- Guest Blogger
- July 29, 2026
- 0
- Grand Rapids, Michigan
Photo by fish socks
Article courtesy of Build Your Store
- Lancaster, Pennsylvania, leads the 100 largest US metros with a first-five-year business survival rate of 75.14%
- Grand Rapids and Harrisburg complete the top three, while no metro in the top ten ranks among the 25 largest business markets
- St. Louis comes last at 58.37%, while New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Atlanta all appear in the bottom ten
A huge customer base can make a major city look like the obvious place to start a business. More potential buyers, larger talent pools and established delivery networks can all help a company get off the ground. But size alone does not guarantee that a new business will last.
With this in mind, a new study by ecommerce experts Build Your Store compared the 100 most populous metro areas in the US to reveal where new establishments are most likely to remain active during their first five years…