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Douglas County, NE — 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. 43 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: Range spans bands — 2.40× the U.S. rate (between 2.40× and 2.77× 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. 23 ZIP cells in this county are withheld, 14 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   Douglas County bars — 240–277% of the U.S. rate

184 bars are counted in Douglas County — 2.4 per 10,000 people present (residents + daytime workers), 240% of the U.S. rate of 1.0.

On the comparable ZIP set (ZIPs with a published count in every year), the total has risen 4% between 2015 and 2023 (170 → 177). 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 68108 (Omaha), 68131 (Omaha), 68106 (Omaha) — well above the national rate. On measured density alone, the lowest-density residential ZIPs with a published count are 68022 (Elkhorn), 68116 (Omaha), 68137 (Omaha).

Census County Business Patterns (2023) puts the county-wide count at 192 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: Douglas County sits at 240% of the U.S. rate for bars. 14 ZIPs with population have no published count (each 0–2 businesses), so the true per-capita rate is between 240% and 277% of the U.S. rate. Why. The highest measured density is in 68108 and 68131; the lowest measured density is in 68022 and 68116.

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
184–230
published count; upper bound counts each withheld ZIP cell as 2 (23 cells) (2023)
Per 10,000 present
2.4
residents + daytime workers
U.S. average
1.0
per 10,000 present
County index
2.40×
vs. U.S.
Latest year (CBP)
192
2023 — $40M annual payroll
Residents
591,749
34 ZIPs with data
Workers
333,647
jobs located in county

Is the area growing?

Population
601,158
Census PEP, July 1 2024
Change since 2020
+2.7%
+15,707 people
Net migration 2024
+4,224
international +5,307, domestic −1,083
Jobs located here
350,353
LODES 2022, +0.2% since 2019

Douglas County had an estimated 601,158 residents on July 1, 2024 — 2.7% more than in 2020 (+15,707). In the latest year it gained 7,513 people: births minus deaths +3,283, international migration +5,307, domestic migration −1,083. Components are published separately and may not sum exactly.

350,353 jobs were located in the county in 2022 (+0.2% since 2019), and 283,664 employed residents lived there (−0.6% 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
68007 Bennington
+60.7%
68022 Elkhorn
+45.9%
68064 Valley
+15.6%
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 (no paid employees)

Nonemployer businesses
56
no paid employees (2024)
Receipts
$5.1M
published gross receipts
Receipts per business
$92K
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 — up 4% since 2015

Number of bars in Douglas 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.

170
2015
163
2018
169
2020
174
2021
173
2022
177
2023

Highest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
68108 Omaha
595%
68131 Omaha
573%
68106 Omaha
463%
68134 Omaha
385%
68104 Omaha
384%
68127 Omaha
317%
68144 Omaha
316%
68118 Omaha
304%
68124 Omaha
294%
68107 Omaha
265%
68105 Omaha
215%
68130 Omaha
215%
68164 Omaha
211%
68154 Omaha
194%
68132 Omaha
194%

Lowest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
68022 Elkhorn
70%
68116 Omaha
130%
68137 Omaha
191%
68132 Omaha
194%
68154 Omaha
194%
68164 Omaha
211%
68130 Omaha
215%
68105 Omaha
215%
68107 Omaha
265%
68124 Omaha
294%
68118 Omaha
304%
68144 Omaha
316%
68127 Omaha
317%
68104 Omaha
384%
68134 Omaha
385%
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
68102Omaha Employment hub 9,76727,171 24 1019%
68114Omaha Employment hub 17,59638,908 10 268%
68178Omaha Employment hub 2,1915,128 0–2 —

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
68102Omaha 9,76727,171 24 10.3 1019% Very high density
68108Omaha 14,5784,160 10 6.0 595% Very high density
68131Omaha 14,80911,936 12 5.8 573% Very high density
68106Omaha 21,22417,517 14 4.7 463% Very high density
68134Omaha 28,8239,307 13 3.9 385% Very high density
68104Omaha 36,6734,122 15 3.9 384% Very high density
68127Omaha 20,48421,589 10 3.2 317% Very high density
68144Omaha 25,73217,602 11 3.2 316% Very high density
68118Omaha 9,1697,791 4 3.1 304% Very high density
68124Omaha 15,4829,567 6 3.0 294% Very high density
68114Omaha 17,59638,908 10 2.7 268% Very high density
68107Omaha 31,54011,818 10 2.7 265% Very high density
68105Omaha 22,8079,685 6 2.2 215% High density
68130Omaha 21,72211,958 6 2.2 215% High density
68164Omaha 28,5648,662 7 2.1 211% High density
68154Omaha 24,06033,548 8 2.0 194% High density
68132Omaha 13,9602,728 3 2.0 194% High density
68137Omaha 24,27724,084 7 1.9 191% High density
68116Omaha 34,5017,028 5 1.3 130% Above average
68022Elkhorn 36,53811,432 3 0.7 70% Below average
68007Bennington 19,5361,458 0–2 — — Not published
68010Boys Town 8091,493 0–2 — — Not published
68064Valley 4,0465,105 0–2 — — Not published
68069Waterloo 3,207833 0–2 — — Not published
68101Omaha —36 0–2 — — Not published
68103Omaha —1,167 0–2 — — Not published
68110Omaha 9,2296,825 0–2 — — Not published
68111Omaha 24,2101,452 0–2 — — Not published
68112Omaha 12,0712,585 0–2 — — Not published
68117Omaha 8,2248,170 0–2 — — Not published
68122Omaha 13,3524,459 0–2 — — Not published
68135Omaha 30,5233,310 0–2 — — Not published
68139Omaha —17 0–2 — — Not published
68142Omaha 4,505605 0–2 — — Not published
68145Omaha —535 0–2 — — Not published
68152Omaha 6,7911,524 0–2 — — Not published
68175Omaha —58 0–2 — — Not published
68178Omaha 2,1915,128 0–2 — — Not published
68179Omaha —358 0–2 — — Not published
68182Omaha 74987 0–2 — — Not published
68183Omaha 035 0–2 — — Not published
68197Omaha —247 0–2 — — Not published
68198Omaha —3,730 0–2 — — Not published

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

Find an actual space in Omaha

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 Omaha retail space →
Crexi
Free listings + market data
Browse Omaha retail space →
CityFeet
Retail space for lease
Browse Omaha 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 Douglas 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: 192 establishments and $40M 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.