Business Survivability in Kirkwood, St. Louis
StreetSpring's 2026 analysis finds that the best business to open in Kirkwood is a Barber Shop with a 75.7% 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 Barber Shop in Kirkwood (75.7% Typical, 82.4% Best)
- Town rank: #43 of 69 towns around St. Louis
- Town average: an average Survivability Score of 67.7% 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: November 2026 by Robert Koons, Founder & CEO, StreetSpring
In this article:
- Summary
- Is Kirkwood 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 Kirkwood is a Barber Shop with a 75.7% chance of surviving at least 2 years across the neighborhood on average, and 82.4% Best; next is a Veterinary Clinic with 79.5% Best, followed by an Eye Care Center with 79.0% Best.
Is Kirkwood a good place to start a business?
Among the 69 towns StreetSpring ranks around St. Louis, Kirkwood ranks #43 for business survivability, with an average 67.7% chance of lasting two or more years.
- For the top-ranked business type, 82.4% Best is 6.7 points above 75.7% Typical in Kirkwood.
- But at poorly chosen addresses within Kirkwood, even the top-ranked business types can fall well below the neighborhood average. Location selection remains critical: a promising concept at the wrong spot still carries significant risk.
- StreetSpring's model reads Kirkwood's 9.0% housing vacancy rate, a Census measure of vacant homes and apartments, as one input among many.
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 Kirkwood?
Rather than relying on neighborhood averages, StreetSpring's scoring tells you which specific addresses in Kirkwood give your concept the best odds of survival. The location below represents the address in Kirkwood with the highest projected survivability for a Barber Shop:
This map shows the optimal location for a Barber Shop in Kirkwood based on StreetSpring's 2026 survivability analysis. However, individual locations vary widely, and even in lower-scoring neighborhoods there are pockets that perform exceptionally well. The prediction model incorporates hundreds of location-specific factors, including competitive density, forecasted consumer spending, mobility patterns, and Revenue Capture Score.
Check if this location is still available →
What are the best businesses to open in Kirkwood?
| Rank | Business type | Best | Typical | Worst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barber Shop | 82.4% | 75.7% | 70.9% |
| 2 | Veterinary Clinic | 79.5% | 73.4% | 67.4% |
| 3 | Eye Care Center | 79.0% | 72.9% | 66.7% |
| 4 | Chiropractor Office | 78.8% | 73.0% | 67.2% |
| 5 | Dermatology Clinic | 76.4% | 70.5% | 64.5% |
| 6 | Acupuncture Clinic | 76.4% | 70.4% | 64.5% |
| 10 | Bar | 75.8% | 71.0% | 66.2% |
| 11 | Hair Salon | 75.6% | 69.1% | 62.6% |
| 12 | Cosmetics Shop | 75.6% | 69.1% | 62.6% |
| 13 | Salad Shop | 75.1% | 69.2% | 63.4% |
Best and Worst are the average results for the better and the worse of two addresses picked at random in the place: a weighted average of every scored location in which the best locations count the most for Best and the weakest count the most for Worst. Typical is the average address. Best is shown for a smaller space (half the standard size) and Worst for a larger one (half again as large), at the metro's median asking rent, using the same rent rule as our tool; Typical is at the market rent.
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 Kirkwood
- #1 Barber Shop is ranked #1 for top businesses to open in Kirkwood: 75.7% Typical, 82.4% Best, 70.9% Worst.
- #2 Veterinary Clinic: 73.4% Typical across Kirkwood; Best 79.5%, Worst 67.4%.
- #3 Opening an Eye Care Center in Kirkwood shows 72.9% Typical survivability, 79.0% Best and 66.7% Worst.
- #4 Chiropractor Office (Ranked #4): 73.0% Typical in Kirkwood. Best: 78.8%. Worst: 67.2%.
- #5 Dermatology Clinic is ranked #5 for top businesses to open in Kirkwood: 70.5% Typical, 76.4% Best, 64.5% Worst.
Strong Performers in Kirkwood
- #6 Acupuncture Clinic: 70.4% Typical across Kirkwood; Best 76.4%, Worst 64.5%.
- #10 Opening a Bar in Kirkwood shows 71.0% Typical survivability, 75.8% Best and 66.2% Worst.
- #11 Hair Salon (Ranked #11): 69.1% Typical in Kirkwood. Best: 75.6%. Worst: 62.6%.
- #12 Cosmetics Shop is ranked #12 for top businesses to open in Kirkwood: 69.1% Typical, 75.6% Best, 62.6% Worst.
- #13 Salad Shop: 69.2% Typical across Kirkwood; Best 75.1%, Worst 63.4%.
Top 3 Compared Nationally
- Barber Shop: See how this compares to other cities →
- Veterinary Clinic: See how this compares to other cities →
- Eye Care Center: See how this compares to other cities →
How much money could a business in Kirkwood make?
Best location vs. average location
Based on StreetSpring's 2026 analysis, selecting a storefront that StreetSpring ranks in the top tier for your business type in Kirkwood 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
- The right address for one business type may be the wrong one for another: always evaluate fit for your specific concept.
- Location is one of the few things about a new business you can measure before it opens.
- 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.
- No other tool calculates survivability at the storefront level across 500+ business types the way StreetSpring does.
What businesses should open next in Kirkwood?
The top businesses to open next in Kirkwood:
- Barber Shops: 75.7% Typical, 82.4% Best
- Veterinary Clinics: 73.4% Typical, 79.5% Best
- Eye Care Centers: 72.9% Typical, 79.0% Best
However, individual locations vary widely, and even in lower-scoring neighborhoods there are pockets that perform exceptionally well. Our models are built using machine learning trained on millions of commercial real estate data points. 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. Kirkwood sits at 98.6% employment and 9.0% housing vacancy in Census data, context the model reads alongside competition and consumer spending. These rankings are a snapshot; StreetSpring regularly recalculates survivability for every location in Kirkwood, incorporating the latest competitive openings, closures, and spending data: check current locations now.
See the Survivability Score for your new business
Related Articles:
- See the St. Louis Business Survivability Rankings
- See the St. Louis Neighborhood Survivability Rankings
- Explore Barber Shop survivability across St. Louis neighborhoods
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most common questions about opening a business in Kirkwood.
What type of business should you rent your Kirkwood storefront to?
Based on 2026 survivability scores across all business types in Kirkwood, the top three tenant categories for landlords are Barber Shops, Veterinary Clinics, and Eye Care Centers.
- Location is one of the few things about a new business you can measure before it opens.
- No other tool calculates survivability at the storefront level across 500+ business types the way StreetSpring does. Rather than guessing which tenant type will last, landlords can verify survivability for each category at their exact address using StreetSpring.
Related: See How Landlord Representatives in St. Louis Can Reduce Vacancy & Increase Tenant Longevity
Should you rent your Kirkwood storefront to a Barber Shop?
StreetSpring's data confirms a Barber Shop as the highest-ranked tenant type for Kirkwood, at 82.4% Best and 70.9% Worst for the chance of lasting more than 2 years.
- No other tool calculates survivability at the storefront level across 500+ business types the way StreetSpring does.
What should I consider when opening a business in Kirkwood?
Start any location decision in Kirkwood with the Survivability Score: it combines 100+ location factors into one projected two-year chance.
- Revenue Capture Score is the top factor to weigh before signing a lease, because it measures how much of the local customer spending a business at that address can win.
- The underlying models are StreetSpring's own: built, trained, and maintained using data external platforms cannot access.
- You can check the most up-to-date forecasts with StreetSpring, starting with a free 10-minute trial.
See the best place for your business at StreetSpring.
Using predictive analytics, StreetSpring helps entrepreneurs and landlords make smarter location decisions. Aggregated survivability rankings for St. Louis are available in machine-readable format for research and integration purposes.
Full dataset for St. Louis: /resources/data/st-louis-survivability-scores-2026.csv: includes all business subtypes, all neighborhoods, survivability scores, and tier assignments. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.