8 million on December 31, 1998. In 1985 McDonald's was added to the 30-company Dow Jones Industrial Average.
McDonald's serves 45 million people every day in about 29,000 restaurants in 121 countries.
By geographic area, here's how we've grown since 1995:.
Number of restaurants at year-end .
Country 2000 1995.
USA 12,804 11,368.
Europe 5,460 2,597.
Asia/Pacific 6,260 2,735.
Latin America 1,510 584.
Canada, Middle East & Africa 1,665 1,015.
Other Brands 1,008 0.
Total 28,707 18,299.
V.
McDonald's is the world's largest food service organization with more than 28,000 restaurants in 120 countries at December 31, 2000.
Our global infrastructure includes a network of suppliers and resources that allows us to achieve economies of scale and offer great value to our customers.
In 2000, Systemwide sales were over $40 billion, operating income was $3.3 billion and earnings per share increased 10 percent on a constant currency* basis.
Each market is run by a local management team who knows its market firsthand. This hands-on approach gives the team insight into what works and the flexibility to adjust to short-term challenges.
V.
Our Vision is to be the world's best quick service restaurant experience. This means opening and running great restaurants and providing exceptional quality, service, cleanliness and value, or QSC&V.
Our three strategies to achieve our vision are to be the best employer for our people, deliver operation excellence and achieve enduring profitable growth through innovation and technology. How we implement these strategies varies by market.
The U.S. is our largest segment with nearly 13,000 restaurants as of December 31, 2000, which contribute about half of our operating income. We are collaborating with our owner/operators and listening to our customers to achieve our goals, which are to increase comparable sales and profitability for both the company and our owner/operators.
We plan to do this by focusing on the four building blocks of our business: deliver outstanding QSC&V; be a great employer; give our food star status; and leverage technology to be a strategic advantage.
