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

68.1% of the 2,387 franchise FDDs analyzed by VetMyFranchise include an Item 19 financial performance representation (2022-2026 FDD filings).
31.9% of the 2,387 franchisors analyzed by VetMyFranchise disclose no earnings data at all — buyers must validate revenue through franchisee calls (FDD Item 20).
Health & Beauty is the most transparent franchise industry: 81.9% of its 94 analyzed brands disclose Item 19.
Real Estate is the least transparent industry with at least 20 analyzed brands, at 51.8% Item 19 disclosure (n=83).
Other improved its Item 19 disclosure rate the most year over year (+36.5 pts, n=22 brands analyzed by VetMyFranchise).

Overall disclosure rate

68.1%

1,626 of 2,387 FDDs

Most transparent

Health & Beauty

81.9% disclose

Least transparent

Real Estate

51.8% disclose

Biggest YoY improver

Other

+36.5 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↕
Health & Beauty	94	81.9%	73.7%	84.0%	+10.3 pts
Technology	11	81.8%	80.0%	83.3%	+3.3 pts
Staffing & HR	20	80.0%	66.7%	82.4%	+15.7 pts
Pet Services	58	77.6%	88.2%	73.2%	-15.1 pts
Senior Care	124	76.6%	69.6%	78.2%	+8.7 pts
Home Services	264	76.5%	62.9%	78.6%	+15.7 pts
Cleaning & Maintenance	151	75.5%	82.6%	74.2%	-8.4 pts
Fitness & Wellness	161	73.3%	61.8%	76.4%	+14.6 pts
Business Services	97	73.2%	65.4%	76.1%	+10.7 pts
Child Services & Education	149	72.5%	46.2%	78.0%	+31.9 pts
Retail	129	69.8%	56.5%	72.6%	+16.1 pts
Financial Services	32	68.8%	75.0%	66.7%	-8.3 pts
Other	22	68.2%	40.0%	76.5%	+36.5 pts
Automotive	70	65.7%	80.0%	57.8%	-22.2 pts
Hospitality & Travel	81	65.4%	42.9%	67.6%	+24.7 pts
Food & Beverage	841	59.7%	50.6%	64.9%	+14.3 pts
Real Estate	83	51.8%	50.0%	52.2%	+2.2 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/c/claude/reports/fdd-disclosure-index

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