Local Density Lab guide

Start with the sample

Open the sample: restaurants across California counties and building services across states, with seven years of invented numbers. It works offline and needs no key.

Add your Census key

The Census gives its business counts free to anyone with a key. Get yours from the Census website, then paste it in Settings. Without a key the Lab explains this and links to Settings. Desktop uses your key only to ask the Census.

Save a search and get the numbers

1. 1

   Pick an industry

   Choose from the short list or type a NAICS code of 2 to 6 digits, such as 722511 for full-service restaurants.

2. 2

   Pick the places

   All US states, or the counties of one state.

3. 3

   Get the numbers

   The Lab shows the request count and time first. Desktop asks the Census once per year, about every 1.5 seconds.

The two views

• Places: one year ranked by establishments, with share of the places shown, staff per location, pay per employee and change since the first saved year. A place that started under 10 locations is flagged.
• Over time: establishments per year for the biggest places, the total, and the places that grew and shrank most by percent (only those with 10 or more at the start).

Honest limits

• Counts are locations with paid staff, not people and not every business.
• The free table has no population, so nothing is per person.
• The Census withholds some counts to protect privacy. Those places show a dash, not zero.
• US only. The latest year depends on what the Census has published.