Closed for good: what the data says about permanent closures
Business listings do not vanish when a business closes. We looked at how many are marked permanently closed, and how that varies by industry and place.
When a shop closes its doors for the last time, its listing often lives on. Map apps, directories and data providers keep the record, and at some point someone marks it closed. That makes listing data an unusual window onto closures: not a count of how many businesses fail, but a record of how many listed places are known to have shut.
On CheckThisBiz, 118,090 listings, 1.5% of the total, are marked permanently closed in the source data. Another 1,772,947 (23%) have no recorded status either way, and 5,813,689 (75%) are marked open.
- Marked open 75% (5,813,689)
- Status not recorded 23% (1,772,947)
- Marked permanently closed 1.5% (118,090)
Read this number carefully
It is tempting to treat the closed share as a closure rate. It is not. A listing is only marked closed if a data source learns about the closure, so the share depends on how closely each source follows a given kind of business. Businesses that close without anyone updating their listing stay in the "open" or "unknown" columns. Old closures may have been removed from sources entirely. And the data has no dates, so it cannot say when a closure happened. What it does show is where closures are recorded most often.
By industry
The share of listings marked permanently closed is highest in Hotels & Lodging, at 6.4%, and lowest in Education, at under 0.1%. One possible explanation for the spread: businesses that customers visit and review often may have their closures noticed and recorded sooner than offices or services people rarely visit in person.
| Group | Marked closed |
|---|---|
| 6.4% | |
| 4.3% | |
| 4.2% | |
| 3.9% | |
| under 0.1% | |
| under 0.1% | |
| under 0.1% | |
| under 0.1% | |
| under 0.1% | |
| under 0.1% |
The subcategories with the most recorded closures
Among subcategories with at least 3,852 listings, the highest closed share is in Social Club (11%), followed by Event Venue (11%) and Resort (8.9%).
| Subcategory | Marked closed |
|---|---|
| 11% | |
| 11% | |
| 8.9% | |
| 7.2% | |
| 6.6% | |
| 5.9% | |
| 5.7% | |
| 5.5% | |
| 5.0% | |
| 4.8% | |
| 4.7% | |
| 4.6% |
By state
Across states, the recorded closed share ranges from 2.8% in District of Columbia to 0.3% in Alaska. As with industries, these differences can reflect how actively listings are maintained in each area as much as differences in how many businesses close.
| State | Marked closed |
|---|---|
| 2.8% | |
| 2.7% | |
| 2.7% | |
| 2.0% | |
| 1.9% | |
| 1.9% | |
| 1.9% | |
| 1.9% | |
| 1.8% | |
| 1.7% | |
| 1.6% | |
| 1.6% | |
| 1.5% | |
| 1.5% | |
| 1.5% |
What this means before you visit or pay
If about one in four listings is either marked closed or has no recorded status, it is worth a quick check before you drive across town or send a deposit. CheckThisBiz shows a listing's recorded status and runs live checks on its website and domain; see its methodology or look up a business. And if your own business is shown with the wrong status, you can claim your listing and correct it.
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