Visualizing Costco’s Global Presence
Costco is a membership-based retail chain founded in 1983 in Seattle, Washington. Best known for its unique warehouse stores and high-quality products, Costco offers everything from electronics to groceries.
Since its founding, Costco has become a major retailer in the U.S., while also greatly expanding its international presence. As of August 2023, the company has 859 locations globally, with a split of 69% domestic (591 stores) and 31% international (268 stores).
In this graphic, we’ve visualized Costco’s global presence with a treemap diagram.
Number of Costco Stores Worldwide
The following table lists the number of Costco stores by country, as of Aug. 17, 2023.
| Country | Number of locations |
|---|---|
 U.S. | 591 |
 Canada | 107 |
 Mexico | 40 |
 Japan | 32 |
 UK | 29 |
 Korea | 18 |
 Australia | 15 |
 Taiwan | 14 |
 Spain | 4 |
 China | 4 |
 France | 2 |
 Iceland | 1 |
 New Zealand | 1 |
 Sweden | 1 |
| Total | 859 |
From this data we can see that Costco’s biggest non-U.S. markets are Canada, Mexico, and Japan.
In fact, Costco’s first non-U.S. location was opened near Vancouver, British Columbia in 1985. The company expanded to Mexico several years later in 1992, and then Japan in 1999.
Costco has recently turned its attention to China, opening four stores in areas around Shanghai since 2019. Reception was overwhelmingly positive—as CNBC reported, massive crowds at the grand opening of Costco’s first store forced an early closure. The company is planning to grow its Chinese presence even further, with new locations planned for Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and Nanjing.