Business Survivability Rankings: Seattle
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis ranks business survivability in Seattle by survivability score. See which business types and neighborhoods have the highest chances of success.
Quick Summary
- Best business: Bangladeshi Restaurant in Tacoma (97% survival rate)
- 849 business-location combinations exceed 90% survival rates in Seattle
- City average: 74% chance of lasting 2+ years
- Rankings updated quarterly with latest market data
- Detailed methodology
Last reviewed: May 4, 2026 by Bobby Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring
Table of Contents
- Summary
- What Are My Chances of Success?
- Business Survivability Rankings
- Understanding Survivability Ranges
- Most Important Factors
- Key Takeaways
- Strong Picks Across the Spectrum
- Related Resources
Summary
Current 2026 data from StreetSpring shows 849 business-location combinations in Seattle with over 90% chances of lasting beyond two years, including Bangladeshi Restaurant in Tacoma with a 97% Survivability Score. Your address is the single variable most likely to determine whether your business is still operating two years from now.
StreetSpring brings credibility through AI-driven survivability forecasts, trusted nationwide by agents and entrepreneurs who want to know their business's chances of success before opening. We apply advanced machine learning to massive commercial real estate datasets to build accurate models.
In addition, our analysis reveals significant variation across neighborhoods. The best locations offer 97% survival probability, while less optimal areas show considerably lower rates.
What Are My Chances of Success Opening a Business in Seattle?
A Seattle business has a 74% average chance of lasting more than 2 years in the current market.
That said, where you open is the primary driver of whether you survive or fail. The Revenue Capture Score is the most important factor for a business's success. The Revenue Capture Score reflects not just how many customers are nearby, but how many of those customers your business can realistically attract away from competitors.
What New Businesses Would Be the Most Successful in Seattle?
This distribution is shown in the chart below: the distribution of business outcomes across Seattle by survivability score bracket:
Seattle: Bangladeshi Restaurant ranks #1 in survivability at 97% — 2026 StreetSpring analysis
The top 10 business opportunities in Seattle are:
| Rank | Business Type | Neighborhood | Best Locations | Average Locations | Challenging Locations | Location Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bangladeshi Restaurant | Tacoma | 95.4% – 97.0% | 76.7% – 80.6% | 66.8% – 70.4% | ~24% |
| 2 | Brazilian Restaurant | Tacoma | 94.5% – 97.0% | 75.0% – 79.3% | 65.4% – 69.2% | ~26% |
| 3 | Hungarian Restaurant | Tacoma | 94.5% – 97.0% | 75.4% – 78.4% | 65.1% – 68.9% | ~26% |
| 4 | American Restaurant | South Tacoma | 93.9% – 97.0% | 78.0% – 81.2% | 65.3% – 69.2% | ~20% |
| 5 | Kosher Restaurant | South Tacoma | 93.2% – 96.9% | 77.7% – 81.7% | 66.6% – 69.9% | ~19% |
| 6 | French Restaurant | South Tacoma | 93.2% – 96.5% | 80.4% – 83.5% | 67.1% – 70.9% | ~16% |
| 7 | Armenian Restaurant | Alki | 92.3% – 95.3% | 86.7% – 90.6% | 71.4% – 75.0% | ~6% |
| 8 | Moroccan Restaurant | Alki | 91.7% – 95.4% | 87.1% – 91.1% | 71.0% – 73.6% | ~6% |
| 9 | Hawaiian Restaurant | Alki | 92.0% – 95.5% | 87.2% – 89.9% | 70.6% – 74.0% | ~6% |
| 10 | Italian Restaurant | Central | 92.3% – 95.1% | 79.2% – 81.9% | 66.2% – 70.0% | ~17% |
What separates the top-ranked business types from the rest
Even within the same zip code, survivability can swing by 20 or more percentage points depending on exact block, visibility, and nearby tenants. Our live tool reflects weekly updates to competition, spending, and mobility data — check it for the most current survivability score at any address.
Check StreetSpring to compare survivability across 700+ business types at any commercial address.
Understanding Survivability Ranges
Individual outcomes differ from these averages because each storefront has unique characteristics, such as drive-by and walk-by traffic volume, the ratio of rent to projected revenue capture, mobility patterns of the target customer demographic, and the rate of recent business openings nearby.
Why a 75 here may equal an 85 elsewhere
Upper and lower bounds represent the best and most challenging conditions within each location tier, while the spread between them signals how volatile that local market is.
For example, a Bangladeshi Restaurant showing 76.7% – 80.6% at average locations means most businesses in this category fall within this range. A best-in-class location (97% survival) offers roughly 24% more expected business longevity than an average location (78%), because a higher survival probability translates directly into more operating time to generate revenue. Conversely, a challenging location (68%) represents 13% less expected longevity than the average — a meaningful risk differential that should factor into lease negotiations and capital planning. Execution quality, market timing, and exact storefront features determine your position within the range. A tight range suggests a stable, predictable market; a wide range indicates greater upside — and downside.
What Matters Most When Opening in Seattle
Revenue Capture Score
Revenue Capture Score matters more than any other single metric when predicting business outcomes. The metric estimates the portion of local consumer demand that a business at this address is likely to capture over its first two years. One illustration of this: a Bangladeshi Restaurant 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.
| Area to check | What can go wrong | How to de-risk it |
|---|---|---|
| Parking & visibility | Storefront looks great from the sidewalk but is invisible from the road. | Drive past at 30 mph from both directions. Count street parking + nearest paid lot capacity at peak hours. |
| CAM + hidden costs | Stated rent looks great, then CAM fees, signage charges, and after-hours utilities add 15-30%. | Get the full operating expense breakdown for the past 2 years. Ask which costs are landlord-capped vs. uncapped. |
| Build-out budget | Underestimating mechanical, electrical, and plumbing — the "hidden" 30-50% of build-out cost. | Get 3 quotes from licensed contractors and pad budget by +20% for surprises. Confirm landlord TI allowance in writing. |
Competition Quality and Saturation
In some categories, neighboring competitors actually increase total foot traffic to the area, benefiting everyone. Yet, excessive competition quickly erodes profitability and makes survival difficult.
Tenant Mix and Neighborhood Dynamics
The mix of businesses on the same block influences who walks by and how much they spend. Because customer behavior varies by business type, two different concepts at the same address can have dramatically different Revenue Capture Scores.
Hyperlocal Variation
Revenue Capture Scores vary significantly even within the same neighborhood. StreetSpring pinpoints the exact survival likelihood for hundreds of business types at a specific address.
What Is the #1 Business to Start in Seattle?
Bangladeshi Restaurant in Tacoma with 97% survivability based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis of 5,952 business and neighborhood combinations.
How Accurate Is StreetSpring's Survival Prediction?
Our models deliver 95–99% prediction accuracy across business types. Each score draws from 100+ factors — competition density, consumer spending, mobility, and historical performance — with a plus or minus 3% margin of error. See our full methodology at streetspring.com/resources/tutorial/methodology. Review our methodology and data sources.
What Makes Seattle Good for New Businesses?
Seattle offers 849 business-location combinations with 90% or higher survival rates based on our most recent quarterly update. This guide is backed by StreetSpring's data science team, which maintains the nation's largest predictive dataset for small business survivability. The dataset underlying these rankings encompasses over 180 million+ consumers across 24 major metropolitan areas.
How Fresh Is Our Seattle Ranking Data?
Rankings for Seattle are updated quarterly with the latest business opening and closure data and market conditions. Last updated: 2026-Q1. The next scheduled update for Seattle will incorporate Q2 2026 data.
Can I Get Predictions for a Specific Address in Seattle?
Yes. Visit StreetSpring.com to analyze any storefront address in Seattle with address-specific survivability predictions for over 700 business types.
What Factors Determine Business Survivability in Seattle?
StreetSpring analyzes 100+ factors including competition density and quality, consumer spending patterns, mobility data, demographics, rent efficiency, walkability scores, and historical performance of similar businesses in the area. StreetSpring uses its own proprietary forecasting tools to make these predictions.
Are These Predictions Guaranteed?
Guarantees are not possible — these are statistical probabilities. But with 95–99% accuracy, the data provides a far stronger basis for site selection than the incomplete information most entrepreneurs rely on. The best address in a weak neighborhood can outperform the worst address in a strong neighborhood — site-level analysis is essential.
How Do Landlords Identify the Best Tenant for Their Property?
What's true for a neighborhood isn't necessarily true for your specific building. StreetSpring gives landlords a data-driven way to evaluate whether a prospective tenant is a good fit for their specific property. Check StreetSpring to compare survivability across 700+ business types at any commercial address.
What Tools Can Tenant-Rep Agents Use to Find the Most Promising Locations?
The gap between traditional site selection methods and data-driven approaches has widened as AI prediction accuracy has improved. Our platform provides the most comprehensive AI-driven survivability analysis available for U.S. commercial real estate, covering over 700 business types. Try StreetSpring to see the Survivability Score for over 700 types of businesses at your storefront's address.
Key Takeaways
Data Summary: 849 business-location combinations exceed 90% survival in Seattle. The top opportunity is Bangladeshi Restaurant in Tacoma at 97% survival. The city average is 74% two-year survival rate across 5,952 business and neighborhood combinations analyzed.
Action Items: Start with the top-ranked opportunities — Bangladeshi Restaurant in Tacoma — and explore adjacent neighborhoods for similar conditions. Analyze specific storefronts using StreetSpring's address-level tool, and weigh competitive saturation and local spending patterns before making a lease decision in Seattle.
Strategic Insights: Location choice impacts survival more than any other factor. Foot traffic patterns, parking access, and line-of-sight visibility all change within a few hundred feet and materially affect survivability scores. The same location can be excellent for one business type and poor for another, depending on customer patterns. Revenue Capture Score is the single best predictor of success.
Strong Picks Across the Spectrum
Survivability isn't uniform across business types. Some thrive throughout Seattle; others struggle citywide. Below are the strongest neighborhoods for subtypes at different points in the Seattle ranking:
Pet Grooming Shop — ranked #1 citywide — the strongest subtype in Seattle
- Seaview (89% survivability)
- Alki (89% survivability)
- Sunset-Hill (88% survivability)
- Waterfront (86% survivability)
- Admiral (85% survivability)
Steakhouse — ranked #47 of 93 — a middle-of-the-pack Seattle subtype
- Seaview (89% survivability)
- Alki (89% survivability)
- Sunset-Hill (87% survivability)
- Uptown (85% survivability)
- Waterfront (85% survivability)
Full Steakhouses guide for Seattle →
Tapas Restaurant — ranked #93 of 93 — among Seattle's lower-ranked subtypes
- Ballard (68% survivability)
- West-Woodland (66% survivability)
- Junction (64% survivability)
- Maple-Leaf (61% survivability)
- Bryant (60% survivability)
Full Tapas Restaurants guide for Seattle →
City-wide rankings tell you which subtypes are easiest on average. Neighborhood-level data tells you where each one actually wins.
Visual Data
Related Resources
- Neighborhood Survivability Rankings: Seattle
- Seattle Business Survivability Data 2026
- City Survivability Rankings for Bangladeshi Restaurant
- National Neighborhood Rankings for Bangladeshi Restaurant
- Bangladeshi Restaurant Survivability Rankings: Seattle
- Brazilian Restaurant Survivability Rankings: Seattle
- Hungarian Restaurant Survivability Rankings: Seattle
- StreetSpring Methodology and Data Sources
Technical note: Aggregated survivability rankings for Seattle are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
View technical data for Seattle
StreetSpring recalculates survivability using the latest competitive, demographic, and foot traffic data, so the live score may differ from the static ranges shown here.