Small Business Loans in Delaware

Delaware has 91,000 small businesses employing 192,000 workers — 41.3 percent of the state's private workforce. In FY2024, Delaware small businesses received 276 SBA 7(a) loans totaling $101 million, with an average loan size of approximately $367,000. Delaware's SMB economy is uniquely shaped by its status as the nation's preferred state of corporate incorporation — more than 1.9 million legal entities are registered in Delaware, creating a large registered-agent, corporate law, and financial services SMB sector.

Wilmington's financial services concentration — Chase, Capital One, and numerous specialty finance companies have significant Delaware operations due to favorable banking laws — creates a professional services and corporate services SMB ecosystem in the state's largest city. The rest of Delaware has a more typical mid-Atlantic economy: healthcare, construction, and retail in the growing suburbs of Dover and the southern beach communities (Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach) with their seasonal tourism economies.

Delaware has no statewide commercial financing disclosure law. As the nation's corporate domicile of choice, Delaware's SMB market includes a unique category of corporate services firms — registered agents, corporate law firms, and compliance consultants — alongside the typical small business population. Data sourced from the SBA Office of Advocacy (advocacy.sba.gov), SBA FOIA loan dataset (data.sba.gov), U.S. Census Bureau (census.gov), and the Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey (fedsmallbusiness.org).