Business Survivability in Upper Kensington, Philadelphia
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Upper Kensington is a Veterinary Clinic with a 85.1% 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 Veterinary Clinic in Upper Kensington (85.1% average survival rate, 90.0% at best locations)
- Neighborhood rank: #20 of 127 neighborhoods in and around Philadelphia
- Neighborhood average: 71.3% 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 Upper Kensington 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 Upper Kensington is a Veterinary Clinic with a 85.1% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, with the best locations offering a 90.0% chance; next is a Chiropractor Office with a 84.2% chance, followed by a Dermatology Clinic with a 82.1% chance.
Is Upper Kensington a good place to start a business?
StreetSpring ranks Upper Kensington #20 of 127 neighborhoods in and around Philadelphia, with an average Survivability Score of 71.3% across the business types ranked there.
- The gap between the best addresses and the average for the top-ranked business type in Upper Kensington is 4.9 points on the two-year chance.
- However, those same business types at the weakest addresses in Upper Kensington can score considerably below average. Even the most in-demand concept in Upper Kensington will struggle if it opens at the wrong address.
- The 85.5% employment rate in Upper Kensington supports consumer spending, while its 13.0% housing vacancy rate measures the share of homes and apartments standing empty: the model reads both as neighborhood characteristics.
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 Upper Kensington?
With StreetSpring, location selection in Upper Kensington moves from guesswork to a precise, address-level survivability score for any business type you're considering. Below is the best location for a Veterinary Clinic in Upper Kensington:
According to StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, this circle outlines the best area for a Veterinary Clinic in Upper Kensington. These figures represent averages across a neighborhood; your specific address may score meaningfully higher or lower depending on block-level competitive conditions. StreetSpring's prediction model analyzes hundreds of factors across competition, spending on the specific potential business, projected revenue, projected market share, Revenue Capture Score, mobility patterns, and many more.
Check if this location is still available →
What are the best businesses to open in Upper Kensington?
| # | Business type | Chance of lasting two or more years at a good address |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Veterinary Clinic | 90.0% |
| 2 | Chiropractor Office | 89.6% |
| 3 | Dermatology Clinic | 88.7% |
| 4 | Physical Therapy Clinic | 88.3% |
| 8 | Eye Care Center | 87.9% |
| 9 | Convenience Store | 84.6% |
| 10 | Gym | 84.0% |
| 11 | Cafe | 83.9% |
| 12 | Bar | 83.7% |
| 13 | Hair Salon | 83.6% |
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 Upper Kensington
- #1 Veterinary Clinic (Ranked #1): 85.1% average in Upper Kensington. Best-case storefronts: 90.0%. Challenging locations: 64.9%.
- #2 Chiropractor Office is ranked #2 for top businesses to open in Upper Kensington: 84.2% chance on average, best at 90.0%, challenging at 68.3%.
- #3 Dermatology Clinic: 82.1% on average across Upper Kensington; best at 89.6%, challenging at 67.5%.
- #4 Opening a Physical Therapy Clinic in Upper Kensington shows 82.2% average survivability. Top locations reach 89.6%; lower-end sites show 67.9%.
- #8 Eye Care Center (Ranked #8): 78.3% average in Upper Kensington. Best-case storefronts: 89.6%. Challenging locations: 59.8%.
Strong Performers in Upper Kensington
- #9 Convenience Store is ranked #9 for top businesses to open in Upper Kensington: 76.5% chance on average, best at 85.0%, challenging at 52.2%.
- #10 Gym: 70.4% on average across Upper Kensington; best at 84.0%, challenging at 50.7%.
- #11 Opening a Cafe in Upper Kensington shows 79.6% average survivability. Top locations reach 84.0%; lower-end sites show 56.6%.
- #12 Bar (Ranked #12): 73.9% average in Upper Kensington. Best-case storefronts: 84.0%. Challenging locations: 56.6%.
- #13 Hair Salon is ranked #13 for top businesses to open in Upper Kensington: 76.8% chance on average, best at 84.0%, challenging at 57.9%.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Veterinary Clinic: See how this compares to other cities →
- Chiropractor Office: See how this compares to other cities →
- Dermatology Clinic: See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in Upper Kensington make?
Best location vs. average location
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, choosing a high-performing site for your concept in Upper Kensington 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
- However, each business concept should be evaluated for fit within each potential location.
- A great product in the wrong location will underperform; an average product in the right location can thrive.
- The Revenue Capture Score is the most important factor in choosing a location: it is StreetSpring's estimate of the revenue a business can capture at that address.
- StreetSpring analyzes your specific address against comparable businesses to forecast success.
What businesses should open next in Upper Kensington?
The top businesses to open next in Upper Kensington:
- Veterinary Clinics: 85.1% average survival rate, 90.0% at the best address
- Chiropractor Offices: 84.2% average survival rate
- Dermatology Clinics: 82.1% average survival rate
These figures represent averages across a neighborhood; your specific address may score meaningfully higher or lower depending on block-level competitive conditions. 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. Upper Kensington's 85.5% employment rate and 13.0% housing vacancy rate are two of the Census characteristics the model reads when it ranks business types here. The data behind these rankings is updated regularly, so the best available storefront in Upper Kensington today may score differently than it did last month: check StreetSpring's live tool for the current picture.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Related Articles:
- See the Philadelphia Business Survivability Rankings
- See the Philadelphia Neighborhood Survivability Rankings
- Explore Veterinary Clinic survivability across Philadelphia neighborhoods
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Upper Kensington.
What type of business should you rent your Upper Kensington storefront to?
StreetSpring's analysis shows that the 3 best businesses to rent your storefront out to in Upper Kensington are Veterinary Clinics, Chiropractor Offices, and Dermatology Clinics.
- A great product in the wrong location will underperform; an average product in the right location can thrive.
- StreetSpring analyzes your specific address against comparable businesses to forecast success. 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 Philadelphia Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Upper Kensington storefront to a Veterinary Clinic?
The data shows a Veterinary Clinic in Upper Kensington is the safest long-term bet for a storefront there. Top locations reach 90.0% survivability; lower-end sites show 64.9%.
- StreetSpring analyzes your specific address against comparable businesses to forecast success.
What should I consider when opening a business in Upper Kensington?
Location decisions in Upper Kensington should be grounded in Survivability Score data, not intuition. The score directly measures the competitive and spending conditions at your exact address.
- 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.
- You can check the Survivability Score for any storefront in Upper Kensington with a free 10-minute trial of StreetSpring's live tool.
See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.
StreetSpring combines proprietary data with advanced analytics to predict which businesses will succeed. Aggregated survivability rankings for Philadelphia are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
Full dataset for Philadelphia: /resources/data/philadelphia-survivability-scores-2026.csv: includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.