McDonald’s opened its first international restaurant in 1967 in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.
The Canadian opening marked the beginning of McDonald’s expansion beyond the United States. The restaurant adapted the company’s recognizable service format and visual identity for a new national market while retaining the McDonald’s name and golden-arches branding.
Canada became an important early market because it was geographically close to the United States and shared many consumer habits. The company later expanded throughout Europe, Asia, Latin America, and other regions.
People sometimes confuse the first international restaurant with the first McDonald’s in a foreign capital or the first restaurant outside North America. Those milestones happened later. The 1967 Richmond opening specifically identifies Canada as McDonald’s first international market.