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Middlesex County, MA — Hotels Saturation

How many hotels 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. 98 ZIP codes analyzed.

Includes: Hotels · Motels · Motor inns. Counted together because official statistics use one 721110 code.

Measured density: Range spans bands — 0.37× the U.S. rate (between 0.37× and 0.78× 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. 76 ZIP cells in this county are withheld, 61 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   Middlesex County hotels — 37–78% of the U.S. rate

109 hotels are counted in Middlesex County — 0.5 per 10,000 people present (residents + daytime workers), 37% of the U.S. rate of 1.4.

On the comparable ZIP set (ZIPs with a published count in every year), the total has risen 9% between 2015 and 2023 (64 → 70). 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 02421 (Lexington), 02466 (Auburndale), 02458 (Newton) — well above the national rate. On measured density alone, the lowest-density residential ZIPs with a published count are 02139 (Cambridge), 01701 (Framingham), 01702 (Framingham).

Census County Business Patterns (2023) puts the county-wide count at 141 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: Middlesex County sits at 37% of the U.S. rate for hotels. 61 ZIPs with population have no published count (each 0–2 businesses), so the true per-capita rate is between 37% and 78% of the U.S. rate. Why. The highest measured density is in 02421 and 02466; the lowest measured density is in 02139 and 01701.

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

Hotels
109–261
published count; upper bound counts each withheld ZIP cell as 2 (76 cells) (2023)
Per 10,000 present
0.5
residents + daytime workers
U.S. average
1.4
per 10,000 present
County index
0.37×
vs. U.S.
Latest year (CBP)
141
2023 — $223M annual payroll
Residents
1,653,842
83 ZIPs with data
Workers
958,530
jobs located in county

Is the area growing?

Population
1,668,956
Census PEP, July 1 2024
Change since 2020
+2.5%
+41,378 people
Net migration 2024
+19,403
international +29,046, domestic −9,643
Jobs located here
944,369
LODES 2022, −0.8% since 2019

Middlesex County had an estimated 1,668,956 residents on July 1, 2024 — 2.5% more than in 2020 (+41,378). In the latest year it gained 24,024 people: births minus deaths +4,525, international migration +29,046, domestic migration −9,643. Components are published separately and may not sum exactly.

944,369 jobs were located in the county in 2022 (−0.8% since 2019), and 822,882 employed residents lived there (−2.2% 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
01432 Ayer
+10.7%
01748 Hopkinton
+10.0%
02149 Everett
+8.5%
ZIP losing residents
2015–19 → 2020–24
Change
01464 Shirley
−8.6%
01821 Billerica
−8.1%
01803 Burlington
−5.0%

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 publishes hotels only combined with other traveler accommodation (NAICS 7211), so a hotels-and-motels-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 hotels 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 9% since 2015

Number of hotels in Middlesex 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.

64
2015
70
2018
81
2020
78
2021
78
2022
70
2023

Highest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
02421 Lexington
305%
02466 Auburndale
172%
02458 Newton
169%
02141 Cambridge
163%
01803 Burlington
109%
01801 Woburn
99%
01752 Marlborough
91%
01742 Concord
90%
02140 Cambridge
84%
02138 Cambridge
82%
01821 Billerica
77%
01760 Natick
76%
01876 Tewksbury
75%
01886 Westford
74%
02145 Somerville
71%

Lowest measured density

ZIP
vs. U.S. average
Index
02139 Cambridge
32%
01701 Framingham
47%
01702 Framingham
63%
02143 Somerville
70%
02145 Somerville
71%
01886 Westford
74%
01876 Tewksbury
75%
01760 Natick
76%
01821 Billerica
77%
02138 Cambridge
82%
02140 Cambridge
84%
01742 Concord
90%
01752 Marlborough
91%
01801 Woburn
99%
01803 Burlington
109%
Low measured density is not evidence of opportunity. A ZIP with few hotels 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 ResidentsWorkersHotelsIndex
01434Devens Employment hub 1,5644,918 3 540%
02142Cambridge Employment hub 4,73731,327 4 142%
02451Waltham Employment hub 17,39359,760 8 123%
02462Newton Lower Falls Employment hub 1,4705,891 0–2 —

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

All ZIP codes

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

ZIPNeighborhood ResidentsWorkersHotels Per 10kIndexStatus
01434Devens 1,5644,918 3 7.5 540% Very high density
02421Lexington 18,08020,781 12 4.2 305% Very high density
02466Auburndale 8,67916,302 4 2.4 172% High density
02458Newton 13,0508,239 4 2.3 169% High density
02141Cambridge 14,51715,363 5 2.3 163% High density
02142Cambridge 4,73731,327 4 2.0 142% Above average
02451Waltham 17,39359,760 8 1.7 123% Above average
01803Burlington 26,27440,471 7 1.5 109% Above average
01801Woburn 41,93947,661 9 1.4 99% Below average
01752Marlborough 41,64743,679 8 1.3 91% Below average
01742Concord 18,44811,358 3 1.2 90% Below average
02140Cambridge 21,2049,129 3 1.2 84% Below average
02138Cambridge 38,50946,771 7 1.1 82% Below average
01821Billerica 30,14315,332 4 1.1 77% Below average
01760Natick 36,78221,689 5 1.0 76% Below average
01876Tewksbury 31,00414,955 4 1.0 75% Below average
01886Westford 24,6909,553 3 1.0 74% Below average
02145Somerville 27,4956,587 3 1.0 71% Below average
02143Somerville 25,51311,442 3 1.0 70% Below average
01702Framingham 39,78912,859 4 0.9 63% Below average
01701Framingham 32,61828,173 3 0.6 47% Far below average
02139Cambridge 40,03357,246 3 0.4 32% Far below average
01431Ashby 3,211224 0–2 — — Not published
01432Ayer 8,5214,132 0–2 — — Not published
01450Groton 11,3561,923 0–2 — — Not published
01460Littleton 10,2806,243 0–2 — — Not published
01463Pepperell 11,6971,887 0–2 — — Not published
01464Shirley 6,9761,571 0–2 — — Not published
01469Townsend 6,8201,363 0–2 — — Not published
01471Groton —360 0–2 — — Not published
01472West Groton —147 0–2 — — Not published
01474West Townsend 2,280106 0–2 — — Not published
01703Framingham —27 0–2 — — Not published
01704Framingham —12 0–2 — — Not published
01718Acton 4047 0–2 — — Not published
01719Boxborough 5,4963,309 0–2 — — Not published
01720Acton 23,52610,629 0–2 — — Not published
01721Ashland 18,8734,438 0–2 — — Not published
01730Bedford 14,70723,516 0–2 — — Not published
01731Hanscom Afb 2,110168 0–2 — — Not published
01741Carlisle 5,239556 0–2 — — Not published
01746Holliston 15,0945,337 0–2 — — Not published
01748Hopkinton 19,35813,167 0–2 — — Not published
01749Hudson 20,0779,145 0–2 — — Not published
01754Maynard 10,7123,080 0–2 — — Not published
01770Sherborn 4,427471 0–2 — — Not published
01773Lincoln 4,8911,992 0–2 — — Not published
01775Stow 7,165957 0–2 — — Not published
01776Sudbury 19,2705,788 0–2 — — Not published
01778Wayland 14,0333,272 0–2 — — Not published
01805Burlington —4,971 0–2 — — Not published
01824Chelmsford 26,65020,094 0–2 — — Not published
01826Dracut 32,6295,452 0–2 — — Not published
01827Dunstable 3,408224 0–2 — — Not published
01850Lowell 17,7401,500 0–2 — — Not published
01851Lowell 33,40313,356 0–2 — — Not published
01852Lowell 37,1449,846 0–2 — — Not published
01853Lowell —406 0–2 — — Not published
01854Lowell 30,0817,284 0–2 — — Not published
01862North Billerica 12,12911,110 0–2 — — Not published
01863North Chelmsford 9,7962,960 0–2 — — Not published
01864North Reading 15,7656,881 0–2 — — Not published
01865Nutting Lake —5 0–2 — — Not published
01866Pinehurst —16 0–2 — — Not published
01867Reading 25,6126,756 0–2 — — Not published
01879Tyngsboro 12,5503,772 0–2 — — Not published
01880Wakefield 27,79314,674 0–2 — — Not published
01887Wilmington 23,33626,779 0–2 — — Not published
01888Woburn —534 0–2 — — Not published
01890Winchester 23,4066,381 0–2 — — Not published
02144Somerville 25,4485,471 0–2 — — Not published
02148Malden 65,90612,471 0–2 — — Not published
02149Everett 50,04514,514 0–2 — — Not published
02153Medford —168 0–2 — — Not published
02155Medford 61,73022,673 0–2 — — Not published
02176Melrose 29,6505,241 0–2 — — Not published
02180Stoneham 23,3557,742 0–2 — — Not published
02238Cambridge —2,153 0–2 — — Not published
02420Lexington 16,2154,413 0–2 — — Not published
02452Waltham 15,8088,200 0–2 — — Not published
02453Waltham 31,59122,576 0–2 — — Not published
02454Waltham —592 0–2 — — Not published
02455North Waltham —34 0–2 — — Not published
02459Newton Center 18,44912,295 0–2 — — Not published
02460Newtonville 10,0992,429 0–2 — — Not published
02461Newton Highlands 6,9752,905 0–2 — — Not published
02462Newton Lower Falls 1,4705,891 0–2 — — Not published
02464Newton Upper Falls 3,8333,819 0–2 — — Not published
02465West Newton 11,6972,691 0–2 — — Not published
02467Chestnut Hill 23,00114,964 0–2 — — Not published
02468Waban 5,773345 0–2 — — Not published
02471Watertown —772 0–2 — — Not published
02472Watertown 35,62017,292 0–2 — — Not published
02474Arlington 28,6423,974 0–2 — — Not published
02475Arlington Heights —49 0–2 — — Not published
02476Arlington 17,7083,887 0–2 — — Not published
02478Belmont 27,1757,481 0–2 — — Not published
02493Weston 11,5793,311 0–2 — — Not published

Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.

Find an actual space in Waltham

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 Waltham retail space →
Crexi
Free listings + market data
Browse Waltham retail space →
CityFeet
Retail space for lease
Browse Waltham 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 Middlesex County and hotels

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 721110 — hotels (except casino hotels) and motels. 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: 141 establishments and $223M 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 (1.38 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.