Small Business Lending Statistics
Last updated: 2026-10-28 · 12 sourced statistics
Most small businesses that apply for credit get at least some of it, but fewer get everything they ask for than before the pandemic. In the Federal Reserve Banks' 2025 Small Business Credit Survey, 38% of US employer firms applied for a loan, line of credit or merchant cash advance in the prior 12 months, and 52% of those applicants were fully approved, compared with 62% in the 2019 survey. The SBA approved a record $37.3 billion in 7(a) loans in fiscal year 2025, and the share of applicants turning to online lenders has risen from 17% to 29% in five years, often at a higher cost than borrowers expected. This page collects the approval, lender and SBA figures, what each one measures, and where it does not apply.
Key takeaways
- 38% of small employer firms applied for a loan, line of credit or cash advance; 52% of applicants were fully approved, 29% partially and 19% denied (2025 survey).
- SBA loan applicants had the lowest full-approval rate of any product in the survey (32%), even as SBA 7(a) approvals hit a record $37.3 billion across 78,078 loans in FY2025.
- 29% of credit applicants applied at online lenders, up from 17% in the 2020 survey, and 60% of online-lender borrowers said costs were higher than expected.
- Applicants at small banks were the most likely to be fully approved (57%).
At a glance.
Every figure on this page in one table, each linked to its named source. Scroll down for the full context behind each number.
| Figure | What it measures | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 38% | 38% of US small employer firms applied for a loan, line of credit or merchant cash advance in the 12 months before the 2025 Small Business Credit Survey, nearly unchanged from the 2024 survey. | Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms | 2026 |
| 52% | Of those loan, line of credit and cash advance applicants (N=2,270), 52% were fully approved, 29% partially approved and 19% denied. In the 2019 survey, 62% were fully approved. | Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms | 2026 |
| 42% | Counting every type of financing sought, 42% of applicants received the full amount, 36% received some or most of it and 22% received none. | Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms | 2026 |
| 32% | Applicants for SBA loans or lines of credit (N=359) had the lowest full-approval rate of any product: 32% fully approved, 29% partially approved and 40% denied. Auto and equipment loans had the highest, at 71% fully approved. | Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms | 2026 |
| 57% | Applicants at small banks (under $10 billion in assets) were more likely to be fully approved than applicants at any other type of lender: 57%. | Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms | 2026 |
| 29% | 29% of loan, line of credit and cash advance applicants sought financing at online fintech lenders in the 2025 survey, up from 17% in the 2020 survey. Large banks remained the most common place to apply. | Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms | 2026 |
| 60% | 60% of firms that borrowed from online lenders said actual borrowing costs were higher than expected, compared with 37% of small bank borrowers and 32% of large bank borrowers. | Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms | 2026 |
| 86% | 86% of small employer firms use financing regularly. After credit cards, the most common products were loans (44% of firms) and lines of credit (36%). | Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms | 2026 |
| 59% | Borrowing often rests on the owner: 59% of firms with debt secured it with a personal guarantee and 38% with personal assets, up from 31% in 2019. 31% of firms had no outstanding debt at all. | Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms | 2026 |
| $37.3B | The SBA approved 78,078 7(a) loans worth $37.3 billion in fiscal year 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), above the previous high of $36.5 billion in FY2021. That is an average of about $478,000 per loan (our calculation). | US Small Business Administration, 7(a) & 504 Activity Reports: FY2025 Year End | 2025 |
| $7.8B | The SBA's 504 program, which finances real estate and major equipment, approved 6,762 loans worth $7.8 billion in fiscal year 2025, up from $6.7 billion in FY2024. | US Small Business Administration, 7(a) & 504 Activity Reports: FY2025 Year End | 2025 |
| +2.9% | At the 146 banks responding to the Kansas City Fed's survey, outstanding small business loans rose 2.9% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, while new small business loan balances rose 8.5%. | Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Small Business Lending Survey, Q2 2026 | 2026 |
The statistics
38% of US small employer firms applied for a loan, line of credit or merchant cash advance in the 12 months before the 2025 Small Business Credit Survey, nearly unchanged from the 2024 survey.
Source:Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms2026
Of those loan, line of credit and cash advance applicants (N=2,270), 52% were fully approved, 29% partially approved and 19% denied. In the 2019 survey, 62% were fully approved.
Source:Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms2026
Counting every type of financing sought, 42% of applicants received the full amount, 36% received some or most of it and 22% received none.
Source:Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms2026
Applicants for SBA loans or lines of credit (N=359) had the lowest full-approval rate of any product: 32% fully approved, 29% partially approved and 40% denied. Auto and equipment loans had the highest, at 71% fully approved.
Source:Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms2026
Applicants at small banks (under $10 billion in assets) were more likely to be fully approved than applicants at any other type of lender: 57%.
Source:Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms2026
29% of loan, line of credit and cash advance applicants sought financing at online fintech lenders in the 2025 survey, up from 17% in the 2020 survey. Large banks remained the most common place to apply.
Source:Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms2026
60% of firms that borrowed from online lenders said actual borrowing costs were higher than expected, compared with 37% of small bank borrowers and 32% of large bank borrowers.
Source:Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms2026
86% of small employer firms use financing regularly. After credit cards, the most common products were loans (44% of firms) and lines of credit (36%).
Source:Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms2026
Borrowing often rests on the owner: 59% of firms with debt secured it with a personal guarantee and 38% with personal assets, up from 31% in 2019. 31% of firms had no outstanding debt at all.
Source:Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms2026
The SBA approved 78,078 7(a) loans worth $37.3 billion in fiscal year 2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), above the previous high of $36.5 billion in FY2021. That is an average of about $478,000 per loan (our calculation).
Source:US Small Business Administration, 7(a) & 504 Activity Reports: FY2025 Year End2025
The SBA's 504 program, which finances real estate and major equipment, approved 6,762 loans worth $7.8 billion in fiscal year 2025, up from $6.7 billion in FY2024.
Source:US Small Business Administration, 7(a) & 504 Activity Reports: FY2025 Year End2025
At the 146 banks responding to the Kansas City Fed's survey, outstanding small business loans rose 2.9% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, while new small business loan balances rose 8.5%.
Source:Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Small Business Lending Survey, Q2 20262026
When these numbers don't apply
Aggregate statistics hide a lot. Read these caveats before quoting a figure as if it describes your specific situation.
- The Small Business Credit Survey is a convenience sample of employer firms with 1 to 499 employees (6,525 responses, fielded September to November 2025), weighted by the Federal Reserve Banks but not a random sample. Approval shares exclude pending applications and are based on what applicants report, not on lender records.
- Approval rates by lender and product mix different borrowers: online lenders and merchant cash advance providers attract firms that may have been turned down elsewhere, so a higher or lower approval rate is not a like-for-like measure of how strict each lender is.
- SBA figures are gross approvals in the fiscal year (October to September), as of 30 September 2025. Approved loans can later be cancelled or disbursed in smaller amounts, so totals in later SBA reports may differ slightly.
- The Kansas City Fed survey covers 146 responding banks and defines small business loans as commercial and industrial lending to organizations with generally less than $5 million in gross annual revenue. It is not a total for all US banks.
- There is no complete official count of US small business loan applications yet. The CFPB's small business lending data rule (Section 1071) was revised in a final rule published 1 May 2026, with a compliance date of 1 January 2028, according to consumerfinance.gov as of its page update that day.
- All figures are for the United States.
How we compiled this data
Reviewed 2026-10-28. Survey figures come from the Federal Reserve Banks' Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms (2025 survey, fielded 3 September to 14 November 2025, 6,525 employer responses); chart values were read from the report PDF with layout-preserving text extraction. SBA figures are the fiscal-year totals in the SBA's Monthly and Yearly Activity Report workbook (7(a) and 504, data as of 30 September 2025) on data.sba.gov; the average loan size is total approved dollars divided by approved loans. Bank-side trends come from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's Small Business Lending Survey for Q2 2026 (published 24 September 2026). The CFPB Section 1071 status was read on consumerfinance.gov. Earlier versions of this page linked survey and SBA homepages, rounded SBA volume to "$30B+", and cited a vendor late-payment report and a global factoring total; these were removed or replaced because they were not on the linked pages or belong on our late payment and invoice factoring pages. We could not find small business loan balances in the FDIC's public Call Report API or Quarterly Banking Profile text, so no FDIC figure is included.
We hand-collected each figure from its original publisher rather than recycling secondary round-ups, cross-checked the headline numbers against the source documents in 2026-10-28, and link every statistic to the report it came from so you can verify it yourself. Where a publisher issues annual updates, we cite the report edition and flag the year inline.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of small business loan applications are approved?
In the Federal Reserve Banks' 2025 Small Business Credit Survey, 52% of employer firms that applied for a loan, line of credit or cash advance were fully approved, 29% were partially approved and 19% were denied. Full approval was 62% in the 2019 survey.
How many small businesses apply for loans?
38% of US small employer firms applied for a loan, line of credit or merchant cash advance in the 12 months before the 2025 survey, nearly the same share as in 2024. Separately, 86% of firms use some form of financing regularly, most often credit cards, loans and lines of credit.
Are SBA loans hard to get?
SBA loan applicants in the 2025 survey had the lowest full-approval rate of any product: 32% fully approved and 40% denied (N=359). Even so, the SBA approved a record 78,078 7(a) loans worth $37.3 billion in fiscal year 2025.
Which lenders approve the most small business loans?
Applicants at small banks (under $10 billion in assets) were most likely to be fully approved, at 57%. Online lenders are growing (29% of applicants used one, up from 17% in 2020), but 60% of their borrowers said costs were higher than expected.
How much is a typical SBA 7(a) loan?
Across the 78,078 7(a) loans approved in fiscal year 2025, the average was about $478,000 ($37.3 billion divided by the loan count). Many loans are much smaller; an average is pulled up by large loans.
Do small business owners have to guarantee their loans personally?
Usually. 59% of small employer firms with debt secured it with a personal guarantee in the 2025 survey, and 38% pledged personal assets such as a home, up from 31% in 2019.
What does this mean for a business that sends invoices?
With full approval far from certain and online credit often costing more than expected, money already owed by customers is the cheapest working capital a business has. Invoicing promptly, setting clear terms and following up on overdue invoices reduces how often a gap has to be bridged with borrowing.
Put these figures to use
- Payments hub: Guides on payment terms, methods and getting invoices paid on time.
- Late fee calculator: Work out a late fee on an overdue invoice from the amount, rate and days late.
- Building business credit: a guide for small business owners: How D&B, Experian and Equifax business scores work and what feeds them.
- Business bank accounts for freelancers: what to compare: Fees, waivers and FDIC coverage to check before opening a business account.
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