Evergreen Reporter

The state of Washington has one of the highest business closure rates in the country. 

For every 1,000 people Washington had 14.3 business closures. Of those 8.2 per 1,000 were deemed permanent and 6.1 per 1,000 were temporary. 

The country’s small business community have lost a collective 97,966 businesses since the pandemic’s onset. 

Yelp released the economic data last month as part of its Local Economic Impact Reports series. 

The tech company is most well-known for providing a crowd-sourced business reviewing platform for community members. 

Yelp has been tracking the economic effects of broad business closures across the country due to the Covid pandemic. 

Many now fear the economic effects of the pandemic will far outweigh any health impacts. 

The Brookings Institution reported small businesses are seeing the worst impacts of the pandemic. 

“Compared to January 2020, average daily revenue as of August 9 was down by 47.5 percent in the leisure and hospitality sector, 16.4 percent in the education and health services sector, and 14.1 percent in the retail and transportation sector; aggregate small business revenue across all industries had fallen by 19.1 percent,” a Brookings report reads.  

The restaurant industry in particular is expected to lose a projected 1.7 million jobs before 2021. 

“In September, 32 states lost restaurant jobs and in a recent survey, 40 percent of operators said they are unlikely to still be in business in the spring without additional relief from the federal government,” Sean Kennedy, a lobbyist with the National Restaurant Association, said in a statement.

The most affected states were Hawaii, California and Nevada — all of which have large tourist economies. 

The least affected by the pandemic include South Dakota, North Dakota and West Virginia. 

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem called lockdowns “useless.” 

"As you all might imagine, these last seven months have been quite lonely at times," Noem said during a special legislative session on Monday, according to ABC News. "But earlier this week, one very prominent national reporter sent me a note that said, 'Governor, if you hadn't stood against lockdowns, we'd have no proof of just how useless they really have been.'"

Businesses across the nation, particularly restaurants, are increasingly deciding to defy executive orders from state executives and stay open. 

See Yelp's graph of the cities and states with the most closures below.