What % of Franchises Disclose Item 19? (2026 Data)

Key findings
Why this matters
Disclosure rates by industry
Analyze any single brand: $49

Key facts

Sortable by overall rate, year-over-year change, or sample size.
These are industry-wide disclosure rates.

Key findings

69.7% of the 2,175 franchise FDDs analyzed by VetMyFranchise include an Item 19 financial performance representation (2026).
30.3% of the 2,175 franchisors analyzed by VetMyFranchise disclose no earnings data at all — buyers must validate revenue through franchisee calls (FDD Item 20).
Technology is the most transparent franchise industry: 81.8% of its 11 analyzed brands disclose Item 19.
Real Estate is the least transparent industry with at least 20 analyzed brands, at 52.5% Item 19 disclosure (n=80).
Staffing & HR improved its Item 19 disclosure rate the most year over year (+43.1 pts, n=20 brands analyzed by VetMyFranchise).

Overall disclosure rate

69.7%

1,516 of 2,175 FDDs

Most transparent

Technology

81.8% disclose

Least transparent

Real Estate

52.5% disclose

Biggest YoY improver

Staffing & HR

+43.1 pts

Why this matters

No Item 19 means harder underwriting. Banks won't lend confidently against a franchise with no published revenue data. You're stuck building your projections off franchisee word-of-mouth.
Non-disclosure correlates with weaker unit economics. Franchisors with strong AUVs almost always disclose — there's no upside in hiding good numbers. Industries with low disclosure rates tend to have weaker or more variable revenue per unit.
YoY changes are signal. A franchisor that disclosed last year and dropped Item 19 this year is telling you something — usually that last year's numbers wouldn't help recruit franchisees this year.

Disclosure rates by industry

Sortable by overall rate, year-over-year change, or sample size.

Industry↕	FDDs↕	Overall %↓	2025 %↕	2026 %↕	YoY Delta↕
Technology	11	81.8%	80.0%	83.3%	+3.3 pts
Health & Beauty	93	81.7%	76.2%	83.3%	+7.1 pts
Senior Care	122	79.5%	71.4%	81.9%	+10.5 pts
Home Services	261	77.0%	64.3%	79.5%	+15.2 pts
Cleaning & Maintenance	151	76.2%	78.6%	75.6%	-3.0 pts
Pet Services	58	75.9%	83.3%	72.5%	-10.8 pts
Financial Services	32	75.0%	90.0%	68.2%	-21.8 pts
Business Services	95	73.7%	61.5%	78.3%	+16.7 pts
Child Services & Education	150	72.0%	50.0%	78.0%	+28.0 pts
Fitness & Wellness	159	71.7%	61.1%	74.8%	+13.7 pts
Retail	127	71.7%	64.3%	73.7%	+9.5 pts
Staffing & HR	20	70.0%	33.3%	76.5%	+43.1 pts
Hospitality & Travel	82	68.3%	55.6%	69.9%	+14.3 pts
Automotive	70	62.9%	76.0%	55.6%	-20.4 pts
Food & Beverage	642	62.0%	51.1%	66.5%	+15.5 pts
Other	22	59.1%	40.0%	64.7%	+24.7 pts
Real Estate	80	52.5%	53.3%	52.3%	-1.0 pts

Click any column header to sort ·

rows

shown

Methodology

Disclosure rate = % of franchises in an industry whose FDD includes a Financial Performance Representation (Item 19) — not whether they disclose everything, but whether they disclose any structured revenue claim at all. Year-over-year delta compares 2026-year FDDs to 2025-year FDDs for the same industry. Industries with fewer than 5 franchises in either year may show large percentage swings driven by small samples — interpret with care.

Cite this. Please attribute figures to "VetMyFranchise, FDD Disclosure Transparency Report 2026" and link to this page.

Analyze any single brand: $49

These are industry-wide disclosure rates. For one brand's actual Item 19 numbers — plus its fees, litigation, and a buyer verdict — our full 12-section FDD analysis is $49 per report, or three for $99.

Browse the franchise library

Cite this page

Title: What % of Franchises Disclose Item 19? (2026 Data)
URL: https://vetmyfranchise.com/reports/fdd-disclosure-index?utm_source=claude&utm_medium=ai_referral&utm_campaign=crawlytics

Related on this site

This page is part of VetMyFranchise. View all pages: llms.txt · llms-full.txt

Site index for AI agents: llms.txt · sitemap