Business Survivability in Salem, Boston
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Salem is a Chiropractor Office with a 68.4% 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: a Chiropractor Office in Salem (68.4% average survival rate, 90.0% at best locations)
- Town rank: #64 of 72 towns around Boston
- Town average: an average Survivability Score of 58.9% 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 Salem 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 Salem is a Chiropractor Office with a 68.4% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a 90.0% chance; next is a Clothing Store with a 61.5% chance, followed by a Convenience Store with a 63.6% chance.
Is Salem a good place to start a business?
Salem holds the #64 position of 72 towns around Boston for new business survivability, with an average score of 58.9% across the business types ranked there.
- The gap between the best addresses and the average for the top-ranked business type in Salem is 21.6 points on the two-year chance.
- However, these same business types at the worst locations in Salem can sometimes provide a projected Survivability Score considerably below the average. Thus, even the businesses that are most in need in Salem could have trouble succeeding if the best location is not selected.
- Salem has a housing vacancy rate of 9.7% in Census data: the share of its homes and apartments standing empty, one of the neighborhood characteristics StreetSpring's model reads.
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 Salem?
With StreetSpring, location selection in Salem moves from guesswork to a precise, address-level survivability score for any business type you're considering. The map below highlights the highest-survivability address for a Chiropractor Office in Salem:
This map shows the optimal location for a Chiropractor Office in Salem based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis. For the most current predictions, visit StreetSpring to analyze your specific location in real-time. The prediction model incorporates hundreds of location-specific factors, including competitive density, forecasted consumer spending, mobility patterns, and Revenue Capture Score.
Check if this location is still available →
What are the best businesses to open in Salem?
| # | Business type | Chance of lasting two or more years at a good address |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chiropractor Office | 88.7% |
| 2 | Clothing Store | 84.1% |
| 3 | Convenience Store | 83.5% |
| 4 | Gym | 83.1% |
| 5 | Cafe | 82.6% |
| 6 | Hair Salon | 82.6% |
| 7 | Veterinary Clinic | 82.4% |
| 8 | Coffee Shop | 81.8% |
| 9 | Laundromat | 81.3% |
| 11 | Thai Restaurant | 77.9% |
Ties at a good address: Cafe and Hair Salon 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 Salem
- #1 Chiropractor Office: 68.4% on average across Salem; best at 90.0%, challenging at 56.0%.
- #2 Opening a Clothing Store in Salem shows 61.5% average survivability. Top locations reach 85.0%; lower-end sites show 49.0%.
- #3 Convenience Store (Ranked #3): 63.6% average in Salem. Best-case storefronts: 85.0%. Challenging locations: 49.4%.
- #4 Gym is ranked #4 for top businesses to open in Salem: 59.1% chance on average, best at 84.0%, challenging at 48.0%.
- #5 Cafe: 63.5% on average across Salem; best at 84.0%, challenging at 49.4%.
Strong Performers in Salem
- #6 Opening a Hair Salon in Salem shows 61.7% average survivability. Top locations reach 84.0%; lower-end sites show 48.4%.
- #7 Veterinary Clinic (Ranked #7): 68.6% average in Salem. Best-case storefronts: 90.0%. Challenging locations: 56.4%.
- #8 Coffee Shop is ranked #8 for top businesses to open in Salem: 61.1% chance on average, best at 84.0%, challenging at 48.4%.
- #9 Laundromat: 59.8% on average across Salem; best at 84.0%, challenging at 48.0%.
- #11 Opening a Thai Restaurant in Salem shows 61.5% average survivability. Top locations reach 84.0%; lower-end sites show 48.4%.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Chiropractor Office: See how this compares to other cities →
- Clothing Store: See how this compares to other cities →
- Convenience Store: See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in Salem make?
Best location vs. average location
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, identifying the optimal address for your business type in Salem 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
- The right address for one business type may be the wrong one for another: always evaluate fit for your specific concept.
- Every site-selection decision starts with location, the one factor you can check before you sign a lease.
- When the question is money, the Revenue Capture Score comes first: it is StreetSpring's estimate of the revenue a business can capture at a specific address.
- StreetSpring analyzes your specific address against comparable businesses to forecast success.
What businesses should open next in Salem?
The top businesses to open next in Salem:
- Chiropractor Offices: 68.4% average survival rate, 90.0% at the best address
- Clothing Stores: 61.5% average survival rate
- Convenience Stores: 63.6% average survival rate
For the most current predictions, visit StreetSpring to analyze your specific location in real-time. Our training data spans 500+ business types across 24 major metros, giving our models the breadth to predict outcomes across nearly any commercial concept. 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. The 94.9% employment rate in Salem is a key signal of consumer health, and the 9.7% housing vacancy rate is another Census characteristic the model reads for the rankings above. Survivability scores are recalculated regularly as new competitors open and spending patterns shift: visit StreetSpring to see the current score for any open location in Salem right now.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Related Articles:
- See the Boston Business Survivability Rankings
- See the Boston Neighborhood Survivability Rankings
- Explore Chiropractor Office survivability across Boston neighborhoods
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Salem.
What type of business should you rent your Salem storefront to?
StreetSpring's analysis shows that the 3 best businesses to rent your storefront out to in Salem are Chiropractor Offices, Clothing Stores, and Convenience Stores.
- Every site-selection decision starts with location, the one factor you can check before you sign a lease.
- StreetSpring analyzes your specific address against comparable businesses to forecast success. Use StreetSpring to see the survivability score for any business type at your exact storefront address before you sign a lease.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in Boston Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Salem storefront to a Chiropractor Office?
Yes. Among all business types analyzed for Salem in 2026, a Chiropractor Office posts the highest survivability ceiling at 90.0% and maintains a reasonable floor of 56.0%, making it the most reliable tenant choice here.
- StreetSpring analyzes your specific address against comparable businesses to forecast success.
What should I consider when opening a business in Salem?
When evaluating potential locations in Salem, start with the Survivability Score. It accounts for competition, spending, mobility, and market share in a single figure.
- StreetSpring's proprietary Revenue Capture Score, the revenue a business can capture at a specific address, is the factor that matters most when choosing where to open.
- StreetSpring's custom-built forecasting infrastructure powers every survivability score, combining data science with commercial real estate intelligence.
- StreetSpring offers a free 10-minute trial of its survivability scores: see how your shortlisted Salem addresses rank right now.
See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.
StreetSpring uses AI to project business survivability across U.S. neighborhoods. Aggregated survivability rankings for Boston are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
Full dataset for Boston: /resources/data/boston-survivability-scores-2026.csv: includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.