Data Sources

1) CRA Small Farm Lending (2022–2024)

Source: CRA Disclosure / Aggregate reporting tables (Small Farm Loans – Originations; Table A2-1).

Geography: Census tract (as reported in the CRA tables).

Years included: 2022, 2023, 2024.

2) Demographic context variables (latest ACS estimates)

Source: Esri Living Atlas (ACS-based layers/variables).

Variables used:

Total population (ACS) at census tract level (B01001_001E), 2024

Median household income (ACS) at census tract level (B19049_001E), 2024

Unit of Analysis and Geography

The unit of analysis is the census tract, identified by GEOID (11-digit tract identifier).

CRA lending records were linked to tract geography using GEOID.

Three-year aggregation (2022–2024)

CRA metrics were combined across the three years (2022–2024) by summing values for each GEOID.

Aggregation was performed at the GEOID level to create a single cumulative record per census tract for the 3-year period.

Loan size categories

CRA small farm lending is provided in standard loan-size categories, including:

• ≤ $100,000

• $100,000–$250,000

• $250,000–$500,000

Loan counts and amounts are provided for each category.

Borrower revenue subset

The CRA tables also include:

Loans to businesses with gross annual revenues ≤ $1 million (count and amount)

Important: This “revenue ≤ $1M” measure is a subset of total originations and overlaps the loan-size categories. It should be interpreted as a focused indicator of lending to smaller-revenue businesses, not an additional bucket to add to totals.

Additional Derived Fields

To improve interpretability, this layer includes normalized indicators using population context from ACS.

1) Loans per 1,000 residents

Field: LoansPer1000Residents

Formula: TotalLoans / TotalPopulation * 1000

2) Average loan size

Field: AvgLoanSize

Formula: TotalLoanAmount / TotalLoans

(If TotalLoanAmount is stored in $000s, AvgLoanSize reflects the same unit unless converted to dollars.)

3) Share of loans ≤ $100K (count)

Field: SmallLoanShare

Formula: NumLoans_LT100k / TotalLoans

Interpretation Notes and Limitations

CRA small farm lending tables reflect reported originations and are subject to CRA reporting rules and coverage.

Values represent aggregate activity totals and do not include borrower-level details.

“Revenue ≤ $1M” is a subset measure and should not be added to total loan counts/amounts.

Demographic context variables (population and median household income) are from ACS estimates and include sampling uncertainty, especially in small geographies.

Recommended Use

This layer is best used to:

Compare relative lending intensity across tracts (e.g., loans per 1,000 residents)

Identify areas where smaller loan activity (≤ $100K) represents a larger or smaller share of lending