Zip Code Demographics Based on US Census Data

Developing a marketing plan for a business is much easier when you have access to quality market research data. But not all start up businesses can afford to have primary market research done specifically for them. The US Census Bureau has plenty of information available (paid for by the US taxpayers) but it can be tedious to dig through their web site and ferret out exactly what you need.

ZIPskinny is a new web site that takes US Census data and organizes it by the zip codes that you specify. Demographic information is summarized conveniently as shown below.



In addition, key demographic information is displayed in colorful charts for easy visual interpretation. And you can easily compare the demographic data for up to 20 zip codes at one time.



The product is currently in beta but seems to work quite well. There are disclaimers on the site explaining the limitations of the data:

"Additionally, we wish to point out that there are certain important limitations to the data presented here. Because many of the measurements are based on sample data, certain results may be skewed in some cases, especially when the ZIP code area in question represents a very small sample. Please bear in mind that ZIP codes are not uniform population units. They were invented for mail delivery, not population comparisons."

But some data is always better than no data! So this can be an excellent starting point for developing your business marketing plan.