Data Methodology

All data on this site originates from the SBA's PPP FOIA dataset (September 30, 2024 release). The SBA publishes the PPP data in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. The September 2024 release is the most comprehensive available, incorporating updates to forgiveness amounts, loan status, and other fields that were not available in earlier releases.

The SBA distributes the data as a series of CSV files organized by loan size. We downloaded all 13 CSV files from the official SBA data portal, ingested them into a SQLite database, and built this website on top of that database. We have not altered, filtered, or modified the underlying loan records.All figures are presented as reported by borrowers and lenders to the SBA.

The SBA data contains two loan amount fields: InitialApprovalAmount and CurrentApprovalAmount. We use CurrentApprovalAmount as the canonical loan amount throughout this site. This field reflects any adjustments made after initial approval, including reductions and increases that occurred during the SBA review process. In most cases, both fields are identical.

Forgiveness information — including the forgiven amount and forgiveness date — is embedded in the same loan files provided by the SBA. A loan is considered "forgiven" if the ForgivenessAmount field is greater than zero.

Limitations of forgiveness data: Not all forgiven loans are captured in this dataset. Some loans may have been forgiven after the September 2024 data freeze. Others may have been forgiven but the SBA system may not have updated the record. The absence of forgiveness data does not necessarily mean the loan was not forgiven — it may mean the forgiveness occurred after the data was compiled, or the record was not updated.

A loan showing no forgiveness amount may mean any of the following: (a) the borrower repaid the loan rather than seeking forgiveness; (b) the forgiveness application was denied; (c) the forgiveness application is still pending; (d) the borrower defaulted; or (e) the SBA data for this loan is incomplete.

For loans under $150,000, the SBA withheld borrower names, addresses, and some other identifying information under FOIA Exemption 6, which protects individuals' personal privacy interests. In our database, these records show "Name Withheld" or "Exemption 6" as the borrower name.

This means that approximately 86% of loan records (by count) do not have a publicly disclosed borrower name. If you search for a small business by name and find no results, it's likely because that business's loan was under the $150,000 threshold.

The remaining ~14% of loans — those at or above $150,000 — have borrower names disclosed. The SBA determined that for these larger amounts, the public interest in transparency outweighed individual privacy interests.

Industry classification uses the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes as reported by borrowers on their PPP applications. NAICS codes are self-reported and were not verified by lenders or the SBA. Some records have incorrect or missing NAICS codes.

Industry pages on this site are organized at the 4-digit NAICS level (industry group). We use the 2-digit sector code for broad sector-level groupings. The full 6-digit code is shown on individual loan detail pages.

Race, ethnicity, gender, and veteran status were optional fields on the PPP application. As a result, these fields are largely blank (marked as "Unanswered" in the SBA data). Approximately 75% of loan records have no race reported, 60% have no gender reported, and 67% have no veteran status reported.

These fields should not be used to draw conclusions about the demographic distribution of PPP recipients. The non-response rate is far too high to produce reliable estimates. The SBA itself has acknowledged this limitation in its reporting.

The "jobs reported" field reflects the number of jobs borrowers claimed to be retaining through their PPP loan. This figure was self-reported at the time of application and was not independently verified. Many small businesses reported zero jobs (often sole proprietors), while some large businesses reported thousands.

The SBA explicitly noted that job retention figures in the PPP data are "applicant-reported" and should not be treated as audited or confirmed counts. We present these figures as reported, without endorsement of their accuracy.

Lender names in the raw SBA data contain many variations of the same institution — for example, "Bank of America, N.A.", "BANK OF AMERICA NA", and "BANK OF AMERICA" may all appear as separate entries. We normalize lender names by uppercasing, stripping common suffixes (N.A., INC, LLC, etc.), and collapsing whitespace to create a canonical name for each lender. Lender pages link to the normalized name.

Borrower city and state fields are as reported on the loan application. City names may have inconsistent capitalization and spelling, which can cause minor undercounting on city-level pages. We normalize city names to uppercase for consistency, but cannot merge different spellings of the same city (e.g., "ST. LOUIS" vs "SAINT LOUIS").

State codes are two-letter postal abbreviations. The data includes all 50 U.S. states plus Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Full-text search is powered by SQLite's FTS5 (Full-Text Search 5) extension, which indexes borrower names, cities, and lender names for fast keyword lookup. FTS5 search is approximate — it may not find results if your spelling differs significantly from what was entered on the application.

For best results, search using the business's legal name rather than its trade name or DBA. Many businesses registered with their full corporate name (e.g., "SHAKE SHACK INC" rather than "Shake Shack").

This site uses the SBA's September 30, 2024 FOIA release. The SBA has released multiple versions of the PPP data over time as forgiveness processing has progressed. Earlier releases (2020–2021) contained less forgiveness data. The September 2024 release represents the most complete picture of the program's final outcomes.

The PPP program closed to new applications on May 31, 2021. Forgiveness applications continued to be processed by the SBA for years afterward. Some forgiveness decisions may have occurred after the September 2024 data freeze.