HomeSBA default rates
SBA default and charge-off rates, by state and by county.
The SBA publishes a loan-level FOIA release and no rates. This page computes the charge-off rate from that release for all 51 jurisdictions and every one of the 3,144 counties and county-equivalents beneath them. The method is stated first, because a rate is only as good as its denominator and this one has a denominator most published SBA default rates do not use.
The method, before the numbers
What is being divided by what.
A loan in the SBA release carries a status. Two of those statuses are outcomes: paid in full and charged off. The rest are states a loan can still be sitting in, including cancelled, not funded, committed but not yet disbursed, and exempt from disclosure.
The charge-off rate on this site is charge-offs divided by resolved loans, where a resolved loan is one recorded as either paid in full or charged off. Nothing else enters the denominator, because nothing else has an outcome yet. Counting an outstanding loan as a success would be a forecast rather than a measurement.
This matters more than it sounds. Only 19.3 percent of the 7(a) approvals in the release have reached an outcome at all. Dividing charge-offs by every approval gives 1.78 percent; dividing by resolved loans gives 9.23 percent. Both are arithmetically correct. Only the second answers the question a credit committee is actually asking, which is how often a loan of this kind ends badly.
Three further rules, applied identically at every geography:
- A rate is withheld below 10 resolved loans. The count of resolved loans is published next to every rate so the reader can see how much weight it carries.
- The two programmes are never blended. 7(a) and 504 are different products with different collateral and they are reported separately throughout.
- Both spellings of paid in full in the release are counted. The 7(a) tape writes P I F and the 504 tape writes PIF, and reading only one of them made every 504 rate read 100 percent until this was found and fixed.
Sources: US Small Business Administration, 7(a) FOIA release, FY2020 to FY2026 year to date, as of 2026-06-30. US Small Business Administration, 504 FOIA release, FY2010 to FY2026 year to date, as of 2026-06-30.
The national picture
Charge-off rates over resolved loans.
- 7(a) charge-off rate
- 9.23 percent
- Resolved 7(a) loans behind it
- 74,084
- 7(a) loans charged off
- 6,839
- 504 charge-off rate
- 2.37 percent
- Resolved 504 loans behind it
- 37,124
- 504 loans charged off
- 878
Against those rates sit 383,752 7(a) approvals worth $201.41 bn and 116,487 504 approvals worth $97.90 bn. The 504 rate is roughly a quarter of the 7(a) rate, which is what a programme secured on owner-occupied real estate should look like next to one that is mostly working capital and equipment.
Where the rate is highest and lowest
The spread across jurisdictions.
Every jurisdiction below clears the 10 resolved-loan floor for 7(a), so all 51 are ranked rather than filtered.
| Highest 7(a) charge-off rate | Rate | Resolved | Lowest 7(a) charge-off rate | Rate | Resolved |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 26.72% | 131 | Alaska | 0.80% | 125 |
| New York | 20.02% | 4,050 | North Dakota | 2.05% | 292 |
| Delaware | 17.17% | 233 | Idaho | 3.06% | 817 |
| New Jersey | 16.32% | 2,218 | Vermont | 3.24% | 309 |
| Connecticut | 15.13% | 423 | Nebraska | 3.33% | 510 |
On the 504 side the highest rates are Arkansas at 12.35 percent, Mississippi at 10.26 percent, Pennsylvania at 7.17 percent, West Virginia at 6.25 percent, Alabama at 6.05 percent. A high state rate is not a verdict on a state: it is a starting point for asking which counties and which industries inside it carry the loss, and the county pages are where that question gets answered.
All 51 jurisdictions
Every state, both programmes.
| Jurisdiction | Counties | 7(a) resolved | 7(a) charge-off rate | 504 resolved | 504 charge-off rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 67 | 417 | 11.27% | 430 | 6.05% |
| Alaska | 30 | 125 | 0.80% | 99 | 5.05% |
| Arizona | 15 | 1,516 | 8.25% | 731 | 1.92% |
| Arkansas | 75 | 499 | 4.41% | 81 | 12.35% |
| California | 58 | 8,484 | 9.89% | 7,461 | 0.79% |
| Colorado | 64 | 1,920 | 9.11% | 1,280 | 1.95% |
| Connecticut | 9 | 423 | 15.13% | 65 | 0.00% |
| Delaware | 3 | 233 | 17.17% | 33 | 3.03% |
| District of Columbia | 1 | 131 | 26.72% | 43 | 2.33% |
| Florida | 67 | 4,826 | 15.06% | 2,896 | 1.86% |
| Georgia | 159 | 2,153 | 8.04% | 1,053 | 3.42% |
| Hawaii | 5 | 207 | 12.08% | 184 | 0.00% |
| Idaho | 44 | 817 | 3.06% | 542 | 0.92% |
| Illinois | 102 | 2,565 | 8.93% | 1,792 | 3.52% |
| Indiana | 92 | 1,670 | 5.33% | 829 | 2.29% |
| Iowa | 99 | 606 | 5.45% | 435 | 2.76% |
| Kansas | 105 | 699 | 3.72% | 289 | 3.81% |
| Kentucky | 120 | 704 | 6.11% | 222 | 4.95% |
| Louisiana | 64 | 453 | 12.80% | 152 | 3.29% |
| Maine | 16 | 444 | 3.60% | 310 | 2.58% |
| Maryland | 24 | 1,114 | 14.72% | 240 | 3.33% |
| Massachusetts | 14 | 2,019 | 7.03% | 1,270 | 3.15% |
| Michigan | 83 | 2,962 | 5.60% | 1,173 | 1.88% |
| Minnesota | 87 | 2,899 | 5.21% | 1,533 | 2.61% |
| Mississippi | 82 | 539 | 6.86% | 39 | 10.26% |
| Missouri | 115 | 1,494 | 6.36% | 696 | 3.16% |
| Montana | 56 | 360 | 3.61% | 145 | 0.00% |
| Nebraska | 93 | 510 | 3.33% | 211 | 2.37% |
| Nevada | 17 | 750 | 13.33% | 546 | 1.83% |
| New Hampshire | 10 | 680 | 3.82% | 551 | 2.00% |
| New Jersey | 21 | 2,218 | 16.32% | 417 | 3.12% |
| New Mexico | 33 | 328 | 5.18% | 200 | 2.00% |
| New York | 62 | 4,050 | 20.02% | 1,071 | 4.76% |
| North Carolina | 100 | 1,551 | 5.87% | 562 | 1.96% |
| North Dakota | 53 | 292 | 2.05% | 262 | 4.96% |
| Ohio | 88 | 4,736 | 7.09% | 1,039 | 2.98% |
| Oklahoma | 77 | 797 | 5.52% | 256 | 5.47% |
| Oregon | 36 | 1,246 | 6.42% | 390 | 1.28% |
| Pennsylvania | 67 | 2,318 | 9.28% | 516 | 7.17% |
| Rhode Island | 5 | 239 | 7.95% | 215 | 2.79% |
| South Carolina | 46 | 797 | 8.66% | 224 | 2.68% |
| South Dakota | 66 | 269 | 7.06% | 373 | 3.49% |
| Tennessee | 95 | 836 | 8.01% | 216 | 2.78% |
| Texas | 254 | 5,034 | 10.93% | 1,952 | 3.74% |
| Utah | 29 | 1,490 | 5.44% | 1,356 | 1.03% |
| Vermont | 14 | 309 | 3.24% | 112 | 2.68% |
| Virginia | 133 | 1,093 | 10.06% | 532 | 1.88% |
| Washington | 39 | 2,139 | 6.08% | 955 | 1.26% |
| West Virginia | 55 | 276 | 4.71% | 16 | 6.25% |
| Wisconsin | 72 | 1,675 | 5.55% | 1,057 | 2.55% |
| Wyoming | 23 | 172 | 7.56% | 72 | 1.39% |
Each jurisdiction links to its county directory. Every county page carries its own rate over its own resolved loans, and states the count.
What this page does not do
The limits, stated.
A charge-off rate computed from the FOIA release is a rate on disclosed, resolved loans, and three exclusions are worth naming rather than leaving for a reader to discover.
- Exempt records. A large share of 7(a) rows carry a status of exempt from disclosure. They can never enter a rate, in either direction.
- Connecticut before 2022. The state replaced its counties with planning regions, and the release still files older approvals under the former counties. Those two sets of boundaries do not nest, so those approvals cannot be assigned to a planning region and are excluded from every Connecticut figure. The count is stated on each Connecticut county page.
- Territories. Puerto Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands are outside the county programme, so their loans are not in any figure here.
What this page is not: it is not a forecast, not a credit model, and not a substitute for underwriting. It is a measured historical rate with its denominator published, which is a narrower claim than most default statistics make and the reason it can be checked.
Answered from the release
SBA default rates, common questions.
What is the SBA 7(a) default rate?
Across all 3,144 US counties and county-equivalents, 9.23 percent of resolved 7(a) loans were charged off: 6,839 charge-offs against 74,084 loans that reached a final outcome. A resolved loan is one recorded as either paid in full or charged off. Loans still running are excluded because they have not yet succeeded or failed. Computed by MMCG Analytics from US Small Business Administration, 7(a) FOIA release, FY2020 to FY2026 year to date, as of 2026-06-30.
What is the SBA 504 default rate?
2.37 percent of resolved 504 loans were charged off nationally: 878 against 37,124 resolved. The 504 rate is roughly a quarter of the 7(a) rate, which is what you would expect from a programme secured on owner-occupied real estate rather than on working capital. Computed by MMCG Analytics from US Small Business Administration, 504 FOIA release, FY2010 to FY2026 year to date, as of 2026-06-30.
Why is this rate higher than the SBA default rate I have seen elsewhere?
Because of the denominator. Dividing charge-offs by every approval in the release gives about 1.78 percent for 7(a), because only 19.3 percent of approvals have reached an outcome at all. The rest are still running, were cancelled, or were never disbursed. Counting an outstanding loan as a success is a forecast, not a measurement, so the rate here is taken over resolved loans only and the denominator is published next to it.
Can I see the default rate for a single county?
Yes. Every one of the 3,144 county pages publishes its own charge-off rate over its own resolved loans, with the count of resolved loans stated alongside. A rate is withheld where fewer than 10 loans have resolved, because a rate over fewer outcomes than that is noise wearing a percent sign. The state tables below link into each jurisdiction.
Does this include loans that were approved but never disbursed?
No. Approvals recorded as cancelled, not funded, or committed but not yet disbursed appear in the approval counts and in the status mix on each county page, but they can never enter a charge-off rate, because they have no outcome to record. Only paid in full and charged off are treated as outcomes.