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San Francisco County, CA — Day care Saturation

How many day care 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. 38 ZIP codes analyzed.

Includes: Child day care centers · Preschools & pre-K · Family home day care · After-school programs. Counted together because official statistics use one 624410 code.

Measured density: High density — 1.99× the U.S. rate (between 1.99× and 2.01× 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. 14 ZIP cells in this county are withheld, 3 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   San Francisco County day care — 199–201% of the U.S. rate

482 day care are counted in San Francisco County — 4.0 per 10,000 people present (residents + daytime workers), 199% of the U.S. rate of 2.0.

On the comparable ZIP set (ZIPs with a published count in every year), the total has risen 32% between 2015 and 2023 (358 → 473). 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 94112 (San Francisco), 94116 (San Francisco), 94118 (San Francisco) — well above the national rate. On measured density alone, the lowest-density residential ZIPs with a published count are 94109 (San Francisco), 94117 (San Francisco), 94133 (San Francisco).

Census County Business Patterns (2023) puts the county-wide count at 489 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: San Francisco County sits at 199% of the U.S. rate for day care. 3 ZIPs with population have no published count (each 0–2 businesses), so the true per-capita rate is between 199% and 201% of the U.S. rate. Why. The highest measured density is in 94112 and 94116; the lowest measured density is in 94109 and 94117.

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

Day care
482–510
published count; upper bound counts each withheld ZIP cell as 2 (14 cells) (2023)
Per 10,000 present
4.0
residents + daytime workers
U.S. average
2.0
per 10,000 present
County index
1.99×
vs. U.S.
Latest year (CBP)
489
2023 — $211M annual payroll
Residents
830,479
27 ZIPs with data
Workers
727,248
jobs located in county

Is the area growing?

Population
827,526
Census PEP, July 1 2024
Change since 2020
−5.4%
−47,300 people
Net migration 2024
+7,552
international +13,146, domestic −5,594
Jobs located here
748,126
LODES 2022, −3.0% since 2019

San Francisco County had an estimated 827,526 residents on July 1, 2024 — 5.4% fewer than in 2020 (−47,300). In the latest year it gained 8,375 people: births minus deaths +818, international migration +13,146, domestic migration −5,594. Components are published separately and may not sum exactly.

748,126 jobs were located in the county in 2022 (−3.0% since 2019), and 438,358 employed residents lived there (−9.1% 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
94158 San Francisco
+33.8%
94102 San Francisco
+14.6%
94103 San Francisco
+13.9%
ZIP losing residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change
94108 San Francisco
−20.1%
94117 San Francisco
−18.9%
94132 San Francisco
−14.6%

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
1,896
no paid employees (2024)
Receipts
$65.0M
published gross receipts
Receipts per business
$34K
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 day care 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 — up 32% since 2015

Number of day care in San Francisco 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.

358
2015
393
2018
389
2020
392
2021
417
2022
473
2023

Highest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
94112 San Francisco
490%
94116 San Francisco
402%
94118 San Francisco
363%
94134 San Francisco
315%
94127 San Francisco
296%
94121 San Francisco
287%
94158 San Francisco
274%
94122 San Francisco
273%
94124 San Francisco
264%
94131 San Francisco
248%
94115 San Francisco
247%
94110 San Francisco
206%
94132 San Francisco
182%
94114 San Francisco
168%
94123 San Francisco
136%

Lowest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
94109 San Francisco
73%
94117 San Francisco
93%
94133 San Francisco
105%
94102 San Francisco
124%
94123 San Francisco
136%
94114 San Francisco
168%
94132 San Francisco
182%
94110 San Francisco
206%
94115 San Francisco
247%
94131 San Francisco
248%
94124 San Francisco
264%
94122 San Francisco
273%
94158 San Francisco
274%
94121 San Francisco
287%
94127 San Francisco
296%
Low measured density is not evidence of opportunity. A ZIP with few day care 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 ResidentsWorkersDay careIndex
94108San Francisco Employment hub 11,30527,567 12 236%
94107San Francisco Employment hub 31,82377,106 18 126%
94103San Francisco Employment hub 34,96486,959 19 119%
94105San Francisco Employment hub 13,861127,563 4 25%
94104San Francisco Destination 49882,128 0–2 —
94111San Francisco Destination 4,57982,356 0–2 —

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

All ZIP codes

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

ZIPNeighborhood ResidentsWorkersDay care Per 10kIndexStatus
94112San Francisco 79,2776,382 82 9.9 490% Very high density
94116San Francisco 43,7915,596 38 8.2 402% Very high density
94118San Francisco 39,13011,269 33 7.4 363% Very high density
94129San Francisco 3,8366,891 5 6.9 338% Very high density
94134San Francisco 38,6333,956 26 6.4 315% Very high density
94127San Francisco 20,2882,758 13 6.0 296% Very high density
94121San Francisco 41,9955,144 26 5.8 287% Very high density
94158San Francisco 11,3149,763 9 5.6 274% Very high density
94122San Francisco 55,8197,566 33 5.5 273% Very high density
94124San Francisco 34,47520,546 24 5.4 264% Very high density
94131San Francisco 28,5042,519 15 5.0 248% High density
94115San Francisco 32,62918,448 21 5.0 247% High density
94108San Francisco 11,30527,567 12 4.8 236% High density
94110San Francisco 66,86528,989 34 4.2 206% High density
94132San Francisco 26,8595,704 11 3.7 182% High density
94114San Francisco 33,02010,046 13 3.4 168% High density
94123San Francisco 24,0549,873 8 2.8 136% Above average
94107San Francisco 31,82377,106 18 2.6 126% Above average
94102San Francisco 35,97631,203 13 2.5 124% Above average
94103San Francisco 34,96486,959 19 2.4 119% Above average
94133San Francisco 23,80418,304 7 2.1 105% Above average
94117San Francisco 36,19812,122 8 1.9 93% Below average
94109San Francisco 54,55325,710 10 1.5 73% Below average
94105San Francisco 13,861127,563 4 0.5 25% Far below average
94104San Francisco 49882,128 0–2 — — Not published
94111San Francisco 4,57982,356 0–2 — — Not published
94119San Francisco —19 0–2 — — Not published
94120San Francisco —288 0–2 — — Not published
94125San Francisco —72 0–2 — — Not published
94126San Francisco —101 0–2 — — Not published
94130San Francisco 2,429780 0–2 — — Not published
94139San Francisco —78 0–2 — — Not published
94141San Francisco —53 0–2 — — Not published
94143San Francisco —13,141 0–2 — — Not published
94147San Francisco —20 0–2 — — Not published
94159San Francisco —4 0–2 — — Not published
94164San Francisco —34 0–2 — — Not published
94188San Francisco 031 0–2 — — Not published

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

Find an actual space in San Francisco

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 San Francisco retail space →
Crexi
Free listings + market data
Browse San Francisco retail space →
CityFeet
Retail space for lease
Browse San Francisco 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 San Francisco County and day care

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 624410 — child day care services. 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: 489 establishments and $211M 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 (2.03 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.