Business Survivability in Santa Monica, Los Angeles
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Santa Monica is a Chiropractor Office with a 77.0% 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 Santa Monica (77.0% average survival rate, 90.0% at best locations)
- Town rank: #15 of 20 towns around Los Angeles
- Town average: an average Survivability Score of 65.2% 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 Santa Monica 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 Santa Monica is a Chiropractor Office with a 77.0% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a 90.0% chance; next is a Veterinary Clinic with a 74.2% chance, followed by an Eye Care Center with a 73.6% chance.
Is Santa Monica a good place to start a business?
Santa Monica holds the #15 position of 20 towns around Los Angeles for new business survivability, with an average score of 65.2% across the business types ranked there.
- At its best addresses in Santa Monica, the top-ranked business type scores 13.0 points above its own average in the neighborhood.
- But these same concepts at less optimal addresses within Santa Monica can score meaningfully below average. Survivability data shows that even the highest-demand business types fail at the wrong location.
- With a 93.4% employment rate, Santa Monica has the consumer spending foundation that supports a range of brick-and-mortar business types.
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 Santa Monica?
StreetSpring scores survivability at the exact address level in Santa Monica, so you can compare two storefronts on the same block before committing to a lease. This is the address StreetSpring's 2026 analysis recommends most strongly for a Chiropractor Office in Santa Monica:
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis of hundreds of location-specific factors, this area offers the highest projected survivability for a Chiropractor Office in Santa Monica. Competition and spending patterns shift constantly; StreetSpring's live tool reflects the most current conditions for any specific address. Factors evaluated include competition at every distance band, consumer spending forecasts, mobility patterns, and market share projections.
Check if this location is still available →
What are the best businesses to open in Santa Monica?
| # | Business type | Chance of lasting two or more years at a good address |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chiropractor Office | 89.6% |
| 2 | Veterinary Clinic | 88.7% |
| 3 | Eye Care Center | 87.0% |
| 4 | Dentist Office | 86.6% |
| 5 | Acupuncture Clinic | 86.6% |
| 9 | Liquor Store | 84.6% |
| 10 | Clothing Store | 84.6% |
| 12 | Coffee Shop | 84.0% |
| 13 | Spa | 83.6% |
| 15 | Hair Salon | 83.6% |
Ties at a good address: Dentist Office and Acupuncture Clinic are tied; Liquor Store and Clothing Store are tied; Spa 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 Santa Monica
- #1 Chiropractor Office (Ranked #1): 77.0% average in Santa Monica. Best-case storefronts: 90.0%. Challenging locations: 57.3%.
- #2 Veterinary Clinic is ranked #2 for top businesses to open in Santa Monica: 74.2% chance on average, best at 90.0%, challenging at 56.0%.
- #3 Eye Care Center: 73.6% on average across Santa Monica; best at 90.0%, challenging at 56.4%.
- #4 Opening a Dentist Office in Santa Monica shows 70.7% average survivability. Top locations reach 89.6%; lower-end sites show 56.0%.
- #5 Acupuncture Clinic (Ranked #5): 70.5% average in Santa Monica. Best-case storefronts: 89.6%. Challenging locations: 56.0%.
Strong Performers in Santa Monica
- #9 Liquor Store is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in Santa Monica: 74.4% chance on average, best at 85.0%, challenging at 49.4%.
- #10 Clothing Store: 71.8% on average across Santa Monica; best at 85.0%, challenging at 49.9%.
- #12 Opening a Coffee Shop in Santa Monica shows 68.5% average survivability. Top locations reach 84.0%; lower-end sites show 48.0%.
- #13 Spa (Ranked #13): 70.8% average in Santa Monica. Best-case storefronts: 84.0%. Challenging locations: 48.9%.
- #15 Hair Salon is ranked #15 for top businesses to open in Santa Monica: 70.2% chance on average, best at 84.0%, challenging at 48.4%.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Chiropractor Office: See how this compares to other cities →
- Veterinary Clinic: See how this compares to other cities →
- Eye Care Center: See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in Santa Monica make?
Best location vs. average location
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, choosing an address that maximizes your Revenue Capture Score in Santa Monica 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
- StreetSpring calculates survivability for each business type separately at each address, so the best location for your concept may differ from the neighborhood's overall top-ranked site.
- The address you choose determines your competitive exposure, customer flow, and spending potential simultaneously.
- StreetSpring's Revenue Capture Score, the revenue a business can capture at a specific address, is the factor that matters most when comparing locations.
- StreetSpring scores survivability down to the exact storefront location.
What businesses should open next in Santa Monica?
The top businesses to open next in Santa Monica:
- Chiropractor Offices: 77.0% average survival rate, 90.0% at the best address
- Veterinary Clinics: 74.2% average survival rate
- Eye Care Centers: 73.6% average survival rate
Competition and spending patterns shift constantly; StreetSpring's live tool reflects the most current conditions for any specific address. StreetSpring has analyzed hundreds of thousands of business outcomes across major U.S. metros. 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. Santa Monica's employment rate (93.4%) and housing vacancy rate (12.9%) are part of the Census context StreetSpring's model reads when it scores each business type at each address. Because market conditions shift constantly, StreetSpring regularly updates every location's survivability score: you can see current scores for available storefronts in Santa Monica right now.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Related Articles:
- See the Los Angeles Business Survivability Rankings
- See the Los Angeles Neighborhood Survivability Rankings
- Explore Chiropractor Office survivability across Los Angeles neighborhoods
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Santa Monica.
What type of business should you rent your Santa Monica storefront to?
Our 2026 survivability data for Santa Monica shows that Chiropractor Offices, Veterinary Clinics, and Eye Care Centers rank as the top tenant categories for minimizing vacancy risk.
- The address you choose determines your competitive exposure, customer flow, and spending potential simultaneously.
- StreetSpring scores survivability down to the exact storefront location. StreetSpring allows property owners to evaluate any address against 500+ business types, so you can prioritize the categories that score highest at your specific location.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in Los Angeles Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Santa Monica storefront to a Chiropractor Office?
StreetSpring's data confirms a Chiropractor Office as the highest-survivability tenant type for Santa Monica. The best addresses show a 90.0% chance of lasting more than 2 years; less optimal addresses score around 57.3%.
- StreetSpring scores survivability down to the exact storefront location.
What should I consider when opening a business in Santa Monica?
Check the Survivability Score for your specific address in Santa Monica before signing a lease, alongside your own read of foot traffic and the local customer base.
- Revenue Capture Score is the top factor to weigh before signing a lease, because it measures how much of the local customer spending a business at that address can win.
- No third-party scoring system produces these results: every prediction is generated by StreetSpring's own analytical models.
- Start with a free 10-minute trial: check the current survivability score for any Santa Monica address on StreetSpring.
See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.
StreetSpring's models are built from millions of real business outcomes, making predictions grounded in what actually happened. Aggregated survivability rankings for Los Angeles are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
Full dataset for Los Angeles: /resources/data/los-angeles-survivability-scores-2026.csv: includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.