In July 2022, did China have more nuclear weapons than Domino's Pizza locations?

Question

China, Russia, and Pakistan are the only countries in the world that have more nuclear weapons than they do Domino's Pizza locations.
_{8 Solid Minutes of Useless Geographical Facts!, YouTube (6m45s), 27 July 2022 (1.4M views at the time of writing)}

I live in China, so I don't think the claim about China is true; Domino's Pizza is fairly popular here.

Question: In July 2022, did China have more nuclear weapons than Domino's Pizza locations?

Answer 1

Actually, I found the answer while writing the question. I'm going to declare this: probably false in July 2022 (when the video was released), but it was probably true back in early 2021; this is due to a large number of new Domino's Pizza locations in China, which has benefited from increased demand for home delivery during the pandemic.

There were probably around 500 Domino's Pizza locations and around 400 nuclear weapons in China at the time the video was released (July 2022). The estimates for China's nuclear arsenal size may be inaccurate, but the numbers lean more towards Domino's Pizza locations outnumbering nuclear weapons in China.

The number of Domino's Pizza locations in China reached 500 mid-2022.

Domino's Pizza had 400 stores in China back in 2021:

Domino's Pizza China celebrated the opening of its 400th store in May 2021.
_{A Look into Domino’s Rapid Growth in China, Dominos.com, Aug 2021}

Which subsequently increased to about 500:

The number of Domino’s China locations jumped from 188 to 468 between 2019 and 2021. There are 508 Domino’s China locations in the country as of June 2022.
_{Domino’s China Hits Record Revenue Levels, Retail & Leisure International, June 2023. (Emphasis added.)}

Bamboo Works states there were 588 Domino's stores in China at the end of 2022, and the company is aiming for rapid growth:

The company had 588 stores in China at the end of last year, and said it plans to open around 180 this year and another 240 in 2024, according to its announcement last Thursday. It would then open another 250 to 300 restaurants in both 2025 and 2026, bringing its total to the 1,500 we mentioned earlier.
_{Domino’s China franchisee DPC Dash turns up the heat in aggressive expansion, Bamboo Works, May 2023.}

China probably had around 400 nuclear weapons in 2022.

The correct number of China's nuclear weapons is unknown, but the current best estimate is 410:

_{Hans Kristensen et al., Status of World Nuclear Forces, Federation of American Scientists, March 2023.}

They also note:

The United States is still reducing its nuclear stockpile slowly. France and Israel have relatively stable inventories. But China, India, North Korea, Pakistan and the United Kingdom, as well as possibly Russia, are all thought to be increasing their stockpiles...

This estimate is up from 350 back in 2021:

We estimate that China has produced a stockpile of approximately 350 nuclear warheads ...
_{Hans Kristensen et al., Nuclear Notebook: Chinese nuclear forces, 2021, November 2021.}

(PS. Russia: 171 Domino's < 5,889 nukes. Pakistan: 62 Domino's < 170 nukes. So the claim is true for Russia and Pakistan. Oh, and if you're interested, and it's not true for the USA: 6,726 Domino's > 5,244 nukes.)

Answer 2

Probably not (but the numbers are probably quite close).

China Daily (2022):

By the end of June, the company directly operated 508 stores on the Chinese mainland

InsideRetail.asia (5 May 2023):

DPC Dash entered the cities of Qingdao, Changzhou, and Wenzhou last Saturday, taking the store count to 638 as of April 30.

Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2022 (released Nov 2022):

The Department of Defense estimates that the PRC’s operational nuclear warheads stockpile has surpassed 400.

(Note: "This report covers security and military developments involving the PRC until the end of 2021.")

Kirstensen, Korda, and Reynolds (2023):

We estimate that China’s stockpile now includes roughly 410 nuclear warheads with more in production.