Business openings reached an all-time high in 2022, growing in 86% of states. The growth exceeded 2019 levels — particularly in the South, according to data released from Yelp.

The rapid growth — up 12% compared with 2019 — was largely driven by new home and local services businesses, while new restaurants, shopping and nightlife business openings fell behind pre-pandemic levels. 

There’s no guarantee the industry will see more search ads and content online, but most of these companies are small businesses and it makes sense that each will use paid social or paid search to promote businesses.

It’s important to note that “business openings” refer to the new business listings on Yelp.

The business listings are added by either business representatives or Yelp users.

Openings are adjusted year-over-year, measured relative to the same time period in the previous period for the same business categories and geographic locations.

Yelp data shows strong signs of growth across the country as every U.S. state, and Washington D.C., saw more business openings compared with 2021. Some of the most densely populated U.S. states like California and Texas saw the highest number of new businesses in 2022, as well as the major metropolitan areas in these states such as Los Angeles and Dallas.

The top five states with the newest business openings are some of the most population-dense states in the U.S. — such as California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Georgia.

In the same time period, Yelp data shows that hotels and travel, beauty, and nightlife businesses had the highest percentage increase in business openings across top metros.

Hotels and travel ranked in the top three categories of the top eight metros with the highest year-over-year new business growth in 2022, as San Francisco and Los Angeles saw the largest increases.

San Francisco hasn’t recovered to pre-pandemic levels, with business openings still remaining 5% below 2019 levels, the city showed signs of improvement with a 5% increase in 2022 business openings when compared to 2021, the report shows.

On Wednesday, the company released its annual list of the Top 100 Places to Eat in the country. Determined by Yelp with input from its community of online reviewers, the ranking includes everything from burger joints, and ramen shops, to five-star bistros.

California took 28 restaurants on Yelp’s 2023 list, including five restaurants in the top 10. Florida took 14 of this year’s top spots. Texas came next with eight, followed by Nevada with five and Arizona with four.

Business openings reached an all-time high in 2022, growing in 86% of states. Growth exceeded 2019 levels, particularly in the South, according to Yelp data.