Why nail salons have almost no statistically low ZIPs

Two Census universes, never added. ZIP Code Business Patterns counts establishments with paid employees. Nonemployer Statistics counts businesses with no paid employees — sole proprietors, owner-only shops, side businesses. A business is in one file or the other. This site shows NES beside the index on county pages and never folds it into the ZIP score.

In the 500 covered counties, Census NES 2024 counts 276,715 nail salons without employees next to 27,506 employer establishments — about 10×. Beauty salons: 672,938 nonemployer vs 68,787 employer, about 10×.

Those one-person shops are invisible to the Poisson test. A ZIP that looks empty on the map can still be full of chairs. That is why nail salons have only 1 statistically low ZIP on the state lists, while restaurants have 1,626. The gap is a measurement limit, not a finding that nails are “saturated everywhere.”

If you are looking at nails, beauty, or child care, read the nonemployer card on the county report before you treat a low employer count as a gap. Then check what is actually open on the street.

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