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Plymouth County, MA — Fast food Saturation

How many fast food 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. 46 ZIP codes analyzed.

Includes: Fast food · Quick-service restaurants · Takeout & delivery counters · Pizza delivery · Sandwich & burger chains. Counted together because official statistics use one 722513 code.

Measured density: Below average — 0.85× the U.S. rate (between 0.85× and 0.88× 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. 20 ZIP cells in this county are withheld, 7 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

Below the U.S. rate   Plymouth County fast food — 85–88% of the U.S. rate

351 fast food are counted in Plymouth County — 5.7 per 10,000 people present (residents + daytime workers), 85% of the U.S. rate of 6.7.

On the comparable ZIP set (ZIPs with a published count in every year), the total has risen 20% between 2015 and 2023 (288 → 347). 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 02339 (Hanover), 02571 (Wareham), 02370 (Rockland) — well above the national rate. On measured density alone, the lowest-density residential ZIPs with a published count are 02332 (Duxbury), 02302 (Brockton), 02347 (Lakeville).

BLS QCEW puts the latest county-wide count (2026 Q1) at 388 establishments, the freshest available signal.

Measured density: Plymouth County sits at 85% of the U.S. rate for fast food. 7 ZIPs with population have no published count (each 0–2 businesses), so the true per-capita rate is between 85% and 88% of the U.S. rate. Why. The highest measured density is in 02339 and 02571; the lowest measured density is in 02332 and 02302.

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

Fast food
351–391
published count; upper bound counts each withheld ZIP cell as 2 (20 cells) (2023)
Per 10,000 present
5.7
residents + daytime workers
U.S. average
6.7
per 10,000 present
County index
0.85×
vs. U.S.
Latest quarter (QCEW)
388
2026 Q1 — county total
Residents
530,039
33 ZIPs with data
Workers
179,501
jobs located in county

Is the area growing?

Population
542,090
Census PEP, July 1 2024
Change since 2020
+2.6%
+13,636 people
Net migration 2024
+4,321
international +3,611, domestic +710
Jobs located here
192,454
LODES 2022, −1.3% since 2019

Plymouth County had an estimated 542,090 residents on July 1, 2024 — 2.6% more than in 2020 (+13,636). In the latest year it gained 4,283 people: births minus deaths −32, international migration +3,611, domestic migration +710. Components are published separately and may not sum exactly.

192,454 jobs were located in the county in 2022 (−1.3% since 2019), and 271,932 employed residents lived there (−0.4% 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
02302 Brockton
+13.2%
02301 Brockton
+8.7%
02770 Rochester
+7.4%
ZIP losing residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change
02324 Bridgewater
−6.3%
02045 Hull
−3.0%
02341 Hanson
−2.2%

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
64
no paid employees (2024)
Receipts
$3.8M
published gross receipts
Receipts per business
$60K
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 fast food 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 20% since 2015

Number of fast food in Plymouth 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.

288
2015
321
2018
313
2020
317
2021
331
2022
347
2023

Highest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
02339 Hanover
149%
02571 Wareham
146%
02370 Rockland
119%
02301 Brockton
115%
02739 Mattapoisett
101%
02364 Kingston
99%
02359 Pembroke
97%
02738 Marion
96%
02330 Carver
95%
02050 Marshfield
94%
02351 Abington
86%
02061 Norwell
86%
02333 East Bridgewater
86%
02360 Plymouth
83%
02382 Whitman
73%

Lowest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
02332 Duxbury
52%
02302 Brockton
53%
02347 Lakeville
56%
02043 Hingham
58%
02379 West Bridgewater
64%
02341 Hanson
66%
02346 Middleboro
69%
02045 Hull
70%
02324 Bridgewater
73%
02066 Scituate
73%
02382 Whitman
73%
02360 Plymouth
83%
02333 East Bridgewater
86%
02061 Norwell
86%
02351 Abington
86%
Low measured density is not evidence of opportunity. A ZIP with few fast food 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 = fast food per 10,000 people present (residents + 0.5×workers) ÷ the U.S. average. 100% = exactly average.

ZIPNeighborhood ResidentsWorkersFast food Per 10kIndexStatus
02538East Wareham 4,0741,215 8 17.1 256% Very high density
02339Hanover 14,8458,590 19 9.9 149% Above average
02571Wareham 11,2586,295 14 9.7 146% Above average
02370Rockland 17,7017,495 17 7.9 119% Above average
02301Brockton 68,96925,583 63 7.7 115% Above average
02739Mattapoisett 6,6341,501 5 6.8 101% Above average
02364Kingston 14,0275,128 11 6.6 99% Below average
02359Pembroke 18,3826,589 14 6.5 97% Below average
02738Marion 5,3101,807 4 6.4 96% Below average
02330Carver 11,7121,694 8 6.4 95% Below average
02050Marshfield 25,9635,275 18 6.3 94% Below average
02351Abington 17,0534,086 11 5.8 86% Below average
02061Norwell 11,36112,237 10 5.7 86% Below average
02333East Bridgewater 14,4012,685 9 5.7 86% Below average
02360Plymouth 63,68925,121 42 5.5 83% Below average
02382Whitman 15,2952,197 8 4.9 73% Below average
02066Scituate 19,0992,974 10 4.9 73% Below average
02324Bridgewater 25,7046,335 14 4.8 73% Below average
02045Hull 10,1381,022 5 4.7 70% Below average
02346Middleboro 24,5057,165 13 4.6 69% Below average
02341Hanson 10,5421,693 5 4.4 66% Below average
02379West Bridgewater 7,7088,128 5 4.2 64% Below average
02043Hingham 24,28318,398 13 3.9 58% Below average
02347Lakeville 11,9442,994 5 3.7 56% Below average
02302Brockton 36,4176,569 14 3.5 53% Below average
02332Duxbury 16,1852,508 6 3.4 52% Below average
02018Accord —17 0–2 — — Not published
02020Brant Rock —147 0–2 — — Not published
02041Green Harbor —32 0–2 — — Not published
02047Humarock 18235 0–2 — — Not published
02051Marshfield Hills —47 0–2 — — Not published
02059North Marshfield —4 0–2 — — Not published
02060North Scituate —83 0–2 — — Not published
02303Brockton —423 0–2 — — Not published
02327Bryantville —17 0–2 — — Not published
02331Duxbury —138 0–2 — — Not published
02338Halifax 7,7481,067 0–2 — — Not published
02345Manomet —255 0–2 — — Not published
02358North Pembroke —44 0–2 — — Not published
02361Plymouth —59 0–2 — — Not published
02362Plymouth —84 0–2 — — Not published
02366South Carver 2643 0–2 — — Not published
02367Plympton 2,9351,289 0–2 — — Not published
02558Onset 1,734193 0–2 — — Not published
02576West Wareham 4,1681,183 0–2 — — Not published
02770Rochester 5,809447 0–2 — — Not published

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

Find an actual space in Brockton

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 Brockton retail space →
Crexi
Free listings + market data
Browse Brockton retail space →
CityFeet
Retail space for lease
Browse Brockton 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 Plymouth County and fast food

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 722513 — limited-service restaurants. Counts establishments with paid employees. ZBP is published annually with a ~2-year lag.

Fresh county signal. BLS QCEW (quarterly) is newer than ZBP — 2026 Q1 shows 388 establishments county-wide 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 (6.67 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.