Where Main Street Borrows: SBA Lending by State Across 66,310 Small Businesses (2026 Data Study)
Last updated: July 2026
Our first data study looked at SBA borrowing by industry — funeral homes and veterinary practices at the capital-intensive top, landscaping at the lean end. This companion cuts the same 66,310 bank-underwritten US businesses by geography, because for a buyer the state you search in changes what the inventory looks like: how many verifiable operators there are, how large they run, and which industries dominate the local deal flow.
As before, every figure is computed directly from public SBA 7(a)/504 records in Scouly's live database. Loan sizes are not purchase prices — they are what banks underwrote — but they are the most honest public window into the scale of Main Street businesses in each state.
The fifteen deepest states
Tracked SBA borrowers, median peak loan, and the share of borrowers whose largest loan reached $1M+:
| State | Borrowers | Median peak loan | Share ≥ $1M | Deepest vertical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 11,062 | $555,000 | 26% | Dental |
| Texas | 4,946 | $552,400 | 29% | Auto repair |
| Florida | 4,177 | $496,000 | 24% | Auto repair |
| Illinois | 2,783 | $450,000 | 21% | Manufacturing |
| Ohio | 2,546 | $425,450 | 22% | Manufacturing |
| New York | 2,416 | $401,000 | 21% | Manufacturing |
| Michigan | 2,389 | $471,800 | 22% | Manufacturing |
| Colorado | 2,261 | $565,000 | 28% | Auto repair |
| Minnesota | 2,243 | $434,200 | 20% | Manufacturing |
| Wisconsin | 1,976 | $499,000 | 24% | Manufacturing |
| Georgia | 1,817 | $520,000 | 25% | Auto repair |
| Arizona | 1,802 | $537,400 | 24% | Auto repair |
| Pennsylvania | 1,704 | $485,000 | 26% | Manufacturing |
| Utah | 1,671 | $412,000 | 18% | Dental |
| Washington | 1,669 | $544,000 | 26% | Dental |
What the geography says
California is a market unto itself. With 11,062 tracked borrowers it has more than twice Texas's count and roughly a sixth of the national dataset — and its deepest vertical is dental, reflecting how thoroughly SBA lending finances practice ownership on the coasts. Browse it by vertical: dental practices in California or HVAC in California.
Colorado has the largest businesses, per dollar of evidence. Among states with 500+ borrowers, Colorado's $565k median peak loan is the highest in the nation — ahead of California ($555k), Tennessee ($552.5k), and Texas ($552.4k) — with 28% of its borrowers past $1M. For buyers, higher medians mean the verifiable inventory skews toward larger, real-premises operations.
The Midwest is manufacturing country, and it's cheaper to enter. Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania all show niche manufacturing as their deepest vertical, with medians clustered in the $425k–$500k band — meaningful businesses at entry points well below the coasts. New Hampshire has the smallest median in the qualifying set ($301k), followed by Massachusetts ($370k) — evidence that plenty of real, bank-underwritten businesses transact at scales a first-time buyer can finance.
The Sun Belt's deal flow is automotive. Texas, Florida, Georgia, Arizona, and Colorado all show auto repair as their deepest borrower pool — car-dependent metros generating dense, fragmented repair markets. Texas notably pairs the Sun Belt's auto-heavy mix with a near-Colorado median ($552.4k) and the highest $1M+ share in the top fifteen (29%).
How to use this as a buyer
Depth beats median for sourcing. A state with thousands of verifiable borrowers gives you a rankable target list in any metro; the median just tells you the typical scale. A searcher in Ohio has fewer $1M+ operators to chase than one in Texas — and correspondingly less buyer competition for the solid $400k-loan machine shop.
Match the state to your thesis vertical. If your thesis is manufacturing, the Midwest's depth is your friend. If it's dental or veterinary, the coasts and mountain states hold the inventory. Every state's tracked companies are browsable free — markets index, or build a thesis scoped to your state.
Remember what this data is. Borrowing proves a bank underwrote the business and sketches its scale. It does not report profitability — no public source does — and loan medians are not price guides. The method for turning this data into an actual target list is in the pillar guide.
Methodology
Same dataset and definitions as the vertical study: public SBA 7(a)/504 loan-level records for the 66,310 US companies in Scouly's database with at least one SBA loan; "peak loan" is each company's largest single loan; state cuts include only states with 500+ tracked borrowers (33 states qualify; smaller states are excluded from rankings, not from the product). Tracked borrowers skew toward loans of roughly $150k+ by ingest design. Snapshot: July 2026.
FAQ
Which state has the most small businesses to buy? By verifiable, bank-underwritten inventory in our data: California (11,062 tracked borrowers), then Texas, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio. Raw count isn't everything — buyer competition scales with the same density — but depth means choice in any thesis.
Which states have the largest small businesses? By median peak SBA loan among states with 500+ borrowers: Colorado ($565k), California ($555k), Tennessee ($552.5k), and Texas ($552.4k). Texas also has the highest share of $1M+ borrowers (29%) among the fifteen deepest states.
Are businesses cheaper in the Midwest? Loan medians there are lower ($425k–$500k) and manufacturing dominates the mix, which is consistent with lower entry prices — but loan size measures scale, not valuation. Multiples are set deal by deal.
Where does this data come from? Public SBA loan-level disclosures at data.sba.gov, cross-referenced in Scouly's database. Every company profile links its underlying records, and browsing by state or metro is free.