What counts as a small business in these figures?

The SBA Office of Advocacy uses fewer than 500 employees for research. The Federal Reserve survey covers employer firms with 1 to 499 employees. The FDIC lets each bank apply its own definition, most commonly by revenue or loan size.

Why do the approval rates here differ from the ones in our guides?

These are bank and survey-wide figures from federal sources. Our guides describe revenue-based funders, who underwrite bank deposits rather than credit and collateral, and whose approval patterns the federal surveys do not break out separately.

How often is this page updated?

Each source publishes on its own cycle: the Fed survey every March, the SBA FAQ roughly yearly, the FDIC survey every few years. The figures are re-read against the source documents when a new edition appears, and the date of the last check is shown on the page.

Can I cite these numbers?

Cite the federal source, which is linked next to every figure. This page is a compilation; the SBA, the Federal Reserve Banks and the FDIC are the authorities.

Data

Small business lending statistics, 2026

By Alex Makowski Updated September 9, 2026

There are 36.2 million small businesses in the United States, 99.9 percent of all firms. Sixty percent of small employer firms applied for financing in the past year, and 42 percent of applicants got the full amount they asked for. Three in four banks approve a small, simple loan within five business days.

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Every figure on this page comes from one of three federal publications: the Federal Reserve Banks’ Small Business Credit Survey, the SBA Office of Advocacy’s annual FAQ, and the FDIC’s Small Business Lending Survey. Each number links to its source. None of them are ours — our own figures are on the about page, labelled as such.

How many small businesses there are

The Office of Advocacy counts a business as small when it has fewer than 500 employees. By that definition almost every business in the country is one.

Figure	What it measures	Source
36,207,130	Small businesses in the United States	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
82.3%	Have no employees29,811,495 nonemployer firms.	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
17.7%	Have paid employees6,395,635 employer firms, against 21,041 large businesses.	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
99.9%	Of all U.S. firms are small99.7 percent of firms with paid employees.	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
45.9%	Of private-sector employees work for a small business62.3 million workers.	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
43.5%	Of gross domestic product comes from small businesses	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
38.7%	Of private-sector payroll$3.5 trillion.	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
61%	Of net new jobs since 1995 were created by small businesses20.7 million net new jobs from January 1995 to December 2024, against 13.2 million at large businesses.	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
97.2%	Of U.S. exporters are small businesses270,014 firms, 33.0 percent of known export value.	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy

Who applies for financing, and who gets it

The Federal Reserve's Small Business Credit Survey asks employer firms every fall what they applied for and what happened. These are the 2025 answers, published in March 2026.

Figure	What it measures	Source
60%	Of small employer firms applied for some form of financing in the prior 12 months	Federal Reserve Banks
38%	Applied specifically for a loan, a line of credit, or a merchant cash advance	Federal Reserve Banks
42%	Of applicants received the full amount they asked for36 percent received some or most of it; 22 percent received none.	Federal Reserve Banks
57%	Full-approval rate for applicants at small banksHigher than at any other lender type in the survey. Applicants most often went to large banks first, then online lenders, then small banks.	Federal Reserve Banks
60%	Of firms that borrowed from an online lender said the cost was higher than they expectedAgainst 37 percent at small banks and 32 percent at large banks.	Federal Reserve Banks
56%	Applied to cover operating expenses46 percent applied to expand or pursue a new opportunity. Firms could give more than one reason.	Federal Reserve Banks
59%	Of firms with financing had a personal guarantee attached to it51 percent had pledged business assets as collateral.	Federal Reserve Banks
31%	Of small employer firms carried no outstanding debt at all	Federal Reserve Banks
77%	Reported rising costs of goods, services or wages, tariff-related cost increases, or bothMore than four in ten reported tariff-related increases specifically.	Federal Reserve Banks

How banks decide, and how long it takes

The FDIC asked about 1,300 banks how they actually underwrite a small business loan. The answers explain most of what a business owner experiences at a branch.

Figure	What it measures	Source
3 in 10	Banks can approve a small, simple loan within one business dayIncluding more than half of large banks.	Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
3 in 4	Banks can approve a small, simple loan within five business daysThree in four approve their typical loan within ten business days; a very large or complex loan can take four to six weeks.	Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
81%	Of small banks often or always require collateral even for small loans55 percent of large banks do. For medium and large loans almost all banks require it.	Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
#1	The owner's personal credit score is the factor banks most often rate as importantFollowed by derogatory items on the credit report and willingness to sign a personal guarantee.	Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
66%	Of banks make loans to businesses they consider start-ups66 percent of small banks against 54 percent of large banks. Banks that meet applicants in person or use SBA programs are far more likely to.	Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
89%	Of small banks have a decision-maker meet the applicant in person39 percent of large banks do.	Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
< 1 in 30	Banks use a credit-scoring system to approve loans automaticallyFewer than one in a hundred will auto-approve a $250,000 loan. Small business lending is still decided by people.	Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

How long small businesses last

Bureau of Labor Statistics establishment data, averaged over 1994 to 2022, as compiled by the Office of Advocacy. The lender's two-year and five-year thresholds are not arbitrary; they sit where the survival curve bends.

Figure	What it measures	Source
67.7%	Of new employer establishments survive at least two years	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
49.2%	Survive five years	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
33.9%	Survive ten years25.5 percent survive fifteen.	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
69.5%	Of businesses that reach five years go on to reach ten76.1 percent of those that reach ten reach fifteen. Survival improves the longer a business has been trading.	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
1.3M	Establishments opened for the first time in 2023About 1.2 million closed permanently. Start-ups were 14.2 percent of all establishments, up from 12.5 percent in 2019.	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy
40.4%	Of classifiable businesses were owned by women in 202214 million businesses. Minority-owned businesses totalled 13 million; veterans owned 1.7 million.	U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy

Sources and method

2026 Report on Employer Firms: Findings from the 2025 Small Business Credit SurveyFederal Reserve Banks. Published March 3, 2026. Survey of 6,525 small employer firms (1 to 499 employees) in all 50 states and DC, fielded September 3 to November 14, 2025.
Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business, February 2026U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy. February 2026 edition. Compiled by the Office of Advocacy from Census Bureau (SUSB, NES, ABS), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BED) and other federal series; most figures refer to 2022 to 2024.
2024 Small Business Lending SurveyFederal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Report published 2024, survey conducted June 2022 to January 2023. Nationally representative survey of about 1,300 U.S. banks (68 percent response rate) on how they underwrite, approve and price small business loans.

Figures were read from the source documents themselves, not from secondary summaries, and last checked on September 9, 2026. Where a source rounds, we show its rounding.

FAQ

About these figures

What counts as a small business in these figures?: The SBA Office of Advocacy uses fewer than 500 employees for research. The Federal Reserve survey covers employer firms with 1 to 499 employees. The FDIC lets each bank apply its own definition, most commonly by revenue or loan size.
Why do the approval rates here differ from the ones in our guides?: These are bank and survey-wide figures from federal sources. Our guides describe revenue-based funders, who underwrite bank deposits rather than credit and collateral, and whose approval patterns the federal surveys do not break out separately.
How often is this page updated?: Each source publishes on its own cycle: the Fed survey every March, the SBA FAQ roughly yearly, the FDIC survey every few years. The figures are re-read against the source documents when a new edition appears, and the date of the last check is shown on the page.
Can I cite these numbers?: Cite the federal source, which is linked next to every figure. This page is a compilation; the SBA, the Federal Reserve Banks and the FDIC are the authorities.

Guides

What the numbers mean for an application