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Project SF

This index counts the business locations that started and stopped trading in San Francisco each year, using the register every business in the city must file with the Treasurer & Tax Collector. We publish a monthly report with the detail, and we check individual closures by address in our Closed & Moved tracker. This page is the long view.

Why we compare whole years

Closures reach the register late. A business that stops trading in May is often not recorded as closed until months afterwards, when its registration lapses or its owner files. So the latest months always look like a boom in openings. The chart shows it: ends for the last few months are a fraction of the same months a year earlier. That is why this index uses the last complete calendar year, 2025, and why we re-run it every month and publish how much the figures moved.

02505007501,0001,2501,5001,750September 2023: 795 startedSeptember 2023: 476 endedOctober 2023: 754 startedOctober 2023: 417 endedNovember 2023: 693 startedNovember 2023: 437 endedDecember 2023: 608 startedDecember 2023: 1,436 endedJanuary 2024: 1,654 startedJanuary 2024: 907 endedJan2024February 2024: 806 startedFebruary 2024: 593 endedMarch 2024: 1,191 startedMarch 2024: 647 endedApril 2024: 869 startedApril 2024: 602 endedMay 2024: 1,034 startedMay 2024: 1,294 endedJune 2024: 866 startedJune 2024: 1,007 endedJuly 2024: 1,030 startedJuly 2024: 419 endedJul2024August 2024: 892 startedAugust 2024: 479 endedSeptember 2024: 767 startedSeptember 2024: 446 endedOctober 2024: 849 startedOctober 2024: 455 endedNovember 2024: 701 startedNovember 2024: 420 endedDecember 2024: 627 startedDecember 2024: 1,419 endedJanuary 2025: 1,577 startedJanuary 2025: 705 endedJan2025February 2025: 795 startedFebruary 2025: 432 endedMarch 2025: 902 startedMarch 2025: 567 endedApril 2025: 1,019 startedApril 2025: 633 endedMay 2025: 907 startedMay 2025: 1,172 endedJune 2025: 914 startedJune 2025: 1,021 endedJuly 2025: 1,107 startedJuly 2025: 530 endedJul2025August 2025: 815 startedAugust 2025: 343 endedSeptember 2025: 803 startedSeptember 2025: 423 endedOctober 2025: 850 startedOctober 2025: 380 endedNovember 2025: 655 startedNovember 2025: 351 endedDecember 2025: 728 startedDecember 2025: 1,237 endedJanuary 2026: 1,472 startedJanuary 2026: 561 endedJan2026February 2026: 976 startedFebruary 2026: 709 endedMarch 2026: 986 startedMarch 2026: 740 endedApril 2026: 1,012 startedApril 2026: 399 endedMay 2026: 910 startedMay 2026: 217 endedJune 2026: 783 startedJune 2026: 227 endedJuly 2026: 812 startedJuly 2026: 245 endedJul2026August 2026: 741 startedAugust 2026: 241 endedStartedEnded (faded: still filling in)
Business locations started (dark) and ended (red) in the San Francisco register each month, September 2023 to August 2026, as recorded on 18 September 2026. Excludes administrative closures and records that opened and closed within a week. The last five months of ends are faded because closures are usually filed late.

By neighborhood, 2025

Click a column heading to sort. Neighborhoods are the city’s 41 analysis neighborhoods, as assigned in the register.

Business locations started and ended by neighborhood, 2025 and 2024
NeighborhoodStarted 2025Ended 2025NetOpened per closedFood & drink startedFood & drink endedStarted 2024Ended 2024
Financial District/South Beach1,7101,157+5531.4855371,6241,259
Mission884618+2661.435916936705
South of Market586391+1951.53320542506
Sunset/Parkside533385+1481.38254479393
Mission Bay465321+1441.45205691471
Bayview Hunters Point451298+1531.51155524386
Castro/Upper Market420257+1631.6384491278
Marina384286+981.34186283254
Tenderloin352208+1441.693011369229
Outer Richmond351258+931.36124329256
Pacific Heights303223+801.3662288205
Chinatown301233+681.29217303308
Nob Hill296209+871.4283271207
West of Twin Peaks293247+461.1972296259
Not given270179+911.5175349284
Haight Ashbury238133+1051.7982202158
Potrero Hill238162+761.4774259171
Hayes Valley235164+711.43163283180
Inner Sunset232188+441.23123236169
Russian Hill230150+801.53152184180
Noe Valley215188+271.1462203186
Bernal Heights214153+611.452232181
Inner Richmond203163+401.25133224185
Excelsior192139+531.3821208147
North Beach175140+351.2571179171
Western Addition166117+491.4241176112
Presidio Heights150106+441.4240111126
Oceanview/Merced/Ingleside141101+401.47112794
Outer Mission13298+341.3530152112
Lone Mountain/USF127116+111.0962153102
Lakeshore9866+321.48948869
Glen Park9262+301.48007866
Portola8654+321.59429962
Visitacion Valley7451+231.45107963
Japantown6554+111.2817755
Presidio5343+101.23104424
Treasure Island4624+221.92114232
Twin Peaks4540+51.12005332
Seacliff219+122.3300138
Golden Gate Park51+45.00062
McLaren Park02-20.00031

Monthly reports

How we built this

Sources

Method

  1. We count a location as started in the year of its location start date, and ended in the year of its location end date. Only records with a San Francisco city address are counted.
  2. Records that start and end within seven days are treated as data corrections and left out.
  3. Administrative closures (registrations the Treasurer closed because they were not renewed, usually in one batch each June) are counted separately, not as ended locations, because they do not say when or whether the business stopped trading.
  4. Restaurants, cafés and bars are records whose self-reported industry code (NAICS) begins 7224 or 7225.
  5. Year totals run to the end of the last complete month. For 2026 that is August.

What this data cannot tell you

  • A registration is not a ribbon-cutting. It records when a business says a location began or stopped trading, and late filings keep changing recent figures.
  • Many records have no industry code (30% of 2025 starts), so the restaurant counts are a floor, not a total.
  • Businesses that close without telling the city stay “open” in the register. That is why we check closures individually in the tracker.
  • Each January a large number of registrations are dated 1 January (796 in 2025), which inflates January starts.
  • We publish counts only. We never publish owners’ names, registrations filed under a person’s own name, or home addresses.

Found an error? Tell us. Corrections are made on this page and dated in the log below. See our editorial standards.

Download and cite

The full table is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Please credit Project SF and link to this page.

Download the CSV

Project SF (2026). San Francisco Openings & Closings Index. Updated 18 September 2026. https://projectsf.com/data/sf-openings-closings-index/

Update log

  • 18 September 2026: First published, with 2024, 2025 and 2026 to date. Snapshot kept so that future revisions can be measured.