Paycheck Protection Program: Explore a database of California’s 540,000 loans

The U.S. Small Business Administration released data this month on millions of loans issued through its Paycheck Protection Program, meant to be a lifeline for businesses struggling during the coronavirus downturn.

Almost 540,000 loans went to California businesses, according to the data. See below for some important notes about what is and isn't in the database.

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The data presented was provided by the government with a few exceptions. City names were cleaned up to fix typos, and when a neighborhood within a city was provided, it was changed (for example, Van Nuys became Los Angeles and Corona Del Mar became Newport Beach). A few obvious errors in ZIP codes were fixed as well. And the counties were not provided by the government — those were added based on the city and/or ZIP code.

Also, the original data provided a six-digit code for each business; this version translates those codes into their corresponding sectors and industries.

Since the data was released, it has been widely criticized as inaccurate. Some problems are relatively small and common, such as the rampant typos in business names and location information.

Others were much larger: The Washington Post found that many companies were reported to have retained more workers than they employ, and some industries’ job-retention totals are higher than the number of people employed in those sectors nationwide.

And news organizations across the country, including this one, have contacted businesses that supposedly received loans only to be told those businesses didn't get the amount listed or, in some cases, didn't even apply for PPP loans.

Some information is missing by design of the government. In an effort to protect recipients’ confidential payroll information, loans of up to $150,000 list an exact amount but not the company's name or street address. Larger loans do have the business name and address, but not an exact amount; instead, they’re grouped into five loan ranges.

Other information is missing because it was not required. Applicants could choose not to provide their race, gender or veteran status, and most did not answer.

Also, the SBA noted in releasing the data that it only included active loans. "Loans that were canceled for any reason are not included in the public data release," officials wrote.

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