What was McDonald’s first international location outside the United States?

Richmond, British Columbia, was the location of McDonald’s first international restaurant outside the United States.

McDonald’s opened the restaurant in Richmond, near Vancouver, in 1967. Canada became the company’s first overseas market, marking an important step from a U.S. chain into an international brand. The opening also showed how McDonald’s could preserve recognizable visual branding while adapting operations to a new country.

The Canadian expansion preceded McDonald’s later entries into markets such as Japan, the United Kingdom, and Australia. International growth eventually made the Golden Arches one of the world’s most familiar commercial symbols.

A common mistake is naming Toronto because it is Canada’s largest city, or naming the first restaurant in another major international market. The first overseas McDonald’s was in Richmond, British Columbia, not Toronto and not a European or Asian city.