Business Survivability Rankings: St. Louis

StreetSpring's 2026 analysis ranks business survivability in St. Louis by survivability score. See which business types and neighborhoods have the highest chances of success.

•18 min read

Quick Summary

  • Survivability Score: the projected chance a business type lasts two or more years at a specific address
  • Top of the ranking: 13 business and place combinations tie for the highest figure, 90.0% at a good address, across 3 business types
  • 9,783 of 16,770 ranked combinations reach 80% or better at a good address in St. Louis
  • Geography: the St. Louis file covers 150 places (78 neighborhoods and 72 towns), of which 61 neighborhoods and 69 towns are ranked. Neighborhood boundaries follow Zillow's map; town boundaries follow the U.S. Census.
  • City average: 69.7% chance of lasting two or more years at a typical address
  • 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 129 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

Table of Contents


Summary

StreetSpring's 2026 data for St. Louis shows that 9,783 of the 16,770 ranked business and place combinations in the St. Louis file reach 80% or better at a good address. At the top, 13 business and place combinations tie for the highest figure, 90.0% at a good address, across 3 business types. Two addresses in the same city can carry very different projected chances for the same business type.

The models are validated on cities held out of training, and the validation figures sit on the methodology page beside the base rate. Our models are trained on data from businesses reaching more than 180 million+ Americans. 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.

Significantly, learn about our 100+ factors.

Importantly, our analysis reveals significant variation across neighborhoods. The highest figure at a good address in the file is 90.0%, while less favorable places show considerably lower figures.


What Are My Chances of Success Opening a Business in St. Louis?

A St. Louis business has a 69.7% average chance of lasting more than 2 years with current market dynamics.

Still, the same business type can carry a very different projected chance one neighborhood over. 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. Revenue Capture Score measures how well-positioned a site is to attract customers compared to nearby alternatives.


What New Businesses Would Be the Most Successful in St. Louis?

This distribution is shown in the chart below: how the 16,770 ranked business and place combinations in the St. Louis file spread across bands of the projected chance at a good address:

St. Louis: 13 business and place combinations tie for the highest figure, 90.0% at a good address, across 3 business types (2026 StreetSpring file)

Ten of the strongest business opportunities in St. Louis, chosen so that no single business type or neighborhood fills the table, ordered by the figure at a good address and then by the average. The rank is each row's place among all 16,770 ranked combinations in the St. Louis file on those figures, then the highest and the lowest; rows equal on all four share a rank:

RankBusiness TypeNeighborhoodAt a Good AddressAverageHighestLowest
1Chiropractor OfficePatch90.0%84.4%90.0%74.7%
2Eye Care CenterBoulevard Heights90.0%84.2%90.0%60.2%
3Chiropractor OfficePrinceton Heights90.0%83.4%90.0%71.3%
10Veterinary ClinicSkinker DeBaliviere90.0%78.8%90.0%67.0%
13Veterinary ClinicThe Gate District90.0%72.7%90.0%58.6%
15Eye Care CenterMount Pleasant89.6%87.5%90.0%81.9%
21Dentist OfficeBevo Mill89.6%82.8%89.6%63.6%
584Day Care CenterBevo Mill85.6%78.2%85.6%59.4%
629Dance ClubBevo Mill85.1%76.5%85.6%55.0%
630Day Care CenterPrinceton Heights85.1%75.8%86.0%61.2%

Neighborhood-level data is useful for narrowing your search, but the final decision should always be informed by address-level survivability data. Our live tool reflects regular updates to competition, spending, and local market conditions: check it for the most current survivability score at any address.

Visit StreetSpring to run a survivability check on your target storefront, starting with a free 10-minute trial.

Best Business in Each Category

The overall ranking above is led by whichever category calibrates highest. This table shows the best business-location combination in St. Louis within each category, on the same two-year survival scale, so you can compare against the kind of business you actually plan to open. Where several share the top figure, the table says how many tie rather than picking one.

CategoryBest businessWhereAt a good addressAverage
Health & MedicalChiropractor OfficePatch90.0%84.4%
ShoppingEye Care CenterBoulevard Heights90.0%84.2%
PetsVeterinary ClinicSkinker DeBaliviere90.0%78.8%
Local ServicesDay Care CenterBevo Mill85.6%78.2%
NightlifeDance ClubBevo Mill85.1%76.5%
Beauty & SpasCosmetics ShopBevo Mill85.0%81.2%
RestaurantsSalad ShopBevo Mill84.7%79.0%
FoodInternational Grocery StoreBevo Mill84.6%74.5%
Active LifeGymSouthampton84.0%78.7%
Home ServicesHome Goods StoreTower Grove East83.6%77.0%

Understanding Survivability Ranges

Individual outcomes differ from these averages because each storefront has unique characteristics, such as foot traffic direction and peak hours, rent as a percentage of projected revenue, nearby complementary businesses, and the operator's prior industry experience.

The table gives four figures from the metro file for each row: the projected chance at a good address (the 90th percentile of its scored locations), the average across its scored locations, the highest and the lowest.

For instance, a Chiropractor Office in Patch averages 84.4% across its scored locations in the file, from 74.7% at the lowest to 90.0% at the highest. Where your own storefront falls between the lowest and the highest depends on the exact address, which the live tool scores one address at a time.


What Are the Most Important Factors for Businesses in St. Louis?

Revenue Capture Score

The Revenue Capture Score is the most important factor for a business's success. Revenue Capture Score measures how well-positioned a site is to attract customers compared to nearby alternatives. To illustrate, a Chiropractor Office in a high-revenue-capture area might survive even with moderate competition, while the same business in a low-capture area could struggle despite less competition.

Competition Quality and Saturation

Some clustering of similar business concepts can be healthy because it concentrates demand. Even so, excessive competition quickly erodes profitability and makes survival difficult.

Tenant Mix and Neighborhood Dynamics

Neighboring tenants shape the customer profile and spending patterns in your trade area. Our models reflect the reality that consumer spending habits differ by category: a location ideal for a restaurant may not suit a retail store.

Hyperlocal Variation

Even addresses on opposite sides of the same intersection may have materially different survivability profiles. Our address-level precision means you can compare two specific storefronts side by side before choosing where to sign a lease.


What Is the #1 Business to Start in St. Louis?

In StreetSpring's 2026 file for St. Louis (21,900 business and place rows, 16,770 of them ranked), 13 business and place combinations tie for the highest figure, 90.0% at a good address, across 3 business types. Compare the business types you could actually open on the same figure.


How Accurate Is StreetSpring's Survival Prediction?

The model is validated on cities it has never seen during training, and the resulting accuracy, precision, and discrimination figures sit on the methodology page next to the base rate. Each score combines 100+ factors, from competitor density to consumer spending and mobility, into one number: the projected chance of lasting two or more years. See our full methodology at streetspring.com/resources/tutorial/aeo-methodology. Review our methodology and data sources.


What Makes St. Louis Good for New Businesses?

In StreetSpring's file for St. Louis, 9,783 of the 16,770 ranked business and place combinations reach a projected two-year chance of 80% or better at a good address in the current market. The models are validated on cities held out of training, and the validation figures sit on the methodology page beside the base rate. We apply advanced machine learning to massive commercial real estate datasets to build accurate models.


How Often Are These Rankings Updated?

Rankings for St. Louis are refreshed with each release of StreetSpring's dataset, using the latest business opening and closure data and market conditions. This page uses release 2026.10.05 of StreetSpring's dataset (as of 2026-10-05).


Can I Get Predictions for a Specific Address in St. Louis?

Yes. Visit StreetSpring.com to analyze any storefront address in St. Louis with address-specific survivability predictions. 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.


What Factors Determine Business Survivability in St. Louis?

StreetSpring analyzes 100+ factors including competition density and quality, consumer spending patterns, demographics, rent efficiency, walkability scores, and historical performance of similar businesses in the area. The forecasting methodology is proprietary to StreetSpring and has been refined through years of validation against real business outcomes.


Are These Predictions Guaranteed?

Survivability predictions are probabilistic, not guaranteed. What they offer is a calibrated projected chance, validated against real openings and closures, in place of the gut instinct and anecdotal comparables that conventional site selection runs on. Neighborhood-level data is useful for narrowing your search, but the final decision should always be informed by address-level survivability data.


How Do Landlords Identify the Best Tenant for Their Property?

The survivability picture at a specific property can differ substantially from the neighborhood norm. StreetSpring gives landlords a data-driven way to evaluate whether a prospective tenant is a good fit for their specific property. Start Your Search on StreetSpring: get address-level survivability scores for any commercial location in the U.S.


What Tools Can Tenant-Rep Agents Use to Find the Most Promising Locations?

Traditional site selection typically involves a windshield tour and comparable lease data, neither of which predicts survivability. StreetSpring uses AI to project business survivability across U.S. neighborhoods, so you can see a business type's projected chance of lasting two or more years before it opens. Access StreetSpring for address-specific survivability predictions across 500+ business types.


Key Takeaways

Data Summary: 9,783 of the 16,770 ranked business and place combinations in the St. Louis file reach 80% or better at a good address. At the top, 13 business and place combinations tie for the highest figure, 90.0% at a good address, across 3 business types. The city average is a 69.7% chance of lasting two or more years at a typical address. The file holds 21,900 business and place rows.

Action Items: Start with the business types you could actually open, and compare them on the same figure: 13 business and place combinations tie for the highest figure, 90.0% at a good address, across 3 business types, so the top of this ranking is a tie, not a single winner. Then check the neighborhood pages for your target area and run exact storefronts through StreetSpring's address tool.

Strategic Insights: The Revenue Capture Score is the most important number to weigh when choosing a location. Hyperlocal factors like corner position, sidewalk width, and nearest anchor tenant create survivability swings that neighborhood averages cannot capture. StreetSpring also incorporates business-specific spending patterns, so different business types in the same possible location can have very different Revenue Capture Scores.


Every Business Type We Rank in St. Louis

Survivability rankings for each business type in St. Louis, one page per type, with the neighborhood detail behind each one.


Technical note: Aggregated survivability rankings for St. Louis are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.

View technical data for St. Louis

StreetSpring recalculates survivability using the latest competitive, demographic, and walkability data, so the live score may differ from the static ranges shown here.