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Philadelphia County, PA — Bars Saturation

How many bars 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. 54 ZIP codes analyzed.

Includes: Bars & taverns · Pubs & brewpubs (drinking-focused) · Cocktail & wine bars · Taprooms. Counted together because official statistics use one 722410 code.

Measured density: High density — 1.81× the U.S. rate (between 1.81× and 1.91× 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, 9 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

High density   Philadelphia County bars — 181–191% of the U.S. rate

352 bars are counted in Philadelphia County — 1.8 per 10,000 people present (residents + daytime workers), 181% of the U.S. rate of 1.0.

On the comparable ZIP set (ZIPs with a published count in every year), the total has fallen 22% between 2015 and 2023 (450 → 349). 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 19127 (Philadelphia), 19137 (Philadelphia), 19123 (Philadelphia) — well above the national rate. On measured density alone, the lowest-density residential ZIPs with a published count are 19104 (Philadelphia), 19144 (Philadelphia), 19111 (Philadelphia).

Census County Business Patterns (2023) puts the county-wide count at 361 establishments, including locations in ZIP codes that do not map to a ZCTA — so it can run slightly above the sum of the ZIP rows on this page. It is annual, so it lags more than QCEW.

Measured density: Philadelphia County sits at 181% of the U.S. rate for bars. 9 ZIPs with population have no published count (each 0–2 businesses), so the true per-capita rate is between 181% and 191% of the U.S. rate. Why. The highest measured density is in 19127 and 19137; the lowest measured density is in 19104 and 19144.

This is a supply-side read: it counts existing bars 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.

Bars
352–384
published count; upper bound counts each withheld ZIP cell as 2 (16 cells) (2023)
Per 10,000 present
1.8
residents + daytime workers
U.S. average
1.0
per 10,000 present
County index
1.81×
vs. U.S.
Latest year (CBP)
361
2023 — $78M annual payroll
Residents
1,580,199
47 ZIPs with data
Workers
690,182
jobs located in county

Is the area growing?

Population
1,573,916
Census PEP, July 1 2024
Change since 2020
−1.7%
−26,872 people
Net migration 2024
+5,989
international +21,321, domestic −15,332
Jobs located here
720,974
LODES 2022, −1.4% since 2019

Philadelphia County had an estimated 1,573,916 residents on July 1, 2024 — 1.7% fewer than in 2020 (−26,872). In the latest year it gained 10,567 people: births minus deaths +4,645, international migration +21,321, domestic migration −15,332. Components are published separately and may not sum exactly.

720,974 jobs were located in the county in 2022 (−1.4% since 2019), and 644,369 employed residents lived there (−2.0% 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
19121 Philadelphia
+28.4%
19144 Philadelphia
+15.3%
ZIP losing residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change
19134 Philadelphia
−13.7%

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 (no paid employees)

Nonemployer businesses
155
no paid employees (2024)
Receipts
$8.4M
published gross receipts
Receipts per business
$54K
gross, not profit

Census Nonemployer Statistics counts businesses with no paid employees — a separate universe from the employer establishments counted above; a business is in one or the other, never both. They are not storefronts by definition: many are home-based, mobile, or part-time.

We show them beside the density index, not inside it. In categories such as nail and beauty salons, child care, and pet care, one-person businesses can outnumber employer establishments, so the employer-only count understates how many businesses exist. That is not evidence of higher demand.

Receipts are gross revenue reported for these businesses — not profit, and not the size of the local market. Census publishes this only at county level, so it is not shown on the ZIP map. See methodology.

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 bars 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 22% since 2015

Number of bars in Philadelphia 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.

450
2015
433
2018
372
2020
346
2021
355
2022
349
2023

Highest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
19127 Philadelphia
1167%
19137 Philadelphia
679%
19123 Philadelphia
538%
19125 Philadelphia
510%
19147 Philadelphia
417%
19133 Philadelphia
396%
19106 Philadelphia
335%
19140 Philadelphia
311%
19139 Philadelphia
300%
19145 Philadelphia
289%
19153 Philadelphia
269%
19136 Philadelphia
253%
19131 Philadelphia
253%
19148 Philadelphia
250%
19134 Philadelphia
245%

Lowest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
19104 Philadelphia
46%
19144 Philadelphia
53%
19111 Philadelphia
55%
19121 Philadelphia
69%
19152 Philadelphia
74%
19115 Philadelphia
75%
19149 Philadelphia
83%
19138 Philadelphia
93%
19141 Philadelphia
104%
19132 Philadelphia
114%
19122 Philadelphia
114%
19120 Philadelphia
127%
19146 Philadelphia
133%
19124 Philadelphia
166%
19143 Philadelphia
184%
Low measured density is not evidence of opportunity. A ZIP with few bars 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 ResidentsWorkersBarsIndex
19102Philadelphia Employment hub 6,19525,541 10 523%
19107Philadelphia Employment hub 14,82549,221 15 377%
19103Philadelphia Employment hub 25,900100,835 12 156%

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

All ZIP codes

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

ZIPNeighborhood ResidentsWorkersBars Per 10kIndexStatus
19127Philadelphia 5,6642,263 8 11.8 1167% Very high density
19137Philadelphia 8,0264,385 7 6.9 679% Very high density
19123Philadelphia 19,68123,272 17 5.4 538% Very high density
19102Philadelphia 6,19525,541 10 5.3 523% Very high density
19125Philadelphia 25,1408,017 15 5.1 510% Very high density
19147Philadelphia 39,70410,874 19 4.2 417% Very high density
19133Philadelphia 24,8645,300 11 4.0 396% Very high density
19107Philadelphia 14,82549,221 15 3.8 377% Very high density
19106Philadelphia 14,59724,084 9 3.4 335% Very high density
19140Philadelphia 53,38514,289 19 3.1 311% Very high density
19139Philadelphia 43,0906,211 14 3.0 300% Very high density
19145Philadelphia 43,4409,285 14 2.9 289% Very high density
19153Philadelphia 13,01825,536 7 2.7 269% Very high density
19136Philadelphia 36,2625,790 10 2.6 253% Very high density
19131Philadelphia 43,77614,470 13 2.5 253% Very high density
19148Philadelphia 50,40033,959 17 2.5 250% Very high density
19134Philadelphia 53,59414,238 15 2.5 245% High density
19130Philadelphia 30,1169,905 8 2.3 226% High density
19135Philadelphia 33,8035,544 8 2.2 217% High density
19128Philadelphia 38,0397,304 9 2.2 214% High density
19114Philadelphia 30,41117,816 8 2.0 202% High density
19142Philadelphia 28,8292,044 6 2.0 199% High density
19143Philadelphia 62,5724,167 12 1.9 184% High density
19124Philadelphia 71,00413,411 13 1.7 166% High density
19103Philadelphia 25,900100,835 12 1.6 156% High density
19146Philadelphia 41,0587,401 6 1.3 133% Above average
19120Philadelphia 66,4697,777 9 1.3 127% Above average
19122Philadelphia 25,43918,394 4 1.2 114% Above average
19132Philadelphia 33,0063,822 4 1.1 114% Above average
19141Philadelphia 32,38511,455 4 1.0 104% Above average
19138Philadelphia 30,8212,419 3 0.9 93% Below average
19149Philadelphia 56,9145,944 5 0.8 83% Below average
19115Philadelphia 35,2798,543 3 0.8 75% Below average
19152Philadelphia 35,9558,473 3 0.7 74% Below average
19121Philadelphia 41,5743,106 3 0.7 69% Below average
19111Philadelphia 66,28311,917 4 0.6 55% Below average
19144Philadelphia 50,58010,536 3 0.5 53% Below average
19104Philadelphia 55,172106,374 5 0.5 46% Far below average
19019Philadelphia —497 0–2 — — Not published
19101Philadelphia —197 0–2 — — Not published
19105Philadelphia —44 0–2 — — Not published
19108Philadelphia 154241 0–2 — — Not published
19109Philadelphia 01,873 0–2 — — Not published
19110Philadelphia —1,185 0–2 — — Not published
19112Philadelphia 08,750 0–2 — — Not published
19116Philadelphia 33,65410,865 0–2 — — Not published
19118Philadelphia 9,9784,599 0–2 — — Not published
19119Philadelphia 28,3564,012 0–2 — — Not published
19126Philadelphia 17,4832,435 0–2 — — Not published
19129Philadelphia 11,9374,043 0–2 — — Not published
19150Philadelphia 24,3042,511 0–2 — — Not published
19151Philadelphia 33,2672,195 0–2 — — Not published
19154Philadelphia 33,79615,359 0–2 — — Not published
19192Philadelphia —512 0–2 — — Not published

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

Find an actual space in Philadelphia

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 Philadelphia retail space →
Crexi
Free listings + market data
Browse Philadelphia retail space →
CityFeet
Retail space for lease
Browse Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia County and bars

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 722410 — drinking places (alcoholic beverages). Counts establishments with paid employees. ZBP is published annually with a ~2-year lag.

Fresh county signal. This industry has no clean QCEW series, so the freshest county signal is Census County Business Patterns 2023: 361 establishments and $78M in annual payroll county-wide. This count includes locations in ZIP codes that do not map to a ZCTA, so it can be slightly higher than the sum of the ZIP rows. CBP is annual and slower than QCEW. 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 (1.01 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.