Most U.S. health departments plan to inspect a restaurant once or twice a year, more often when the kitchen does riskier cooking or the last result was poor. A year of public records from five cities shows the typical restaurant got one inspection between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026. Extra visits mostly follow a bad result or a complaint.
We downloaded each city’s open inspection data, counted inspections per restaurant in that 12-month window, and compared the counts with each health department’s published schedule. The figures are our own calculation from data pulled October 23, 2026. A restaurant with no inspection in the window leaves no row, so the shares cover restaurants inspected at least once.
How often each city says it inspects restaurants
- New York City: the next routine inspection comes 11 to 13 months after a first inspection scoring 0 to 13 points, 5 to 7 months after 14 to 27, and 3 to 5 months after 28 or more (NYC inspection cycle overview).
- Chicago: Risk 1 establishments are inspected twice a year, Risk 2 once a year and Risk 3 every other year (Chicago Department of Public Health).
- Seattle and King County: most permitted food businesses get two unannounced inspections a year (King County inspection reporting system).
- Boston: every restaurant at least once a year; restaurants graded B at least every six months and C at least every three months (Boston Inspectional Services).
- Austin: Austin Public Health set a goal of two routine inspections a year for each fixed food establishment (City of Austin performance report); the city’s current health pages don’t restate a schedule.
How many inspections restaurants actually got in a year
Every health inspection counted, routine or follow-up, October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026. Shares may not add to 100 because of rounding.
| City | Restaurants | 1 visit | 2 visits | 3 or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York City | 20,669 | 77% | 19% | 4% |
| Chicago | 6,334 | 60% | 28% | 12% |
| King County | 7,537 | 62% | 31% | 7% |
| Boston | 3,368 | 16% | 22% | 61% |
| Austin | 4,755 | 66% | 29% | 6% |
The median was one inspection in four cities and three in Boston. Routine visits on their own tell a sharper story against each schedule:
- New York City matches its yearly cycle. Of 15,640 restaurants with a routine (cycle) first inspection in the year, 97% had exactly one. Extra NYC visits are re-inspections after a score of 14 or more, which came a median of 66 days later in our NYC analysis.
- Chicago’s high-risk restaurants mostly got one routine visit, not two. Of 3,916 Risk 1 restaurants with a routine (Canvass) inspection in the year, 390 (10%) had a second one. Complaint and re-inspection visits make up much of the rest; in our Chicago analysis, 36% of complaint visits failed.
- About four in ten King County kitchens got two routine inspections. Among 6,111 Risk 3 businesses, the ones that cook from scratch, 41% had two or more routine inspections and 59% had one.
- Boston’s high counts come from follow-ups. Boston’s data marks results, not visit types, so its counts include re-inspections. After a failed visit, the next one came a median of 7 days later in our Boston analysis.
- Austin lands closer to once a year. Of 4,751 establishments with a routine inspection, 34% had two or more and 66% had one. The Austin data covers every kind of food establishment, so the restaurant share may differ.
How often restaurants are closed by the health department
New York City and King County record closures in their inspection data. Chicago, Boston and Austin’s open data don’t mark them, so they’re left out of this section. Follow-up visits after a failing result are timed in our page on what happens when a restaurant fails an inspection.
In the year, 520 New York City restaurants (2.5% of the 20,669 inspected) and 27 King County food businesses (0.3% of 7,728) had at least one inspection that ended with a closure.
How long those closures lasted, and how to check one, is in restaurant closures by the health department.
- NYC closures are mostly about pests. On the 575 inspections that closed a restaurant (re-closures not counted), conditions that attract rodents or insects were cited 77% of the time, food not protected from contamination 57%, evidence of mice 44% and cold food held above 41°F 40%.
- King County closures center on permits and handwashing. On the 28 inspections that closed a business, the red items cited most were permit and operating-plan compliance (21), handwashing facilities (15) and cold food held above 45°F (12).
Missing staff food safety training is one of the items inspectors cite; the rules by state are in food handler card requirements.
What this means when you look up a restaurant
- Expect the newest routine inspection to be up to a year old, so read its date before the score.
- Count the visit types, not just the visits. Several inspections in a year usually mean follow-ups after a bad result or a complaint; the follow-up result tells you whether it was fixed.
- Read the result on that city’s own scale. Our inspection score reader explains scores, grades and pass or fail results for 22 programs, and the side-by-side comparison of score scales lists each city’s cutoffs.
Data sources: NYC Open Data (sanitary cycle and pre-permit inspections), Chicago Data Portal (facility type Restaurant, inspections with a Pass, Pass w/ Conditions or Fail result), King County Open Data (General Food Service, educational visits left out), Analyze Boston (Eating & Drinking licenses, one visit per license and result date) and Austin Open Data. Health department schedules checked October 23, 2026; Austin source updated October 24, 2026.