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Anchorage Municipality, AK — Clothing stores Saturation

How many clothing stores 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. 26 ZIP codes analyzed.

Includes: Family clothing stores · General apparel shops. Counted together because official statistics use one 448140 code.

Measured density: Range spans bands — 1.12× the U.S. rate (between 1.12× and 2.25× 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   Anchorage Municipality clothing stores — 112–225% of the U.S. rate

28 clothing stores are counted in Anchorage Municipality — 0.8 per 10,000 people present (residents + daytime workers), 112% of the U.S. rate of 0.7.

On the comparable ZIP set (ZIPs with a published count in every year), the total has fallen 17% between 2015 and 2023 (29 → 24). 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 99501 (Anchorage), 99515 (Anchorage) — well above the national rate. On measured density alone, the lowest-density residential ZIPs with a published count are 99515 (Anchorage), 99501 (Anchorage).

Census County Business Patterns (2023) puts the county-wide count at 32 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: Anchorage Municipality sits at 112% of the U.S. rate for clothing stores. 14 ZIPs with population have no published count (each 0–2 businesses), so the true per-capita rate is between 112% and 225% of the U.S. rate. Why. The highest measured density is in 99501 and 99515; the lowest measured density is in 99515 and 99501.

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

Clothing stores
28–74
published count; upper bound counts each withheld ZIP cell as 2 (23 cells) (2023)
Per 10,000 present
0.8
residents + daytime workers
U.S. average
0.7
per 10,000 present
County index
1.12×
vs. U.S.
Latest year (CBP)
32
2023 — $12M annual payroll
Residents
290,303
17 ZIPs with data
Workers
141,024
jobs located in county

Is the area growing?

Population
289,600
Census PEP, July 1 2024
Change since 2020
−0.4%
−1,305 people
Net migration 2024
+141
international +2,463, domestic −2,322

Anchorage Municipality had an estimated 289,600 residents on July 1, 2024 — 0.4% fewer than in 2020 (−1,305). In the latest year it gained 1,668 people: births minus deaths +1,518, international migration +2,463, domestic migration −2,322. Components are published separately and may not sum exactly.

Census LODES files for this state are incomplete in this release (3090 jobs statewide), so they are not shown.

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

No ZIP had a statistically significant increase.

ZIP losing residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change
99567 Chugiak
−27.0%

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 now groups clothing with clothing accessories (NAICS 45811); a family-clothing-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 clothing stores 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 17% since 2015

Number of clothing stores in Anchorage Municipality 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.

29
2015
27
2018
27
2020
27
2021
23
2022
24
2023

Highest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
99501 Anchorage
730%
99515 Anchorage
558%

Lowest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
99515 Anchorage
558%
99501 Anchorage
730%
Low measured density is not evidence of opportunity. A ZIP with few clothing stores 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 ResidentsWorkersClothing storesIndex
99503Anchorage Employment hub 12,96442,255 4 170%

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

All ZIP codes

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

ZIPNeighborhood ResidentsWorkersClothing stores Per 10kIndexStatus
99501Anchorage 16,17519,146 13 5.0 730% Very high density
99515Anchorage 21,87013,278 11 3.9 558% Very high density
99503Anchorage 12,96442,255 4 1.2 170% High density
99502Anchorage 25,00611,833 0–2 — — Not published
99504Anchorage 42,0935,647 0–2 — — Not published
99505Jber 5,015229 0–2 — — Not published
99506Jber 7,028754 0–2 — — Not published
99507Anchorage 37,3018,212 0–2 — — Not published
99508Anchorage 36,45819,210 0–2 — — Not published
99509Anchorage —112 0–2 — — Not published
99510Anchorage —50 0–2 — — Not published
99511Anchorage —66 0–2 — — Not published
99513Anchorage 012 0–2 — — Not published
99516Anchorage 21,5001,158 0–2 — — Not published
99517Anchorage 16,4862,314 0–2 — — Not published
99518Anchorage 9,76411,640 0–2 — — Not published
99519Anchorage 1,297256 0–2 — — Not published
99520Anchorage —11 0–2 — — Not published
99521Anchorage —7 0–2 — — Not published
99522Anchorage —24 0–2 — — Not published
99523Anchorage —54 0–2 — — Not published
99524Anchorage —150 0–2 — — Not published
99540Indian 46849 0–2 — — Not published
99567Chugiak 6,452780 0–2 — — Not published
99577Eagle River 28,4773,663 0–2 — — Not published
99587Girdwood 1,949600 0–2 — — Not published

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

Find an actual space in Anchorage

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 Anchorage retail space →
Crexi
Free listings + market data
Browse Anchorage retail space →
CityFeet
Retail space for lease
Browse Anchorage 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 Anchorage Municipality and clothing stores

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 448140 — family clothing stores. 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: 32 establishments and $12M 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 (0.69 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.