Free San Diego business-location research for entrepreneurs

Covering the San Diego metro, including Chula Vista and Carlsbad. No account, no paywall, nothing to buy. Built for anyone deciding where to open, and for the people who advise them.

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 San Diego.

Five things the San Diego data shows

1. Location matters far more for some businesses than others

Across 83 ranked San Diego neighborhoods, the projected chance of lasting two or more years at a good address runs from 58.5% to 85.0%† for each of Chicken Shop and Salad Shop, a spread of 26.5† percentage points, and from 71.4% to 83.6% for each of Beauty Salon and Nail Salon, a spread of only 12.2, the narrowest fully measured range in San Diego (section 3 says what that means). The address matters for both, and far more for one than for the other.

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 matters most in San Diego

3. The narrowest fully measured ranges in San Diego

A range is fully measured when neither end draws on a scored location sitting at the highest or lowest figure the national file gives that business type in San Diego. 26 of the 129 business types ranked across San Diego neighborhoods qualify. A range that reaches either limit is measured only up to that limit, so it could be wider than it prints, and it is left out of this table.

Business types that share every figure in a row are shown together, never cut by name.

† the highest figure the national file gives that business type anywhere in San Diego. Ranked neighborhoods can share it, and a range or spread that reaches it is measured up to that limit, not beyond it.

4. The business types where San Diego ranks highest against other metros

5. The neighborhood picture

Across 83 ranked San Diego neighborhoods, Old Town ranks first, at 84.0% projected two-year survival at a good address (76.5% at a typical address). Robinhood-Bon Vivant ranks last, at 64.9% (59.2% at a typical address).

Averages hide the thing that matters. A single block can beat an entire neighborhood's ranking. Use the neighborhood view to narrow a search, not to rule an area out.

What is free here

• The San Diego neighborhood breakdown, ranking 83 of its 113 neighborhoods.
• Ten things to think about before you open, a short plain guide that mostly corrects common advice.
• The San Diego dataset and the national aggregate dataset as CSVs, the files every figure on this page is read from.
• 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 26.5† 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 the narrowest fully measured 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 570,000+ historical business outcomes across 24 U.S. metros and weighs 100+ location factors. The most important number in a location decision is our proprietary Revenue Capture Score: the revenue a business can capture at that address, from its projected market share against forecasted local spend. 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 figures on this page come from the published files, which carry one figure per base business type, averaged across its price points.

Data version 2026.10.05 (as of 2026-10-05). Geographic scope: the San Diego metro area, 113 neighborhoods. "At a good address" is the 90th percentile of a neighborhood's scored locations, the figure the files rank on; ranks against other metros count the 22 metros compared, in the national file's own order.

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

Direct link

Where it tends to fit

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

Also available at no cost

• A one-page San Diego 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 San Diego for your newsletter, ready to run.

San Diego organizations worth knowing

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

• Downtown San Diego Partnership
• Little Italy Association of San Diego
• City Heights Community Development Corporation
• CDC Small Business Finance
• San Diego Regional EDC
• South County Economic Development Council
• UC San Diego Library
• Discover Pacific Beach

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