Queries per campus:2 — keyword "smoke shop" and keyword "vape shop"
Search radius:1,609 meters (1 statute mile)
Total API calls:5,328 (2 queries × 2,664 campuses)
Deduplication:Results deduplicated by Google Place ID within each campus (a shop found by both queries is counted once per campus). Results are not deduplicated across campuses — a shop within 1 mile of two campuses counts toward both, reflecting actual student access from each campus.
State totals:Sum of per-campus shop counts for all campuses in the state.
Ratio calculation:State total shops ÷ state total campuses queried.
NAME FILTER
Purpose:Remove false positives (restaurants, auto shops, etc.) from API results while retaining all smoke/vape/tobacco retail locations.
Filter impact:Removed 41.1% of raw API results (7,698 of 18,714 raw results at 1-mile radius). Retained: 11,016 shops.
KEY FINDINGS
11,016 unique smoke/vape shops found within 1 mile of college campuses nationally.
All 51 jurisdictions (50 states + DC) have campus shop-exposure data — zero exceptions.
National average: 4.17 shops per campus within 1-mile walking distance. 76.2% of campuses (1,999 of 2,625) have at least one shop within 1 mile.
This dataset does not exist anywhere else. No federal agency, advocacy group, or research institution has mapped retail N₂O access points to student populations at this scale.
STATE RANKINGS — TOP 10 BY SHOP-TO-CAMPUS RATIO
RANK
STATE
CAMPUSES
SHOPS (1 MI)
RATIO
HIGHEST-EXPOSURE CAMPUS
1
New York
171
1,566
9.16
CUNY Bernard M Baruch College (65)
2
District of Columbia
10
89
8.90
Strayer University-Global Region (21)
3
Nevada
12
81
6.75
University of Nevada-Las Vegas (17)
4
New Jersey
53
338
6.38
Hudson County Community College (34)
5
Idaho
11
63
5.73
Northwest Nazarene University (10)
6
Rhode Island
12
68
5.67
Johnson & Wales University-Providence (15)
7
Connecticut
24
133
5.54
University of Connecticut-Stamford (16)
8
Florida
91
489
5.37
Miami Dade College (21)
9
Tennessee
57
299
5.25
Galen Health Institutes-Nashville (25)
10
Pennsylvania
123
644
5.24
Thomas Jefferson University (48)
National
2,625
10,939
4.17
50 states + DC
LIMITATIONS
Google Places API returns up to 60 results per query (3 pages of 20), ranked by prominence. Dense urban areas may undercount actual shops.
Name filter is keyword-based. Some edge cases may pass through (e.g., a cigar lounge that doesn’t sell N₂O) or be excluded (e.g., a shop with an unusual name).
Campus coordinates reflect institutional address, not campus boundary. Actual campus perimeter may extend the effective search area beyond the reported coordinate.
“Within 1 mile” = within 1,609 meters of the IPEDS-reported campus coordinate, not within 1 mile of any campus building.
DATASET AVAILABILITY
Raw data available to verified researchers, legislative staff, and journalists on request. The complete dataset includes per-campus shop lists with business names and Google Place IDs for all 2,664 campuses.
