100,000 during 2007–2010. Around 418,000 Dhaka residents, or 2.9% of the city’s population, were reported to depend on income generated by street-food vendors. The same estimate reported an average of 84 customers served per vendor per day. These are historical estimates for the stated period, not a current Dhaka count. “Food Safety Challenges towards Safe, Healthy, and Nutritious Street Foods in Bangladesh”
Taken together, the statistics show why “food stalls” is a broad category. A national employer-industry series captures registered mobile-food businesses; city reports may estimate a much larger street-vendor population; and field studies reveal how location, ownership, language, licensing, weather, and product mix differ from one vending environment to another.