SBA 7(a) lending by state
Which states’ small businesses use the SBA’s flagship loan programme most, measured against how many small businesses each state actually has. Every figure is computed from SBA’s own loan-level file and Census firm counts, and the full table is downloadable.
Fiscal year 2025 approvals, computed from SBA’s 7(a) FOIA loan-level file, snapshot 30 June 2026. Firm counts are Census SUSB 2022. Published 3 September 2026.
Small businesses in New Hampshire are more than three times as likely to take an SBA loan as those in Alaska
SBA publishes how much it lends in each state. It does not publish that figure against the number of small businesses in the state, which is the comparison that makes states comparable at all. Once you divide, the ranking stops tracking population and starts showing something else.
Ten highest and ten lowest states
Approvals per 1,000 small employer firms, fiscal year 2025. The national figure is 9.97.
More loans per business, smaller loans
The four states at the top of the ranking are not the states where SBA money is biggest. They are the states where it arrives in small pieces. SBA Express — the fast, smaller-dollar 7(a) channel — accounted for 40.8% of approvals in the four leading states against 33.0% nationally, and for 63.4% of every FY2025 approval in New Hampshire.
All 50 states and DC
Ranked by approvals per 1,000 small employer firms, fiscal year 2025, cancelled approvals excluded. Ties share a rank.
Small firms are employer firms with fewer than 500 employees (Census SUSB 2022). New business is the share of approvals to businesses two years old or less, or startups the loan would open. FY2024 is the state’s rank a year earlier on the identical calculation, with the change since.
| # | State | Per 1,000 | Approvals | Small firms | Median | New business | ≤$50k | FY2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Hampshire | 17.07 | 519 | 30,411 | $100,000 | 29.9% | 32.9% | 2 (▲1) |
| 2 | Idaho | 15.78 | 738 | 46,756 | $122,500 | 37.0% | 35.8% | 5 (▲3) |
| 3 | Ohio | 15.54 | 2,842 | 182,841 | $119,450 | 31.6% | 32.4% | 1 (▼2) |
| 4 | Utah | 15.13 | 1,161 | 76,760 | $150,000 | 36.3% | 25.4% | 4 (—) |
| 5 | Colorado | 12.80 | 1,881 | 146,901 | $249,200 | 34.4% | 20.2% | 9 (▲4) |
| 6 | Nevada | 12.18 | 720 | 59,092 | $150,000 | 34.4% | 28.8% | 11 (▲5) |
| 7 | Michigan | 12.16 | 2,112 | 173,653 | $150,000 | 28.5% | 26.9% | 3 (▼4) |
| 8 | Rhode Island | 11.94 | 284 | 23,791 | $100,000 | 24.3% | 28.9% | 24 (▲16) |
| 9 | Massachusetts | 11.92 | 1,716 | 143,964 | $100,000 | 27.7% | 32.2% | 7 (▼2) |
| 10 | Minnesota | 11.85 | 1,399 | 118,083 | $150,000 | 35.1% | 28.2% | 6 (▼4) |
| 11 | Connecticut | 11.77 | 805 | 68,418 | $130,000 | 30.2% | 30.6% | 8 (▼3) |
| 12 | Washington | 11.71 | 1,897 | 162,014 | $150,000 | 26.7% | 34.2% | 13 (▲1) |
| 13 | New Jersey | 11.60 | 2,261 | 194,859 | $175,000 | 29.1% | 25.1% | 10 (▼3) |
| 14 | Arizona | 11.26 | 1,367 | 121,389 | $250,000 | 32.9% | 19.6% | 15 (▲1) |
| 15 | Oregon | 11.09 | 1,075 | 96,969 | $100,000 | 22.5% | 42.1% | 18 (▲3) |
| 16 | Maryland | 10.87 | 1,200 | 110,383 | $150,000 | 38.7% | 31.7% | 16 (—) |
| 17 | Texas | 10.37 | 5,123 | 493,818 | $280,000 | 37.4% | 13.5% | 20 (▲3) |
| 18 | Vermont | 10.34 | 176 | 17,019 | $63,700 | 34.7% | 48.3% | 28 (▲10) |
| 19 | Maine | 9.89 | 339 | 34,292 | $100,000 | 44.0% | 36.0% | 17 (▼2) |
| 20 | Delaware | 9.77 | 223 | 22,816 | $100,000 | 35.4% | 41.7% | 22 (▲2) |
| 21 | Pennsylvania | 9.72 | 2,237 | 230,244 | $150,000 | 35.1% | 28.9% | 19 (▼2) |
| 22 | Florida | 9.48 | 4,907 | 517,775 | $250,000 | 28.2% | 18.2% | 14 (▼8) |
| 23 | Indiana | 9.41 | 1,042 | 110,750 | $150,000 | 31.6% | 21.7% | 12 (▼11) |
| 24 | Georgia | 9.35 | 1,865 | 199,431 | $349,100 | 37.5% | 13.7% | 25 (▲1) |
| 24 | New York | 9.35 | 4,257 | 455,479 | $150,000 | 23.6% | 28.3% | 23 (▼1) |
| 26 | California | 9.28 | 7,779 | 837,834 | $211,000 | 23.4% | 21.8% | 27 (▲1) |
| 27 | Illinois | 9.07 | 2,298 | 253,302 | $181,350 | 27.0% | 22.4% | 26 (▼1) |
| 28 | Wisconsin | 8.89 | 956 | 107,594 | $229,750 | 35.8% | 19.5% | 21 (▼7) |
| 29 | Missouri | 8.86 | 1,016 | 114,694 | $250,000 | 32.8% | 17.3% | 29 (—) |
| 30 | South Carolina | 8.49 | 767 | 90,365 | $260,100 | 39.6% | 21.9% | 31 (▲1) |
| 31 | District of Columbia | 8.38 | 147 | 17,536 | $203,500 | 28.6% | 19.7% | 34 (▲3) |
| 32 | New Mexico | 8.08 | 271 | 33,556 | $250,000 | 33.6% | 19.9% | 39 (▲7) |
| 32 | North Carolina | 8.08 | 1,560 | 192,951 | $304,500 | 39.9% | 15.3% | 35 (▲3) |
| 34 | Tennessee | 7.98 | 829 | 103,856 | $250,000 | 39.4% | 17.1% | 40 (▲6) |
| 35 | Virginia | 7.55 | 1,191 | 157,804 | $235,500 | 38.5% | 17.8% | 41 (▲6) |
| 36 | Hawaii | 7.48 | 185 | 24,728 | $50,000 | 40.0% | 50.8% | 30 (▼6) |
| 37 | Kentucky | 7.39 | 486 | 65,803 | $163,000 | 29.6% | 23.3% | 38 (▲1) |
| 38 | Kansas | 7.34 | 414 | 56,401 | $250,000 | 37.0% | 19.1% | 36 (▼2) |
| 39 | West Virginia | 7.10 | 173 | 24,376 | $114,300 | 42.8% | 31.8% | 32 (▼7) |
| 40 | Nebraska | 6.62 | 287 | 43,375 | $175,000 | 38.3% | 22.0% | 32 (▼8) |
| 41 | Arkansas | 6.52 | 333 | 51,109 | $255,000 | 43.5% | 18.6% | 50 (▲9) |
| 42 | Mississippi | 6.35 | 277 | 43,596 | $250,000 | 42.6% | 15.9% | 37 (▼5) |
| 43 | South Dakota | 6.33 | 144 | 22,742 | $150,000 | 45.1% | 26.4% | 44 (▲1) |
| 44 | Alabama | 6.31 | 476 | 75,382 | $250,000 | 38.4% | 14.7% | 48 (▲4) |
| 45 | Iowa | 6.19 | 383 | 61,829 | $150,000 | 37.3% | 29.8% | 42 (▼3) |
| 45 | Montana | 6.19 | 217 | 35,077 | $250,000 | 33.6% | 23.0% | 49 (▲4) |
| 47 | Louisiana | 5.85 | 474 | 81,011 | $250,000 | 33.3% | 13.5% | 43 (▼4) |
| 48 | Oklahoma | 5.84 | 423 | 72,456 | $261,400 | 35.9% | 14.7% | 46 (▼2) |
| 49 | North Dakota | 5.70 | 109 | 19,113 | $200,000 | 36.7% | 21.1% | 45 (▼4) |
| 50 | Wyoming | 5.63 | 108 | 19,173 | $150,000 | 30.6% | 25.9% | 51 (▲1) |
| 51 | Alaska | 4.96 | 86 | 17,343 | $354,350 | 36.0% | 14.0% | 47 (▼4) |
How these numbers were produced
Numerator. SBA’s 7(a) & 504 FOIA loan-level file, 7(a) extract for FY2020 to present, snapshot dated 30 June 2026 (sha256 6c1e9132b5141a19…). From 388,338 rows we remove 391 byte-identical duplicate rows, keep fiscal year 2025 only, keep the 50 states and DC by ProjectState, require a positive gross approval amount, and exclude the 13,917 approvals recorded as cancelled. That leaves an analytic population of 63,535 approvals. Puerto Rico (548 approvals), the US Virgin Islands (18) and Guam (7) are excluded because no comparable firm-count denominator is published for them.
Denominator. Census Statistics of U.S. Businesses 2022, released 10 April 2025: firms with fewer than 500 employees, all industries, by state. This is the standard small-employer-firm denominator, and the one SBA itself uses in its state profiles. It is a 2022 reference year against FY2025 lending; firm counts move slowly, but the mismatch is real and is the reason the metric is presented as a rate per 1,000 rather than a percentage of anything.
The rate. Approvals ÷ small employer firms × 1,000, rounded to two decimals. Ranks are competition-style: tied states share the lower rank number and the next distinct value skips accordingly, which is why Georgia and New York both rank 24th and no state ranks 25th.
Other columns. Median approval is the median gross approval amount in the state, not the mean — the distribution is right-skewed and capped at the $5 million programme limit. “New business” is the share of approvals where SBA recorded the borrower as a new business of two years or less, or as a startup the loan would open. “≤$50k” is the share of approvals at or below $50,000. Percentages are computed on the analytic population and rounded to one decimal.
Cross-check. Before any exclusions the file holds 78,078 FY2025 7(a) approvals worth $37.3 billion. SBA’s own year-end announcement reports 77,600 7(a) loans for $37 billion. The two agree.
Reproducing it. Both source files are public and stable, and both hashes are published above and in the downloadable table’s companion notes. The derivation is deterministic: the same two files produce the same 51 rows.
What these numbers cannot tell you
- Nothing about approval odds. The SBA file contains approvals, not applications. There are no declines in it. A low rank means fewer SBA loans per business, not that businesses there were turned down.
- Nothing about total credit. 7(a) is one programme. It excludes 504, microloans, conventional bank lending, credit cards, equipment finance and every private lender. A state can be low here and well served overall.
- Small states carry wide margins. Alaska’s 86 approvals imply a 95% interval of roughly 3.9 to 6.0 per 1,000 on sampling variation alone. Differences of a few tenths between adjacent states are not meaningful.
- Denominator vintage and double-counting. SUSB counts a firm in every state where it has establishments, so the 51 state counts sum to about 1.4% more than the national total. This inflates denominators slightly in states with many branch operations.
- Approved is not funded, and FY2025 is unusual. 18.0% of FY2025 approvals in these states were later cancelled and never disbursed. That is the highest cancellation share of any year in the file — FY2020 to FY2024 ran between 9.8% and 13.7%, and the FY2020–FY2025 pooled figure is 12.9%. Cancelled approvals are excluded here. Including them changes the ranking modestly (ρ = 0.99), and the per-state cancellation share is in the downloadable table.
- Location is the project, not the borrower. We rank on
ProjectState. Using the borrower’s state instead gives a near-identical ranking (ρ = 0.999, no state moves three places). - Association, never cause. The relationships shown between lending rate, loan size and startup share are measured differences. Nothing here identifies why they exist.
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You are welcome to reproduce any figure, chart or table on this page in reporting, research or educational material, with attribution and a link back to this page. No permission request is needed. If your state is in the table and you want the underlying rows, the CSV above is the whole thing.
If a figure here contradicts one you have published, we would rather you check our method than take it on trust — it is set out in full above, and both source files are public.
Every source on this page
- US Small Business Administration — 7(a) & 504 FOIA loan-level data · 7(a) FY2020–present extract, snapshot 30 June 2026
- US Census Bureau — Statistics of U.S. Businesses · 2022 US & states by enterprise employment size, released 10 April 2025
- US Small Business Administration — FY2025 year-end lending announcement · the 77,600 loans / $37 billion cross-check
- Fundur aggregate download — SBA 7(a) lending by state, FY2025 · CSV, all 51 rows and every column
Fundur is a financing marketplace, not a lender. For national lending statistics see small business lending statistics, and for what SBA borrowers were actually charged see our SBA rates and fees analysis. The same file cut by industry rather than state — median approval for every NAICS sector and 297 six-digit industries — is on SBA lending by industry. SBA lending is federal; each state also runs its own federally funded SSBCI programmes, and how much of that allocation each has deployed — from 99.3% in Alaska to 5.0% in Texas at March 31, 2026 — is on SSBCI deployment by state.
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