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From 2018 onward, ZIP Code Business Patterns publishes an industry count only at 3 or more establishments in that ZIP. A missing cell is 0, 1, or 2. Treating it as zero was a bug this site used to have; it does not anymore.
Why Census hides 1 and 2. Small counts can identify a specific business. The published file therefore omits those cells. 2015 still showed 1–2; 2018 and later do not. A 2015→2023 drop that uses the older file as zero is often fake.
On this site a withheld cell is labelled 0–2, left out of rankings, and left out of year-to-year bars. A derived remainder (parent total minus published siblings) is marked ~ and only used when exactly one child is missing.
That is a trust rule, not a footnote. If the map showed “0 businesses” on a ZIP where Census refused to say, a reader would plan on a number nobody published.
When a row says 0–2, look at the parent industry on the county report, then verify on the street. Do not treat the ZIP as empty and do not treat it as served.
Cite: BizGapMap, “0–2 is not zero”, https://bizgapmap.com/stories/zero-to-two-is-not-zero/. Census ZBP 2023, ACS 2024 5-year. Supply counts, not advice. Reuse and CSV →
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.