BizGapMap

Home / Automotive repair & maintenance / Texas / Fort Bend County, TX

Fort Bend County, TX — Auto repair Saturation

How many auto repair exist per person present — residents plus daytime workers — by ZIP code, compared with the U.S. average. Establishment data: Census ZBP 2023. Population: ACS 2024 5-year. 24 ZIP codes analyzed.

Includes: Auto repair & maintenance shops · Body, paint & interior repair. Counted together because official statistics use one 811121 code.

Measured density: Range spans bands — 0.44× the U.S. rate (between 0.44× and 0.75× once withheld ZIP cells are counted)

Why a range: Census does not publish a ZIP-by-industry count when that ZIP has 0–2 businesses. 16 ZIP cells in this county are withheld, 13 of them with residents. Each could hold 0, 1, or 2 businesses: counting them all as 0 gives the low end, counting them all as 2 gives the high end — the data cannot say where the truth sits. The density range uses only the populated cells, since ZIPs without residents are excluded from per-person rates. How ranges work

Range spans the U.S. rate   Fort Bend County auto repair — 44–75% of the U.S. rate

37 auto repair are counted in Fort Bend County — 0.4 per 10,000 people present (residents + daytime workers), 44% of the U.S. rate of 0.9.

On the comparable ZIP set (ZIPs with a published count in every year), the total has fallen 11% between 2015 and 2023 (18 → 16). That set is smaller than today's county total. 2020–2021 were pandemic-distorted, and Census rounds counts, so small moves are within noise.

Measured supply density is highest in 77471 (Rosenberg), 77478 (Sugar Land), 77477 (Stafford) — well above the national rate. On measured density alone, the lowest-density residential ZIPs with a published count are 77459 (Missouri City), 77494 (Katy), 77406 (Richmond).

BLS QCEW puts the latest county-wide count (2026 Q1) at 42 establishments, the freshest available signal.

Measured density: Fort Bend County sits at 44% of the U.S. rate for auto repair. 13 ZIPs with population have no published count (each 0–2 businesses), so the true per-capita rate is between 44% and 75% of the U.S. rate. Why. The highest measured density is in 77471 and 77478; the lowest measured density is in 77459 and 77494.

This is a supply-side read: it counts existing auto repair and the people present, not foot traffic, income, rent, or whether locals want more. Treat low density as a question to check, not an answer.

Auto repair
37–69
published count; upper bound counts each withheld ZIP cell as 2 (16 cells) (2023)
Per 10,000 present
0.4
residents + daytime workers
U.S. average
0.9
per 10,000 present
County index
0.44×
vs. U.S.
Latest quarter (QCEW)
42
2026 Q1 — county total
Residents
855,396
21 ZIPs with data
Workers
228,133
jobs located in county

Is the area growing?

Population
958,434
Census PEP, July 1 2024
Change since 2020
+15.6%
+129,099 people
Net migration 2024
+26,236
international +15,769, domestic +10,467
Jobs located here
233,543
LODES 2022, +9.3% since 2019

Fort Bend County had an estimated 958,434 residents on July 1, 2024 — 15.6% more than in 2020 (+129,099). In the latest year it gained 31,314 people: births minus deaths +5,174, international migration +15,769, domestic migration +10,467. Components are published separately and may not sum exactly.

233,543 jobs were located in the county in 2022 (+9.3% since 2019), and 390,385 employed residents lived there (+10.1% since 2019). LODES counts wage and salary jobs covered by unemployment insurance plus federal jobs; it excludes the self-employed and military, and counts jobs rather than unique people. 2019→2022 spans the pandemic, so read it as one change, not a trend.

Population and migration say whether the customer base is growing. They do not say whether people want another business of this type. Definitions and limits →  ·  Full county detail →

ZIP gaining residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change
77441 Fulshear
+229.0%
77407 Richmond
+47.2%
77406 Richmond
+41.9%
ZIP losing residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change

No ZIP had a statistically significant decrease.

ACS 5-year estimates for 2015–2019 and 2020–2024. Only ZIPs with at least 2,000 residents in both windows and a change larger than the survey margin of error (90%) are listed — small ZIPs move a lot on paper without a real signal.

Nonemployer businesses

Not shown. Census publishes only a broader group that also includes auto glass shops, so an auto-repair-only nonemployer count is not published.

Census Nonemployer Statistics 2024 (NAICS 2022). We do not approximate this figure.

Saturation map

Each ZIP area is shaded by its density of this business type per person present (residents + workers) vs. the U.S. average. Click any ZIP to zoom to its boundary, see its numbers, and switch to aerial imagery. Individual mapped shops appear as dots at street level — Show locations zooms you in to them (scroll or double-click to zoom).

Basemap:
Under 50% 50–100% 100–150% 150–250% 250%+ 0–2 (not published) / no data ZIP total (dot size) Mapped shop (OpenStreetMap, street level)

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, tiles by OpenFreeMap.

White dots are ZIP totals from the official Census count — the bigger the dot, the more auto repair in that ZIP. They are aggregated, not individual shops. Turquoise dots are individual locations mapped in OpenStreetMap, shown only at street level; they are crowd-sourced and indicative, may be incomplete, and do not equal the official counts. Only the official ZIP totals feed the saturation index.

Market trend — down 11% since 2015

Number of auto repair in Fort Bend County across 2015–2023, on a consistent set of ZIP codes present in every year — so changes are real, not ZIP-boundary artifacts. 2015/2018 are pre-pandemic baselines; 2020/2021 are COVID-distorted.

18
2015
20
2018
18
2020
18
2021
16
2022
16
2023

Highest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
77471 Rosenberg
152%
77478 Sugar Land
103%
77477 Stafford
93%
77498 Sugar Land
84%
77469 Richmond
77%
77406 Richmond
63%
77494 Katy
44%
77459 Missouri City
38%

Lowest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
77459 Missouri City
38%
77494 Katy
44%
77406 Richmond
63%
77469 Richmond
77%
77498 Sugar Land
84%
77477 Stafford
93%
77478 Sugar Land
103%
77471 Rosenberg
152%
Low measured density is not evidence of opportunity. A ZIP with few auto repair may simply lack foot traffic, retail space, or demand. We rank only residential and mixed ZIPs here; employment hubs and visitor destinations are listed separately below. ZIPs where Census did not publish a count (0–2 businesses) are not ranked: they may be the least served of all, but the data cannot tell 0 from 1 or 2. Verify those locally.

Employment hubs & destinations

These ZIPs have far more workers (or visitors) than residents, so their counts are driven by daytime and visitor demand — not a place to read "shortage" from resident numbers alone.

ZIPNeighborhoodType ResidentsWorkersAuto repairIndex
77481Thompsons Employment hub 78250 0–2 —

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

All ZIP codes

Click a column header to sort. Index = auto repair per 10,000 people present (residents + 0.5×workers) ÷ the U.S. average. 100% = exactly average.

ZIPNeighborhood ResidentsWorkersAuto repair Per 10kIndexStatus
77471Rosenberg 45,32515,472 7 1.3 152% High density
77478Sugar Land 23,18243,252 4 0.9 103% Above average
77477Stafford 33,75232,042 4 0.8 93% Below average
77498Sugar Land 52,8064,286 4 0.7 84% Below average
77469Richmond 69,82610,353 5 0.7 77% Below average
77406Richmond 69,9187,552 4 0.5 63% Below average
77494Katy 140,15737,108 6 0.4 44% Far below average
77459Missouri City 84,22113,512 3 0.3 38% Far below average
77053Houston 30,1987,088 0–2 — — Not published
77407Richmond 88,31911,233 0–2 — — Not published
77417Beasley 3,920594 0–2 — — Not published
77441Fulshear 41,3242,672 0–2 — — Not published
77444Guy 91138 0–2 — — Not published
77451Kendleton 51514 0–2 — — Not published
77461Needville 12,3651,135 0–2 — — Not published
77464Orchard 407109 0–2 — — Not published
77476Simonton 423330 0–2 — — Not published
77479Sugar Land 92,22130,470 0–2 — — Not published
77481Thompsons 78250 0–2 — — Not published
77487Sugar Land —190 0–2 — — Not published
77489Missouri City 39,2927,169 0–2 — — Not published
77496Sugar Land —87 0–2 — — Not published
77497Stafford —137 0–2 — — Not published
77545Fresno 26,2363,454 0–2 — — Not published

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

Find an actual space in Sugar Land

The numbers above tell you how the market looks. To find a specific storefront, these marketplaces list available retail space for lease.

LoopNet
Largest commercial marketplace
Browse Sugar Land retail space →
Crexi
Free listings + market data
Browse Sugar Land retail space →
CityFeet
Retail space for lease
Browse Sugar Land retail space →

Open vacancy data (actual empty units) is only published by some cities; where it exists we show it directly. Listings above are third-party.

Census withholds some ZIP-by-industry cells to protect small businesses. 0–2 means the cell was not published (Census publishes industry counts only at 3+ per ZIP), so the ZIP is left unranked rather than counted as zero. ~ means the count is estimated from the broader industry group and can be off by a business or two.

Follow Fort Bend County and auto repair

When a data vintage changes or a section of this report is revised, we post it to a public update feed. No email address, no account, no tracking — and nothing is sent unless something actually changed.

Subscribe to updates (RSS) How these numbers are built →

Methodology & sources

Establishments. U.S. Census ZIP Code Business Patterns (ZBP 2023), NAICS 811121 — automotive body, paint & interior repair. Counts establishments with paid employees. ZBP is published annually with a ~2-year lag.

Fresh county signal. BLS QCEW (quarterly) is newer than ZBP — 2026 Q1 shows 42 establishments county-wide for this industry. It cannot be broken down by ZIP.

Population. U.S. Census American Community Survey 2024 5-year ZCTA population (table B01003). Workers are the ZIP's total employment from the same 2023 ZBP file.

Demand ("people present"). Demand comes from residents and daytime workers: residents + 0.5 × workers. This is the single documented assumption in the model and can be tuned.

Index. index = (ZIP establishments ÷ ZIP demand × 10,000) ÷ the U.S. average for this industry (0.87 per 10,000 present). It is a supply-side density measure; it does not capture income, rent, tourism, or whether locals actually want more.

Read the full methodology →  ·  Data sources & vintages →

BizGapMap — free, no-login small-business saturation reports for major U.S. counties. Built entirely from public U.S. Census, BLS, and IRS data (ZBP 2023, ACS 2024 5-year, PEP 2024, LODES, QCEW, IRS SOI). No forecasts, no revenue guesses — withheld cells are marked, and the few derived counts are labelled as estimates.