2026 Firms in Focus chartbooks on small business data
The 2026 Firms in Focus chartbooks break down small business data from the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Small Business Credit Survey by business characteristics, owner characteristics, and geographic location (states and metropolitan statistical areas).
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Business characteristics chartbooks | Owner characteristics chartbooks | Geographic location chartbooks
How do small businesses’ challenges compare across the United States? How do business conditions differ between urban and rural firms nationwide? How do the credit-seeking experiences of younger business owners compare to those of older business owners?
Answers to these questions and more are available through Firms in Focus, a series of chartbooks stemming from the findings of the 2025 Small Business Credit Survey (SBCS) conducted by the Federal Reserve. Find the comparisons that interest you, whether by business characteristics, owner demographics, or geographic location, including 20 states and 11 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). Each chartbook includes data collected on
- Small business performance: revenue, employment, and business conditions
- Small business challenges: financial and operational challenges and actions taken in response
- Small business customers and trade: prices of inputs sourced from outside the United States and sales to international customers
- Small business debt and financial services: payments and use of financial services
- Small business financing: financing applications and outcomes
- Small business use of AI: level of AI adoption, integration, and processes or tasks for which businesses use AI
- Small business demographics: firms and owner characteristics
Analyzing small business data by characteristics can provide a helpful framework for understanding business experiences and credit outcomes. Identifying the challenges affecting particular sets of small businesses can enable policymakers and service providers to develop targeted solutions.
All 44 of this year’s chartbooks are available for download below.
Business characteristics
Age of firmDemographic data collected through the survey offer detailed insights on how a small business’s growth, challenges, and financing experiences change over time. Get more data and reports in our age of firms category. |
Credit riskCredit risk—a measure of a firm’s creditworthiness derived from the credit score of the business and its owners—is an important factor in small firms’ access to credit and, ultimately, the ability to grow. Get more data and reports in our credit risk category. |
Employment sizeSmall businesses are companies with fewer than 500 employees. Yet the differences between a firm with five employees and one with 400 employees can be large, so data breakdowns by firm size can be helpful to understanding businesses’ unique challenges and financing needs. Get more data and reports in our employment size category. |
IndustryThe experiences of a bar or restaurant owner can be quite different from the experiences of an owner of an IT consulting firm. That’s why segmenting out businesses by industry when analyzing their well-being provides valuable insights. Get more data and reports in our industry category. |
Revenue sizeThe experiences and challenges of small businesses vary significantly by revenue size. The SBCS collects data on annual revenues and provides perspectives on differences across revenue size categories. Get more data and reports in our revenue size category. |
Rural and urban firmsThe physical location of a small business provides important economic, demographic, and cultural context for understanding the firm’s experiences. Small businesses in rural and urban areas share some characteristics but are different in other ways. Get more data and reports in our rural and urban category. |
Owner characteristics
Age of owner(s)While younger business owners often rely on their personal funds or loans from family or friends to fund their business, older business owners are more often successful at obtaining credit through applications for traditional forms of financing like loans and lines of credit. Get more data and reports in our age of owner(s) category. |
Disability status of owner(s)The SBCS finds that 6 percent of small employer businesses are majority-owned by a person with a disability. The survey provides insights into how small businesses owned by a person with a disability may have different experiences including interactions with the financial system or responses to challenges faced by the business. |
Gender of owner(s)The survey finds differences in firms’ experiences by the gender of their owners. Get more data and reports in our gender of owner(s) category. |
Immigrant-owned small businessCensus data show that approximately one in five small employer firms is owned by somebody who was not born in the United States. SBCS data provide insight into the experiences of these businesses. Get more data and reports in our immigrant-owned firms category. |
LGBTQ-owned small businessThe SBCS finds that approximately 6 percent of small businesses are at least partially owned by somebody who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ community. Get more data and reports in our LGBTQ-owned firms category. |
Race and ethnicity of owner(s)Census data show that nearly one-fourth of employer firms are majority-owned by a person of color. Get more data and reports in our race and ethnicity category. |
Veteran-owned small businessAbout 9 percent of small employer businesses in the 2025 SBCS were majority-owned by a veteran. Get more data and reports in our veteran-owned firms category. |
Geographic location
Geographic location chartbooks are available for states and MSAs with a sufficient number of survey responses.
Cities/MSAs
AtlantaThis chartbook provides survey data about small businesses in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA, MSA. |
BostonThis chartbook provides survey data about small businesses in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH, MSA. |
ChicagoThis chartbook provides survey data about small businesses in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI, MSA. |
ClevelandThis chartbook provides survey data about small businesses in the Cleveland, OH, MSA. |
HoustonThis chartbook provides survey data about small businesses in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX, MSA. |
Los AngelesThis chartbook provides survey data about small businesses in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA, MSA. |
MiamiThis chartbook provides survey data about small businesses in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL, MSA. |
New York CityThis chartbook provides survey data about small businesses in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA, MSA. |
PhiladelphiaThis chartbook provides survey data about small businesses in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD, MSA. |
San FranciscoThis chartbook provides survey data about small businesses in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA, MSA. |
Washington DCThis chartbook provides survey data about small businesses in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, MSA. |
States
AlabamaThis chartbook provides survey data about Alabama small businesses. |
ArizonaThis chartbook provides survey data about Arizona small businesses. |
CaliforniaThis chartbook provides survey data about California small businesses. |
ColoradoThis chartbook provides survey data about Colorado small businesses. |
FloridaThis chartbook provides survey data about Florida small businesses. |
GeorgiaThis chartbook provides survey data about Georgia small businesses. |
IllinoisThis chartbook provides survey data about Illinois small businesses. |
MarylandThis chartbook provides survey data about Maryland small businesses. |
MassachusettsThis chartbook provides survey data about Massachusetts small businesses. |
MichiganThis chartbook provides survey data about Michigan small businesses. |
MinnesotaThis chartbook provides survey data about Minnesota small businesses. |
New JerseyThis chartbook provides survey data about New Jersey small businesses. |
New YorkThis chartbook provides survey data about New York small businesses. |
North CarolinaThis chartbook provides survey data about North Carolina small businesses. |
OhioThis chartbook provides survey data about Ohio small businesses. |
PennsylvaniaThis chartbook provides survey data about Pennsylvania small businesses. |
TennesseeThis chartbook provides survey data about Tennessee small businesses. |
TexasThis chartbook provides survey data about Texas small businesses. |
VirginiaThis chartbook provides survey data about Virginia small businesses. |
WashingtonThis chartbook provides survey data about Washington small businesses. |
About the Small Business Credit Survey
The 2025 SBCS was fielded from September 3 to November 14, 2025. It yielded 6,525 responses from a nationwide convenience sample of small employer firms with 1–499 full- or part-time employees across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This report includes findings about the performance, challenges, and credit-seeking experiences of businesses across the United States.
The 12 Reserve Banks of the Federal Reserve System launched the SBCS to provide timely insights on small business conditions to policymakers, service providers, and lenders. The SBCS is an annual survey of firms with fewer than 500 employees. These types of firms represented 99.7% of employer establishments in the United States in 2023. Respondents are asked to report information about their business performance, financing needs and choices, and borrowing experiences. Responses to the SBCS provide insights into the dynamics behind lending trends and shed light on various segments of the small business population. The SBCS is not a random sample; results should be analyzed with awareness of potential biases that are associated with convenience samples. Get detailed information about the survey design and weighting methodology.
Suggested Citation
“2026 Firms in Focus chartbooks on small business data.” 2026. Small Business Credit Survey. Federal Reserve Banks. https://doi.org/10.55350/sbcs-20260402
This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
