BizGapMap

Home / Car washes / Virginia / Alexandria city, VA

Alexandria city, VA — Car washes Saturation

How many car washes 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. 10 ZIP codes analyzed.

Includes: Car wash tunnels & bays · Self-serve & automatic washes · Detailing (wash-attached). Counted together because official statistics use one 811192 code.

Not enough published data to rank this market: 10 of 10 ZIP cells are withheld (each 0–2 businesses). The county total is somewhere between 0 and 20.

Why a range: Census does not publish a ZIP-by-industry count when that ZIP has 0–2 businesses. 10 ZIP cells in this county are withheld, 6 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   Alexandria city car washes — 0–128% of the U.S. rate

0 car washes are counted in Alexandria city — 0.0 per 10,000 people present (residents + daytime workers), 0% of the U.S. rate of 0.5.

Measured density: Alexandria city sits at 0% of the U.S. rate for car washes. 6 ZIPs with population have no published count (each 0–2 businesses), so the true per-capita rate is between 0% and 128% of the U.S. rate. Why.

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

Car washes
0–20
published count; upper bound counts each withheld ZIP cell as 2 (10 cells) (2023)
Per 10,000 present
0.0
residents + daytime workers
U.S. average
0.5
per 10,000 present
County index
0.00×
vs. U.S.
Residents
153,467
6 ZIPs with data
Workers
77,493
jobs located in county

Is the area growing?

Population
159,102
Census PEP, July 1 2024
Change since 2020
−0.0%
−42 people
Net migration 2024
+1,425
international +2,784, domestic −1,359
Jobs located here
84,091
LODES 2022, −6.2% since 2019

Alexandria city had an estimated 159,102 residents on July 1, 2024 — 0.0% fewer than in 2020 (−42). In the latest year it gained 2,831 people: births minus deaths +1,450, international migration +2,784, domestic migration −1,359. Components are published separately and may not sum exactly.

84,091 jobs were located in the county in 2022 (−6.2% since 2019), and 73,118 employed residents lived there (−3.3% 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 →

Nonemployer businesses

Not shown. Census publishes only a broader group that also includes oil-change and other auto service shops, so a car-wash-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.

Basemap:
Under 50% 50–100% 100–150% 150–250% 250%+ 0–2 (not published) / no data ZIP total (dot size)

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, tiles by OpenFreeMap.

White dots are ZIP totals from the official Census count — the bigger the dot, the more car washes in that ZIP.

Market trend

Number of car washes in Alexandria city 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.

0
2015
0
2018
0
2020
0
2021
0
2022
0
2023

Highest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index

Lowest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
Low measured density is not evidence of opportunity. A ZIP with few car washes 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.

All ZIP codes

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

ZIPNeighborhood ResidentsWorkersCar washes Per 10kIndexStatus
22301Alexandria 13,6653,082 0–2 — — Not published
22302Alexandria 18,0263,829 0–2 — — Not published
22304Alexandria 48,61317,983 0–2 — — Not published
22305Alexandria 17,2144,577 0–2 — — Not published
22311Alexandria 19,3373,749 0–2 — — Not published
22313Alexandria —480 0–2 — — Not published
22314Alexandria 36,61244,273 0–2 — — Not published
22320Alexandria —737 0–2 — — Not published
22332Alexandria —180 0–2 — — Not published
22350Alexandria —423 0–2 — — Not published

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

Find an actual space in Alexandria

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 Alexandria retail space →
Crexi
Free listings + market data
Browse Alexandria retail space →
CityFeet
Retail space for lease
Browse Alexandria 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 Alexandria city and car washes

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 811192 — car washes. Counts establishments with paid employees. ZBP is published annually with a ~2-year lag.

Fresh county signal. No quarterly or annual county update was available 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 (0.49 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.