Tools · Market Area Snapshot

Know your trade area before you spend a dollar in it.

Enter a dealership address or ZIP and a radius. We pull the latest U.S. Census data for every ZIP in that area and turn it into the numbers a media plan should start from: households, income, vehicles per household, growth, and who is moving in. Free. No email required.

Trade area snapshot

Market snapshot

 
People living in the trade area
 
Households across ZIP codes
 
Median household income for the area
 
Vehicles per household, about vehicles in total
ZIP boundaries and place names from U.S. Census Bureau TIGERweb. Tiers are quartiles of the ZIPs in this trade area, so they reset for every market.
Reading the market
Households and income

Who can afford what you sell.

Vehicles

How many cars each driveway holds.

People

Who lives here, and how old they are.

Movement and growth

Who is arriving, and where the market is headed.

ZIP by ZIP

Every ZIP inside the radius, ranked by households. Click a column to sort.

ZIPMilesPeopleHouseholdsMedian incomeVehicles / HHHH $150K+Moved in past yr

Where the numbers come from

Every figure is requested live from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-year estimates for each ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) whose boundary falls inside the radius. Nothing is modeled by MiaVita except the two lines that say so.

  • Median income is computed from the combined income distribution of all ZIPs, not averaged from ZIP medians. Median age and median home value are population- and owner-weighted averages of ZIP medians.
  • Vehicles in total counts 1, 2, 3 and 4+ vehicle households (4+ counted as 4.3). Estimated annual dealer transactions applies a national rate of roughly 12% of vehicles in operation changing hands through a dealer each year, new plus dealer-retailed used, derived from NADA and Cox Automotive volumes against S&P Global Mobility's vehicles-in-operation count.
  • Population change compares the latest 5-year estimate with the 2016-2020 estimate, so it reflects roughly four years of change between survey midpoints.
  • ZIP boundaries are approximations of postal ZIPs. Distances are from the center point you entered to each ZIP's geographic center.

What this can't show you

Demographics are half of a market analysis. The other half is registrations: which brands and models the people in these ZIPs actually bought, which dealers sold them, and where your store is under-indexing against its own market. That data is licensed from S&P Global Mobility and Urban Science and it is the core of a full MiaVita market analysis.

If you want the other half for this trade area, send us the snapshot link. We'll come back with brand share, competitor pump-in and pump-out, and the lanes where share is winnable.

Request the Full Market Analysis
Questions dealers ask

About trade areas and this data.

What is a dealership trade area or primary market area?

A dealership's trade area is the geography that produces most of its sales and service customers. Manufacturers formalize it as a Primary Market Area (PMA), Area of Primary Responsibility (APR), or Area of Influence (AOI): a set of census tracts or ZIP codes assigned to the dealer, usually those closest to the store. Most franchised dealers draw the majority of retail sales from within 10 to 20 miles, which is why this tool defaults to 15.

Where does the data come from?

Every figure comes from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates, requested live from the Census Bureau API for each ZIP Code Tabulation Area whose boundary falls within the radius you choose. Population change compares the latest 5-year estimate with the 2016-2020 estimate. Nothing is modeled by MiaVita except where the page says so.

What can't this tool show?

It cannot show new-vehicle registrations, brand market share, competitor sales, or your dealership's sales effectiveness. Those come from registration data licensed from S&P Global Mobility (Polk) or Urban Science and are part of a full MiaVita market analysis. The snapshot shows the people and households in the market, not the vehicles they bought.

How should a dealer use trade area demographics in a marketing plan?

Use households and vehicles per household to size the opportunity, income distribution to match the brand and inventory mix to the market, new-mover and growth figures to decide whether conquest and new-mover programs are worth funding, and commute patterns to weigh audio and video channels. Then compare those figures with registration data to see where the store is under-indexing.

Is a 15-mile radius right for every store?

No. Urban stores in dense markets often draw most sales from inside 5 to 8 miles. Rural and highway-dependent stores can pull from 30 miles or more. Run the snapshot at two or three radii and compare where the households are, then check against your own sales-by-ZIP report from the DMS. If 70% of your sales come from ZIPs inside the radius, the radius is about right.

Next Step

Put your market on the board.

A full MiaVita market analysis adds registration data to what you see here: brand share by ZIP, competitor pump-in and pump-out, and a modeled share projection for a 90-day pilot. Before a dollar is spent.