McDonald’s opened its first restaurant outside the United States in Canada in 1967.
The restaurant opened in Richmond, British Columbia, near Vancouver. Canada became McDonald’s first international market and remains one of the company’s largest markets outside the United States.
The opening marked an important step in McDonald’s transformation from a U.S. restaurant chain into a global franchise business. The company later expanded throughout Europe, Asia, Latin America, and other regions.
People sometimes confuse Canada’s 1967 opening with McDonald’s first restaurant in another continent. The Canadian restaurant was the chain’s first international location overall, not merely its first North American location outside the United States. McDonald’s also opened in Puerto Rico in 1967, but Canada is generally identified as the first country outside the United States to receive a McDonald’s restaurant.