Free resource · Boston

Free Boston business-location research for entrepreneurs

Covering the Boston metro, including Cambridge and Newton. No account, no paywall, nothing to buy. Built for anyone deciding where to open, and for the people who advise them.

What the Survivability Score measures

The projected chance that a specific business type lasts two or more years at a specific address.

The decision this is meant to help with

Most people choose a location on rent, on a walk-through, and on a feeling about foot traffic. Those are the things you can see standing on the sidewalk. What you cannot see is whether that block has actually supported your kind of business over time, or whether the businesses that lasted there were a different kind entirely.

That question is answerable before a lease is signed, and it is what this research covers for Boston.

Five things the Boston data shows

1. Location matters far more for some businesses than others

Across Boston addresses, a irish pub ranges from about 20% to 86% projected two-year survival, a spread of 66 percentage points. A falafel restaurant ranges from about 49% to 83%, a spread of only 34. For one of those, the address is close to the whole decision. For the other, it barely moves the answer.

This is the single most useful thing to tell someone early. It tells them how much of their energy belongs on the site search.

2. The businesses where the address decides the outcome

Business type	Projected 2-year survival across Boston	Spread	How Boston ranks
Irish Pub	20% to 86%	66 pp	#7 of 24 metros
Thai Restaurant	23% to 88%	65 pp	#5 of 24 metros
Vitamin Supplement Store	26% to 88%	62 pp	#3 of 24 metros
Barbecue Restaurant	29% to 90%	61 pp	#4 of 24 metros
Fish Chips Restaurant	20% to 81%	61 pp	#5 of 24 metros

3. The businesses where almost anywhere in Boston works

Business type	Projected 2-year survival across Boston	Spread	How Boston ranks
Falafel Restaurant	49% to 83%	34 pp	#17 of 24 metros
Hot Pot Restaurant	62% to 97%	35 pp	#11 of 24 metros
South American Restaurant	63% to 98%	35 pp	#8 of 15 metros
Brunch Restaurant	63% to 98%	35 pp	#17 of 24 metros
Veterinary Clinic	62% to 97%	35 pp	#11 of 24 metros

4. Where Boston is a strong market compared with other metros

Business type	Projected 2-year survival across Boston	Spread	How Boston ranks
Vitamin Supplement Store	26% to 88%	62 pp	#3 of 24 metros
Eye Care Center	30% to 87%	57 pp	#3 of 24 metros
Auto Repair Shop	38% to 85%	47 pp	#3 of 24 metros
Barbecue Restaurant	29% to 90%	61 pp	#4 of 24 metros
Burmese Restaurant	29% to 88%	59 pp	#4 of 24 metros

5. The neighborhood picture

Across 88 Boston neighborhoods, Boston is the strongest on average, at about 81% projected two-year survival, with its best locations near 87%. Winchester averages about 69%.

Averages hide the thing that matters. A single block can beat an entire neighborhood's ranking, and every low-ranked neighborhood contains locations that beat the metro average. Use the neighborhood view to narrow a search, not to rule an area out.

What is free here

The Boston neighborhood breakdown, ranking every neighborhood in the metro.
Ten things to think about before you open, a short plain guide that mostly corrects common advice.
The national aggregate dataset as a CSV, covering city and business-type level results.
What the Survivability Score is, and the methodology, including what the model does and does not do.

How advisors and program staff use this

In a business-plan conversation. "Your concept is one where the address swings the odds by 66 points. Let us spend real time on the site search."
Before a lease discussion. A neighborhood-level read gives a client a specific question to ask a broker instead of a general worry.
In a workshop. The spread between the widest and narrowest business type is a five-minute segment that people remember.
In a location appendix. Lenders and landlords respond to a location section that cites something other than the applicant's optimism.

Methodology, and what this is not

The model is trained on roughly a million business outcomes and scores 500+ business types across up to five price tiers in 24 U.S. metros. Of everything it considers, the Revenue Capture Score, our own measure of projected market share against forecasted local spend, carries the most predictive weight.

Data as of 2026-08-30. Geographic scope: the Boston metro area, 88 neighborhoods.

This is decision support, not a guarantee. A projected two-year survival figure is a probability drawn from how comparable businesses have performed at comparable locations. It does not account for the operator, the concept, the capital behind it, or the lease terms, and no location score can promise a business will succeed or predict that one will fail. Treat it as one input among several.

For chambers, EDOs, libraries, and business-support organizations

This page is free and open on purpose. If it would be useful to the people you serve, you are welcome to share it, add it to a resource list, or use it in advising. Nothing is expected in return.

Ready-to-use description

StreetSpring publishes free neighborhood-level research on how likely different business types are to last at least two years in Boston. It covers 88 neighborhoods and 500+ business types, updates as the underlying data does, and needs no account to read.

Direct link

https://streetspring.com/partners/boston.html

Where it tends to fit

Business Planning, Market Research, Site Selection, or Starting a Business.

Also available at no cost

A one-page Boston PDF for a newsletter or an event handout.
A 30-minute session for your members or a training for your advising staff.
A short written piece on Boston for your newsletter, ready to run.

Boston organizations worth knowing

If you are starting a business here, these are the people to talk to before you talk to us:

Massachusetts Restaurant Association
Boston University Libraries
Boston Public Library (Kirstein)

Contact

I am Bobby, the founder. I built StreetSpring after watching good operators sign leases on blocks that had never supported their kind of business. If you want the PDF, want to book a session, or think something on this page is wrong, write to me directly.

Bobby | StreetSpring

Data as of 2026-08-30. Neighborhood figures from the live Boston rankings; business-type figures from the published national aggregate dataset. Survivability is shown throughout as the projected chance of lasting two or more years. Aggregate results only, no address-level data.