Montpelier does not have a McDonald’s—the only capital to hold that distinction. According to McDonalds.com “restaurant locator”—Pierre, South Dakota and Juneau, Alaska are close seconds with only one McDonald’s each. Three other state capitals—Augusta, Maine, Helena, Montana and Frankfort, Kentucky have two each. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in contrast, has 23.
To be fair, there is a McDonald’s three miles down the road from Montpelier in Barre, Vermont, but Barre, although nearby, is politically distinct from the state capital.
Vermont also has the distinction of having a grand total of only 27 McDonald’s in the entire state. That is out of a total of nearly 16,000 branches nationwide—or 2/10th of one percent of the total. Along with Alaska, Wyoming and North Dakota, Vermont has the least number of such establishments in the United States. Some larger states have thousands. California has nearly 1,500 while Texas has more than 1,200.