Retail & Franchise Site Selectors
Measure retail saturation and restaurant density before signing a lease. Identify underserved ZIP codes where your concept has room to grow without competing against an already-crowded market.
Establishment counts, employee totals, and payroll by industry for every US ZIP code — from the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns survey. Part of the EnrichZip dataset — all 33,000+ US ZIP codes, instant download.
How to use this data
Retail & Franchise Site Selectors
Measure retail saturation and restaurant density before signing a lease. Identify underserved ZIP codes where your concept has room to grow without competing against an already-crowded market.
Commercial Real Estate Investors
Evaluate the commercial health of any ZIP code. Total establishment counts, employee density, and payroll levels signal foot traffic, spending power, and demand for commercial space.
Economic Development Agencies
Track business growth or contraction across ZIP codes over time. Identify industrial clusters, measure entrepreneurship rates, and benchmark your region against comparable markets.
Insurance & Risk Underwriters
Assess commercial insurance risk by mapping industry concentration. High restaurant density signals different fire and liability risk profiles than office-heavy or industrial ZIP codes.
Columns Included
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns. All columns are pre-joined and ready to use — no API key or GIS software required.
| Column Name | Description |
|---|---|
cbp_total_establishments |
Total business establishments in ZIP code |
cbp_total_employees |
Total employees across all businesses |
cbp_total_payroll_000 |
Total annual payroll in $000s |
cbp_retail_establishments |
Retail trade establishments (NAICS 44-45) |
cbp_food_establishments |
Food service & restaurant establishments (NAICS 722) |
cbp_healthcare_establishments |
Healthcare & social assistance establishments (NAICS 62) |
cbp_professional_establishments |
Professional & technical services (NAICS 54) |
cbp_construction_establishments |
Construction establishments (NAICS 23) |
cbp_manufacturing_establishments |
Manufacturing establishments (NAICS 31-33) |
cbp_finance_establishments |
Finance & insurance establishments (NAICS 52) |
cbp_realestate_establishments |
Real estate establishments (NAICS 53) |
cbp_education_establishments |
Educational services establishments (NAICS 61) |
cbp_arts_establishments |
Arts & entertainment establishments (NAICS 71) |
cbp_accommodation_establishments |
Hotel & lodging establishments (NAICS 721) |
cbp_businesses_per_1000_pop |
Total businesses per 1,000 residents |
cbp_restaurant_density |
Restaurants per 1,000 residents |
cbp_healthcare_density |
Healthcare establishments per 1,000 residents |
cbp_retail_saturation |
Retail establishments per 1,000 residents |
About This Data
Understanding the commercial composition of a ZIP code is essential for site selection, market analysis, and investment decisions. The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns program is the definitive source for establishment counts by industry in the United States — but it's published at the county level, requires significant processing to aggregate to ZIP codes, and is not widely accessible to non-technical users.
EnrichZip solves this. We map CBP county data to ZIP codes using Census crosswalks, compute 18 business metrics per ZIP, and package it as a clean, analysis-ready file alongside 120+ other columns from Census ACS, IRS, CDC, FEMA, and more.
The business density metrics are particularly useful for site selection. A retail chain evaluating ZIP codes for expansion wants to know not just whether there's competition, but whether the market is undersaturated. Retail establishments per 1,000 residents tells you how heavily served the market already is — a low number in a high-income ZIP is an opportunity signal.
For healthcare site selectors, the healthcare establishment density metric provides a quick read on whether a ZIP is underserved. Combined with CDC PLACES health outcome data (also in our Pro dataset), you can identify ZIP codes with high diabetes or chronic disease rates but low healthcare provider density — exactly the markets where new clinics have the highest utilization potential.
The payroll data is also underused. Total annual payroll in a ZIP is a strong proxy for local purchasing power that's often more accurate than survey-based income estimates, because it measures actual tax-reported wages rather than self-reported household income.
FAQ
County Business Patterns (CBP) is an annual Census Bureau program that publishes employment and payroll statistics for most US businesses, broken down by industry. EnrichZip aggregates this to the ZIP code level and computes density metrics by combining CBP counts with population data from the Census ACS. The result is a compact, analysis-ready file covering 18 business metrics for all 33,000+ US ZIP codes.
The Census Bureau publishes CBP data approximately 18 months after the reference year. Our current dataset uses 2021 CBP data, the most recent vintage with complete ZIP-level coverage. We update when Census releases new data.
Restaurant density (restaurants per 1,000 residents) is a proxy for neighborhood walkability, foot traffic, and consumer spending activity. High restaurant density ZIPs tend to have strong daytime and evening foot traffic, younger demographics, and higher disposable incomes. It's a useful screener for retail and service businesses evaluating potential locations.
CBP covers most private-sector businesses but excludes self-employed individuals with no payroll, agricultural production, and some government-administered entities. Businesses with fewer than 5 employees may be suppressed in some ZIP codes for privacy reasons. For very rural or low-population ZIPs, some sector counts will be null.