What is Daytime Population?
The number of people in an area during standard business hours, including commuters and workers.
Definition
Daytime population measures the count of people present in a geographic area during working hours (typically 8am-5pm), which differs significantly from the residential population. It includes workers who commute into the area, visitors, and residents who remain during the day, while excluding residents who commute elsewhere. In commercial real estate, daytime population is critical for concepts dependent on weekday business-hours traffic, such as lunch-driven restaurants, coffee shops, banks, and professional services. A downtown business district may have a residential population of 5,000 but a daytime population of 80,000, making it ideal for fast-casual restaurants despite low residential density. Esri provides daytime population estimates as part of their demographic data packages.
Example
A coffee shop evaluating a location in a suburban office park would prioritize daytime population over residential population, since most customers will be office workers during business hours.
Related Terms
Learn more about daytime population in practice
Demographics Guide