Data Source: www.andyhayler.com and www.guide.michelin.com

Tool: Tableau

For nearly 100 years, The Michelin Guide has awarded restaurants with one, two, and three stars. The three star accolade being considered the most prestigious for "exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey". In 2006, Michelin expanded its Guide to outside of Europe, with its publication of the New York City edition of the Guide. Today, the Michelin Guide publishes Guide’s across 41 countries, awarding over 3,000 restaurants with Michelin stars and only 139 restaurants earning the highly coveted three star award.

With the help of renowned food critic and freelance writer, Andy Hayler, we compiled the number of three star restaurants by country since 2007. Historically, France has held the top spot with the most three star awards, however, once countries outside of Europe were reviewed, Japan quickly soared as the world’s leader by 2011. Since then, France and Japan have gone back and forth as the leading country.

Notes:

Michelin began reviewing countries outside of Europe in 2006, however, due to data not being readily available, this visualization starts at 2007

The Michelin Guide for California was canceled in 2021 due to the pandemic. This resulted in the USA's count to drastically decrease for that year.