Business Survivability in Pittsburgh, Atlanta
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Pittsburgh is an Eye Care Center with a 83.5% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average.
Quick Summary
- Survivability Score: the projected chance a business type lasts two or more years at a specific address
- Best business: an Eye Care Center in Pittsburgh (83.5% average survival rate, 90.0% at best locations)
- Neighborhood rank: #11 of 56 neighborhoods in and around Atlanta
- Neighborhood average: 80.3% two-year survival across the business types ranked here
- Coverage: This ranking carries one row per business type and neighborhood. Its score is the projected chance of lasting two or more years, averaged across the price points StreetSpring scores separately in the tool (most types have 5). The 10 business types here are base types; the tool offers 500+ business types, counting each type at each of its price points.
- Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data
- Detailed methodology
Last reviewed: October 2026 by Robert Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring
In this article:
- Summary
- Is Pittsburgh a good place to start a business?
- How to find the best location
- Best businesses to open
- How much money could a business make?
- What businesses should open next?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Summary
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Pittsburgh is an Eye Care Center with a 83.5% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a 90.0% chance; next is an Acupuncture Clinic with a 79.1% chance, followed by a Psychiatry or Psychology Practice with a 78.9% chance.
Is Pittsburgh a good place to start a business?
StreetSpring ranks Pittsburgh #11 of 56 neighborhoods in and around Atlanta, with an average Survivability Score of 80.3% across the business types ranked there.
- At its best addresses in Pittsburgh, the top-ranked business type scores 6.5 points above its own average in the neighborhood.
- However, those same business types at the weakest addresses in Pittsburgh can score considerably below average. Even the most in-demand concept in Pittsburgh will struggle if it opens at the wrong address.
- A 90.6% employment rate in Pittsburgh means a large share of local consumers have steady income: a strong underlying condition for discretionary spending businesses.
Employment and housing vacancy figures sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey.
How can you find the best location to open a business in Pittsburgh?
StreetSpring scores survivability at the exact address level in Pittsburgh, so you can compare two storefronts on the same block before committing to a lease. StreetSpring's 2026 model ranks this area #1 in Pittsburgh for an Eye Care Center:
StreetSpring's 2026 model identifies this area as the highest-survivability location for an Eye Care Center in Pittsburgh. StreetSpring's survivability scores are updated regularly, so the most accurate prediction for your exact storefront is always available in the live tool. The model evaluates hundreds of factors, from primary and secondary competition to forecasted spend, site accessibility, and local market share potential.
Check if this location is still available →
What are the best businesses to open in Pittsburgh?
| # | Business type | Chance of lasting two or more years at a good address |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eye Care Center | 89.2% |
| 2 | Acupuncture Clinic | 88.7% |
| 3 | Mental Health Clinic | 88.7% |
| 4 | Dermatology Clinic | 88.7% |
| 8 | Veterinary Clinic | 87.0% |
| 9 | Dance Club | 85.6% |
| 10 | Day Care Center | 85.1% |
| 11 | Chicken Shop | 84.6% |
| 12 | Salad Shop | 84.6% |
| 13 | Cosmetics Shop | 84.6% |
Ties at a good address: Acupuncture Clinic, Mental Health Clinic and Dermatology Clinic are tied; Chicken Shop, Salad Shop and Cosmetics Shop are tied. A tie is a tie: the rank column is the published file's order, which looks at the average and the best address next.
The rank column is the published file's rank within this place; a skipped number is a business type the file ranks here that this list leaves out to keep any one business family from filling it.
Highest Survivability in Pittsburgh
- #1 Eye Care Center is ranked #1 for top businesses to open in Pittsburgh: 83.5% chance on average, best at 90.0%, challenging at 75.6%.
- #2 Acupuncture Clinic: 79.1% on average across Pittsburgh; best at 89.6%, challenging at 63.6%.
- #3 Opening a Psychiatry or Psychology Practice in Pittsburgh shows 78.9% average survivability. Top locations reach 89.6%; lower-end sites show 63.6%.
- #4 Dermatology Clinic (Ranked #4): 78.8% average in Pittsburgh. Best-case storefronts: 89.6%. Challenging locations: 63.6%.
- #8 Veterinary Clinic is ranked #8 for top businesses to open in Pittsburgh: 83.3% chance on average, best at 88.3%, challenging at 74.7%.
Strong Performers in Pittsburgh
- #9 Dance Club: 81.7% on average across Pittsburgh; best at 86.0%, challenging at 73.8%.
- #10 Opening a Day Care Center in Pittsburgh shows 81.3% average survivability. Top locations reach 85.6%; lower-end sites show 75.2%.
- #11 Chicken Shop (Ranked #11): 82.1% average in Pittsburgh. Best-case storefronts: 85.0%. Challenging locations: 76.9%.
- #12 Salad Shop is ranked #12 for top businesses to open in Pittsburgh: 82.1% chance on average, best at 85.0%, challenging at 76.9%.
- #13 Cosmetics Shop: 81.8% on average across Pittsburgh; best at 84.6%, challenging at 76.0%.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Eye Care Center: See how this compares to other cities →
- Acupuncture Clinic: See how this compares to other cities →
- Mental Health Clinic: See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in Pittsburgh make?
Best location vs. average location
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, choosing an address that maximizes your Revenue Capture Score in Pittsburgh starts with the Revenue Capture Score, the most important factor in choosing a location: StreetSpring's estimate of the revenue a business can capture at that address.
How StreetSpring calculates location value
- Location fit is business-type-specific: a spot that's ideal for a coffee shop may underperform for a nail salon at the same address.
- The right location can make a business; the wrong one can break it.
- Compare the Revenue Capture Score of each shortlisted address first: it is the top factor in choosing a location, and it estimates the revenue a business can capture there.
- StreetSpring's precision goes beyond the neighborhood: it scores survivability at the exact address for every major brick-and-mortar business category.
What businesses should open next in Pittsburgh?
The top businesses to open next in Pittsburgh:
- Eye Care Centers: 83.5% average survival rate, 90.0% at the best address
- Acupuncture Clinics: 79.1% average survival rate
- Mental Health Clinics: 78.9% average survival rate
StreetSpring's survivability scores are updated regularly, so the most accurate prediction for your exact storefront is always available in the live tool. Every prediction draws on a dataset of millions of business openings, closures, and lifecycle events across the U.S. StreetSpring scores 500+ business types: 153 base business types, most of them at 5 price points, which is 569 type-and-price combinations you can choose in the tool. Pittsburgh's 90.6% employment rate and 13.3% housing vacancy rate are two of the Census characteristics the model reads when it ranks business types here. StreetSpring regularly updates survivability scores for available locations: check the live tool now to see which storefronts in Pittsburgh are currently available and how they score.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Related Articles:
- See the Atlanta Business Survivability Rankings
- See the Atlanta Neighborhood Survivability Rankings
- Explore Eye Care Center survivability across Atlanta neighborhoods
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Pittsburgh.
What type of business should you rent your Pittsburgh storefront to?
The analysis is clear: in Pittsburgh, Eye Care Centers, Acupuncture Clinics, and Mental Health Clinics consistently score highest on survivability, giving landlords the best chance of retaining tenants for two or more years.
- The right location can make a business; the wrong one can break it.
- StreetSpring's precision goes beyond the neighborhood: it scores survivability at the exact address for every major brick-and-mortar business category. With StreetSpring, you can rank every potential tenant type by survivability score at your property address before committing to a lease.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in Atlanta Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Pittsburgh storefront to an Eye Care Center?
According to our 2026 survivability model, an Eye Care Center leads all business categories for Pittsburgh landlords: 90.0% at the best addresses and 75.6% at the most challenging ones in this neighborhood.
- StreetSpring's precision goes beyond the neighborhood: it scores survivability at the exact address for every major brick-and-mortar business category.
What should I consider when opening a business in Pittsburgh?
When selecting a location in Pittsburgh it is crucial to select a location with a very high Survivability Score.
- Revenue Capture is where competition meets spending, and it's the number that matters most when choosing a location.
- StreetSpring's in-house models are trained on 570,000+ real business outcomes.
- Check StreetSpring's current survivability data for any address in Pittsburgh, starting with a free 10-minute trial.
See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.
Real estate professionals and business owners across 24 major metros use StreetSpring to ground their site-selection decisions in data, not guesswork. Aggregated survivability rankings for Atlanta are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
Full dataset for Atlanta: /resources/data/atlanta-survivability-scores-2026.csv: includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.