WHY WOULD I WANT ZIP CODE DATA?

Let's say you're looking to locate a small business in San Jose. Getting data for the whole city is not going to do you much good because market areas are determined by specific local needs and criteria. Therefore, you need data for only a certain part of the city such as data for a certain district or neighborhood. This is where zip code-level data are most valuable.

Perhaps you want to develop a survey mailing database based on zip code-level statistics. Again, zip code projections are the best data because city-wide statistics will not accurately portray the area in which you are interested.

If you need data for areas smaller than a whole city you have two choices: zip code data and census tract data. Both are available from the Census Bureau, online, using American Factfinder. However, the Census Bureau data does not forecast out to 2035 as the ABAG's Zip Code and Census Tract projections do. A lot of things might have changed since the last Census. Thus, ABAG's Projections 2007 by Zip Code is a valuable and unique resource.