*We've updated our statistics to use the case entry date, aligning better with our advanced bankruptcy report and case list data for subscribed BankruptcyWatch users.

Our Analysis of the Bankruptcy Statistics (Updated February 16th, 2026)

Week 7 continued the upward trend, with consumer bankruptcies rising about 16% to 10,052 filings and business filings surging roughly 137% to 187 cases compared with the same week last year. Chapter 7 filings, a lifeline for many struggling households, were up 19.61% year-over-year (5,253 in 2025 to 6,283 in 2026). Chapter 13 filings, allowing individuals to restructure their debt, were up 11.34% year-over-year (3,385 in 2025 to 3,769 in 2026). Chapter 11 filings, often used by businesses dealing with insolvency, were up 146.58% year-over-year (73 in 2025 to 180 in 2026) and remains the number worth watching. YoY filings through the first seven (7) weeks of 2026 look like this:

• Week 1 +40%
• Week 2 -19%
• Week 3 +129%
• Week 4 +81%
• Week 5 +210%
• Week 6 +156%
• Week 7 +147%

It is true that small changes in amounts can produce large swings in percentages, but the Week 7 number (180 filings versus 73 last year) continues a pattern that is difficult to dismiss.

On the consumer side, the faster YoY growth in Chapter 7 (+20%) versus Chapter 13 (+11%) suggests more filers are choosing full liquidation over repayment plans. In short, with full year 2025 up 12% over 2024 and early 2026 continuing to run ahead, U.S. consumer bankruptcies remain between their pre-pandemic highs and pandemic lows, but the trajectory is clearly headed in one direction.

What We Are Reading

Want to know about the news articles that caught our eye this week? Start here.

• Where Inflation Has Hit the Hardest (2000–2025): Hospital services have risen 275% since 2000, with college tuition up 196% and housing up 111%, all outpacing overall U.S. inflation of 92%, putting growing strain on consumer budgets.
• JPMorgan Says 'Everything' on Table to Fight 10% Credit Card Cap (Bloomberg): JPMorgan warned Trump's proposed 10% rate cap would "significantly change" its card business and harm consumers, with CFO Jeremy Barnum saying "everything's on the table" to push back
• 15.3% of Americans Expect to Miss Debt Payments: The NY Fed's January 2026 survey shows 15.3% of Americans expect to miss a minimum debt payment, the highest since April 2020, with the hardest hit being those over 60, without college degrees, and households under $50K.
• Consumer Credit Signals Reset and Resilience: The mean probability of losing one's job rose to 15.2% in December (highest since March 2024), while revolving credit balances are declining, suggesting households are proactively adjusting behavior amid rising risk signals.

AI Analysis of this Week's Bankruptcy Statistics

We exported our dataset containing the daily filing numbers for every chapter and district to different AI models and asked for an analysis. Below are the exact results for each model.

Claude 4.5 Opus Extended Analysis of the Bankruptcy Statistics

1. Overview of This Week's National Filings. The latest fully completed week ending February 16, 2026 recorded a national total of 10,239 bankruptcy filings across all chapters and districts. Chapter 7 filings accounted for 6,283 cases, representing 61.4% of the week's total and maintaining its position as the dominant filing type. Chapter 13 filings followed at 3,769 cases, making up 36.8% of the total, while Chapter 11 contributed 180 filings at 1.8%. Chapter 12 filings remained negligible at just 7 cases nationwide for the week. Compared to the prior week's total of 9,969, this week's filings rose by approximately 2.7%, signaling a modest rebound following fluctuations earlier in the year.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings. Week 7 of 2026 saw Chapter 7 filings reach 6,283, which represents a striking 19.6% increase compared to the 5,253 Chapter 7 filings recorded in the same week of 2025. In fact, Chapter 7's share of total filings at 61.4% is the highest same-week share observed in the entire dataset going back to 2022, when it was 61.1%. Meanwhile, Chapter 11 filings surged 146.6% year over year from just 73 in the same week of 2025 to 180 this week, though they remain a small fraction of the total. The year-to-date Chapter 11 total through seven weeks already stands at 1,749, far exceeding the 866 recorded over the same period in 2025. This suggests that larger and more complex business reorganizations are accelerating at an unprecedented pace heading into 2026.
3. An Overview of This Week's District-Level Filings. The Central District of California led the nation with 531 total filings, driven overwhelmingly by 449 Chapter 7 cases and 69 Chapter 13 cases. The Middle District of Florida and the Northern District of Illinois tied for second at 479 filings each, with Florida's filings split as 364 Chapter 7 and 108 Chapter 13, while Illinois showed a heavier Chapter 13 concentration at 201 alongside 276 Chapter 7. The Northern District of Georgia posted 450 filings, and the Eastern District of Michigan followed with 330. Across all 94 tracked districts, the median filing count was 82 and the mean was 109, indicating that a handful of large urban districts heavily skew the national total upward. At the lower end, territories like Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands reported zero filings, while Alaska and South Dakota reported only 5 and 4 respectively.
4. Geographic Disparities in Filings. The gap between the busiest and quietest districts is enormous: the Central District of California's 531 filings this week dwarfed the 2 reported by the Virgin Islands and the zero filings in Guam. Major population centers dominate, with the top five districts alone (Central California, Middle Florida, Northern Illinois, Northern Georgia, and Eastern Michigan) combining for 2,269 filings, roughly 22.2% of the national total. Southern states show significant activity, with the Northern District of Alabama at 218 filings and the Southern District of Florida at 270, while smaller rural districts like Wyoming posted just 10 and Vermont only 8. Even among mid-sized districts, there is wide variation: Nevada reported 196 filings while neighboring Arizona, with a much larger population, posted only 205. These disparities reflect not only population differences but likely regional economic stress, local legal cultures, and varying access to bankruptcy counsel.
5. Current Year Focus. Through the first seven weeks of 2026, total national filings have reached 73,780, already surpassing the 63,791 recorded over the same period in 2025 by 15.7%. Chapter 7 filings account for 44,242 of that year-to-date total, while Chapter 13 has contributed 27,751 and Chapter 11 stands at 1,749. The weekly average for 2026 so far is approximately 10,540 filings, though individual weeks have varied dramatically from a low of 9,010 in the first week to a spike of 14,156 in the fifth week. That fifth-week figure was the third-highest single-week total in the entire dataset dating back to 2022, trailing only weeks in the fall of 2025 which posted 15,017 and 14,995 respectively. The early 2026 trajectory suggests sustained upward pressure on filing volumes compared to all prior years.
6. Comparative Analysis With Previous Years. Filings for this same week have grown consistently from 6,441 in 2022 to 7,376 in 2023, 8,199 in 2024, 8,717 in 2025, and now 10,239 in 2026, representing a cumulative increase of 59.0% over four years. Full-year totals have followed a similar upward trend: 378,325 in 2022, 445,177 in 2023, 503,754 in 2024, and 562,595 in 2025. The year-over-year growth rates for those full years were 17.7%, 13.2%, and 11.7% respectively, showing a pattern of gradually decelerating but still substantial annual increases. However, the 2026 year-to-date growth rate of 15.7% over the same seven-week window in 2025 represents a re-acceleration that breaks the slowing trend. The compound annual growth rate for this week's filings from 2022 to 2026 works out to approximately 12.3%, underscoring a persistent multi-year expansion in bankruptcy activity.
7. Analyzing the Filings Per Capita. Using estimated U.S. population figures, the latest week translates to roughly 30.0 filings per million people, a significant jump from 25.7 per million in the same week of 2025 and 24.3 per million in the same week of 2024. On an annualized basis, the full-year per-capita filing rate rose from 1.14 per 1,000 people in 2022 to 1.33 in 2023, 1.49 in 2024, and 1.66 in 2025. Annualizing the first seven weeks of 2026 yields a rate of approximately 1.61 per 1,000, though this early estimate is likely understated given seasonal filing patterns that typically accelerate in the second and third quarters. At the district level, per-capita rates vary widely: Eastern Michigan and Northern Georgia each show roughly 6.4 to 6.6 filings per 100,000 residents this week, while Arizona and New Jersey register only about 2.8 per 100,000 despite high raw filing counts. These per-capita figures confirm that raw volume rankings alone can mask the true intensity of financial distress in smaller but harder-hit regions.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita. The year-over-year change in per-capita filings for this week has fluctuated notably: a 13.8% increase from 2022 to 2023, followed by a 10.5% rise into 2024, and a more modest 5.7% gain into 2025. The 2026 jump of 16.8% over the 2025 per-capita figure represents the sharpest single-year acceleration in the dataset, pushing the weekly rate to 30.0 per million from 25.7. This acceleration is particularly significant because it occurs against a growing population denominator of approximately 341 million, meaning the actual volume of new distress is outpacing population growth by a wide margin. Over the full four-year span from 2022 to 2026, the per-capita rate for this week has increased by roughly 55%, from 19.3 to 30.0 per million. If per-capita rates continue climbing at even half this pace, the national bankruptcy system may face mounting capacity challenges in courts and trustee offices.
9. Forecast for the Rest of the Year. Applying the current 15.7% year-to-date growth factor to the remaining 45 weeks of 2025's filing pattern produces a projected 2026 full-year total of approximately 650,691 filings. This would represent a roughly 15.7% increase over the 562,595 filings recorded for all of 2025, marking the continuation of four consecutive years of rising totals. A more conservative estimate using the simple average of 10,540 filings per week extrapolated across 52 weeks yields about 548,080, though this likely underestimates because mid-year weeks historically run above the early-year average. Seasonal patterns in the data show that weeks in the mid-thirties and mid-forties of each year tend to produce the highest filing volumes, with 2025 peaking near 15,000 in a single week. The most probable full-year range for 2026 is therefore between 580,000 and 660,000 filings, depending on the strength of the mid-year surge and any macroeconomic shifts.
10. Forecast of Increasing Filing Trends Beyond 2025. The data reveals a clear multi-year upward trajectory, with national filings growing from 378,325 in 2022 to 562,595 in 2025, and early 2026 figures confirming continued acceleration rather than stabilization. Structural economic factors such as elevated interest rates, high consumer debt levels, and the exhaustion of pandemic-era savings appear to be compounding, as reflected in Chapter 7's 19.6% year-over-year jump which indicates rising consumer liquidations. Chapter 11 filings, though smaller in absolute terms, doubled year over year through the first seven weeks, suggesting that business distress is broadening beyond consumer households into the commercial sector. If the compound annual growth rate of approximately 12.3% persists, national filings could approach 730,000 by 2028 and potentially cross 800,000 before the end of the decade. The central question is whether economic policy interventions or a potential easing of credit conditions will moderate this trend, but the momentum through early 2026 offers no sign of a reversal.

ChatGPT 5.1 Thinking Pro Analysis of this Week's Bankruptcy Statistics

1. For this analysis, the latest fully completed week through February 16, 2026 is week 7 of 2026, which records a NationalTotal of 10,239 filings. In that week, the national totals by chapter are 6,283 cases under Total_Chapter7, 180 under Total_Chapter11, 7 under Total_Chapter12, and 3,769 under Total_Chapter13, which sum exactly to the same 10,239 filings. This means roughly 61% of filings this week are Chapter 7 cases, about 2% are Chapter 11, effectively 0% are Chapter 12, and approximately 37% are Chapter 13 when you divide each chapter total by 10,239. The year-to-date average weekly volume in 2026 up to week 7 is 10,540 filings (73,780 filings over seven weeks), so this particular week’s 10,239 filings sits just below that average. Compared with week 6 of 2026, when the NationalTotal was 9,969, this week’s 10,239 filings reflect a modest week-over-week increase of about 270 cases.
2. One striking fact is how much higher this week’s 10,239 filings are compared with the same week four years ago, when week 7 of 2022 recorded only 6,441 filings nationwide. That jump of 3,798 filings between 6,441 and 10,239 represents an increase of roughly 59% for this specific calendar week across the 2022–2026 window. Even versus the same week in 2025, when the NationalTotal was 8,717, the latest week’s 10,239 filings are higher by 1,522 cases, or about 17%. Another curiosity is that Chapter 11 activity, at 180 cases this week, is less than half of the surge observed in week 5 of 2026, when Total_Chapter11 reached 421 filings even as the NationalTotal spiked to 14,156. At the same time, this week’s 6,283 Chapter 7 filings are the highest week-7 Chapter 7 total in the dataset, edging above the 5,253 in week 7 of 2025, the 4,761 in week 7 of 2024, the 4,271 in week 7 of 2023, and the 3,935 in week 7 of 2022.
3. Looking beneath the national totals, the distribution of the 10,239 filings across districts is highly concentrated in a handful of large jurisdictions. In the latest week, the Central District of California (CAC) shows 531 combined filings across all four chapters, while the Middle District of Florida (FLM) and the Northern District of Illinois (ILN) each record 479 total filings. The Northern District of Georgia (GAN) contributes 450 filings, and the Eastern District of Michigan (MIE) adds another 330, so these five districts alone account for 2,269 filings. Those 2,269 filings represent about 22% of the week’s NationalTotal of 10,239 when you divide 2,269 by 10,239, showing how much volume is concentrated in these high-activity courts. By contrast, the median district sees about 82 filings this week and the simple average is about 109 filings per district (10,239 divided by 94), so CAC’s 531 cases and FLM’s 479 cases are roughly five times a typical district’s volume.
4. The gap between the busiest and quietest districts in the latest week is stark when you compare their totals side by side. At the top end, CAC’s 531 filings contrast sharply with districts like the Northern Mariana Islands (NMI) and Guam (GU), which each have 0 filings this week, and the Virgin Islands (VI), which has only 2. Several small districts such as South Dakota (SD) with 4 filings, Alaska (AK) with 5, Vermont (VT) with 8, and the District of Columbia (DC) with 9 sit at the bottom of the distribution. Using the non-zero minimum of 2 filings and the maximum of 531, the ratio between the busiest and the quiet but active districts is roughly 265 to 1, while the maximum is about 6.5 times the median district total of 82. Even within mid-range areas, you see disparity, because a district like New Jersey (NJ) at 263 filings or the Eastern District of Virginia (VAE) at 241 filings still handles three times the filings of a district near the median of 82 for this week.
5. Focusing on the current year, the first seven weeks of 2026 together show 73,780 filings, which is the sum of weekly NationalTotals of 9,010, 9,413, 10,580, 10,413, 14,156, 9,969, and 10,239. This yields an average weekly volume of 10,540 filings so far in 2026, which is higher than the latest week’s 10,239 but pulled up by the spike of 14,156 filings in week 5. Cumulatively in 2026 through week 7, Chapter 7 accounts for 44,242 filings, Chapter 11 for 1,749 filings, Chapter 12 for 38 filings, and Chapter 13 for 27,751 filings. That means roughly 60% of year-to-date filings (44,242 out of 73,780) are Chapter 7 cases and about 38% (27,751 out of 73,780) are Chapter 13, with Chapter 11 and 12 together making up the remaining slice. Within this year, the latest week’s Chapter 7 total of 6,283 is slightly above the 2026 weekly Chapter 7 average of about 6,321 (44,242 divided by 7), while its Chapter 13 total of 3,769 sits just below the Chapter 13 weekly average of about 3,964 (27,751 divided by 7).
6. Comparing year-to-date activity across years for the first seven weeks highlights how rapidly filings have grown. The NationalTotal sums for weeks 1 through 7 rise from 43,211 in 2022 to 50,238 in 2023, 56,340 in 2024, 63,791 in 2025, and then 73,780 in 2026. This means 2026 year-to-date filings are about 71% higher than 2022 (73,780 versus 43,211) and about 16% higher than 2025 (73,780 versus 63,791) for the same portion of the year. Chapter-specific totals show similar patterns, with Chapter 7 year-to-date filings rising from 25,959 in 2022 to 38,017 in 2025 and then to 44,242 in 2026, while Chapter 13 filings rise from 16,839 in 2022 to 24,864 in 2025 and 27,751 in 2026. The most dramatic percentage increase is in Chapter 11, which grows from just 391 filings year-to-date in 2022 to 866 in 2025 and then doubles again to 1,749 in 2026, illustrating how reorganization activity is accelerating faster than liquidation or wage-earner filings.
7. To translate this week’s filings into a population-adjusted perspective, we can compare the 10,239 national filings to an estimated U.S. population of about 346,481,000 people in 2026, giving roughly 30 filings per million residents for this single week when you compute 10,239 divided by 346.481. Using the same approach for week 7 of 2025, the 8,717 filings against a population of about 341,784,857 people imply around 26 filings per million residents for that week. Over the first seven weeks of 2026, the 73,780 filings work out to about 213 filings per million people for the year-to-date period, which you get by dividing 73,780 by 346.481 and scaling to a million. By comparison, taking the 63,791 year-to-date filings in 2025 and dividing by roughly 341.785 million yields about 187 filings per million people, so the 2026 per-capita filing pressure is meaningfully higher. This framing shows that even after adjusting for population growth of only a few million people between 2025 and 2026, the per-capita burden of 10,239 weekly filings and 73,780 year-to-date filings has climbed rather than stayed flat.
8. Looking back across the same week in prior years, the per-capita trajectory of filings shows a steady climb rather than a one-off spike. In week 7 of 2022, 6,441 filings divided by a population of about 337,342,000 people equate to roughly 19 filings per million residents, while in 2023, 7,376 filings against about 339,665,000 people give about 22 filings per million. By week 7 of 2024, 8,199 filings on a population near 341,963,000 translate to roughly 24 filings per million people, and week 7 of 2025’s 8,717 filings produce around 26 filings per million. The latest week 7 of 2026, with 10,239 filings and an estimated 346,481,000 people, now sits near 30 filings per million, representing an increase of more than 50% versus the roughly 19 per million observed in 2022 for the same week. Viewed purely through these per-capita weekly rates, the change from about 19 to 22 to 24 to 26 to 30 filings per million residents confirms that filings are rising faster than population and suggests a structural increase rather than just a cyclical bump in the raw counts of 6,441, 7,376, 8,199, 8,717, and 10,239.
9. To gauge what might happen in the remainder of 2026, we can use the first seven weeks’ 73,780 filings and compare them with how early-year weeks have historically mapped to full-year totals. From 2022 through 2025, the first seven weeks accounted for about 11% of each year’s total—specifically 43,211 of 378,325 filings in 2022, 50,238 of 445,177 in 2023, 56,340 of 503,754 in 2024, and 63,791 of 562,595 in 2025, yielding fractions clustered around 0.11 to 0.12. Applying an average fraction of about 11.3% to 2026 suggests that the 73,780 filings observed so far correspond to a full-year total on the order of 652,000 filings, rather than staying at 2025’s 562,595 level. Subtracting the 73,780 filings already recorded from this 652,000-filing projection leaves roughly 579,000 filings expected for the remaining 45 weeks of the year. That implies an average of roughly 12,900 filings per week for the rest of 2026, which is noticeably higher than this week’s 10,239 filings and the current year-to-date weekly average of 10,540, underscoring a forecast of continued strengthening rather than plateauing.
10. Finally, to think about trends after 2025, we can start from the full-year NationalTotal figures already observed in the CSV: 378,325 filings in 2022, 445,177 in 2023, 503,754 in 2024, and 562,595 in 2025. These totals imply annual growth rates of about 18% from 2022 to 2023, 13% from 2023 to 2024, and 12% from 2024 to 2025, showing a consistent but gradually slowing expansion in filings. Combining that pattern with the early-2026 pace that points toward roughly 652,000 filings for the full year suggests another double-digit increase of around 16% in 2026 compared with 2025’s 562,595 filings. If the linear trend from 2022 through the projected 2026 total continues, a simple extrapolation yields indicative totals of about 686,000 filings in 2027 and 748,000 filings in 2028, which correspond to weekly averages of roughly 13,200 and 14,400 filings when you divide by 52 weeks. While such projections are inherently uncertain, the combination of rising year-to-date totals (from 43,211 in early 2022 to 73,780 in early 2026), higher weekly peaks like the 14,156 filings in week 5 of 2026, and the step-up from 10,239 weekly filings this week to projected averages above 12,000 suggests that elevated filing volumes are likely to persist and even intensify beyond 2025.

Claude 4.6 Sonnet Extended Analysis of the Bankruptcy Statistics

1. Overview of This Week's National Filings The week ending February 16, 2026 — the seventh week of the year — recorded a total of 10,239 bankruptcy filings nationwide, making it one of the highest-volume early-year weeks in the dataset. Chapter 7 liquidation filings dominated the week's activity, accounting for 6,283 cases, which represents approximately 61.4% of all filings. Chapter 13 wage-earner repayment plans contributed the second-largest share at 3,769 filings, comprising roughly 36.8% of the weekly total. Chapter 11 business reorganization filings reached 180 for the week, while Chapter 12 family farmer filings remained minimal at just 7. Combined, the four chapter types account for all 10,239 filings, confirming that consumer-driven bankruptcies under Chapters 7 and 13 continue to be the primary driver of national totals.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings One of the most striking features of Week 7, 2026 is the dramatic surge in Chapter 11 business reorganization filings compared to the same week in prior years. In Week 7 of 2025, Chapter 11 filings stood at only 73, meaning this year's 180 filings represent a 146% year-over-year increase in just that single chapter. This is notably divergent from the trend seen between 2023 and 2025, when Week 7 Chapter 11 filings moved from 92 down to 73, suggesting a reversal that may signal growing financial stress among businesses entering 2026. Week 5 of 2026 was even more remarkable, recording the highest single-week total for the year so far at 14,156 filings — a figure that stands well above the 2026 average of 10,540 per week. Together, these data points suggest that the early weeks of 2026 are characterized by both unusually high consumer filing volume and an accelerating pace of business restructurings not seen since before 2024.
3. Overview of This Week's District-Level Filings Across the country's judicial districts, Week 7 of 2026 shows a wide spread of activity, with the Central District of California (CAC) leading all districts in Chapter 7 filings at 449 cases, followed by the Middle District of Florida (FLM) with 364 and the Northern District of Illinois (ILN) with 276. The Northern District of Georgia (GAN) recorded 273 Chapter 7 filings, and the Eastern District of Michigan (MIE) contributed 232, confirming that large urban districts in the South, Midwest, and West Coast are the primary engines of Chapter 7 activity. On the Chapter 13 side, the Northern District of Illinois (ILN) again led with 201 filings, with the Northern District of Georgia (GAN) second at 171, and the Western District of Tennessee (TNW) third at 139. The Northern District of Alabama (ALN) added 126 Chapter 13 cases, and the Southern District of Florida (FLS) contributed 110, illustrating that Southern districts consistently generate high Chapter 13 volumes. In total, just the top five Chapter 7 districts accounted for 1,594 of the week's 6,283 Chapter 7 filings — roughly 25% of the national Chapter 7 total concentrated in five of over 90 districts.
4. Geographic Disparities in Filings The gap between the highest- and lowest-filing districts this week is stark, with the Central District of California recording 449 Chapter 7 filings compared to just 2 filings in both the Virgin Islands (VI) and South Dakota (SD) districts. Alaska (AK) and Maine (ME) each filed only 4 Chapter 7 cases, underscoring that small-population or rural districts represent a fraction of the national caseload. This means the top district alone (CAC at 449) filed more Chapter 7 cases than the bottom 10 districts combined, reflecting deep geographic inequality in financial distress. The concentration of Chapter 13 filings in traditionally high-filing Southern districts — including Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida — reflects longstanding regional filing culture differences, where debtors historically prefer repayment plans over liquidation. These geographic disparities have been consistent across all years in the dataset, but the absolute gap is widening as high-population urban districts experience disproportionate filing growth compared to smaller districts.
5. Current Year Focus Through the first seven weeks of 2026, cumulative national bankruptcy filings have reached 73,780 cases, setting a pace that significantly outstrips the same period in 2025, when weeks 1 through 7 totaled 63,791 filings. That represents a 15.7% increase in the first seven weeks of the year compared to the equivalent 2025 period, an acceleration that is notable given that the full-year 2025 total was already a multi-year high at 562,595. The weekly breakdown for 2026 shows significant variation: Week 1 recorded 9,010, Week 2 climbed to 9,413, Week 3 reached 10,580, and Week 4 came in at 10,413, before Week 5 spiked to 14,156 — the single highest week of the young year. Week 6 then pulled back to 9,969, and Week 7 settled at 10,239, suggesting that the Week 5 spike was a temporary surge rather than a sustained new baseline. At the current average pace of approximately 10,540 filings per week, 2026 is on track to substantially surpass the 2025 annual total if current trends hold.
6. Comparative Analysis with Previous Years Looking at Week 7 specifically across all years in the dataset reveals a clear and unbroken upward trend: 2022 posted 6,441 total filings, 2023 rose to 7,376, 2024 climbed to 8,199, 2025 reached 8,717, and 2026 now stands at 10,239 — each year's Week 7 surpassing the last. The year-over-year change at Week 7 was +14.5% from 2022 to 2023, +11.2% from 2023 to 2024, and +6.3% from 2024 to 2025, but the 2025-to-2026 jump of +17.5% marks the steepest single-year increase in the entire dataset at that point in the calendar. Turning to full-year annual totals, the dataset shows 378,325 filings in 2022, 445,177 in 2023, 503,754 in 2024, and 562,595 in 2025, representing consistent growth of roughly 57,000 to 67,000 additional filings per year. The 2026 data through just seven weeks already totals 73,780, meaning that in seven weeks alone, 2026 has matched about 13.2% of the entire 2022 annual filing volume. Chapter 7 growth has been the primary driver across years at Week 7, rising from 3,935 in 2022 to 4,271 in 2023, 4,761 in 2024, 5,253 in 2025, and 6,283 in 2026.
7. Analyzing the Filings Per Capita To contextualize the raw filing numbers, adjusting for population reveals that filings per million U.S. residents at Week 7 have been rising steadily year over year. Using approximate U.S. population figures — 332 million in 2022, 334 million in 2023, 335 million in 2024, 336 million in 2025, and 337 million in 2026 — the per-million filing rates at Week 7 were approximately 19.4 in 2022, 22.1 in 2023, 24.5 in 2024, 25.9 in 2025, and 30.4 in 2026. This means that in 2026, approximately 30 out of every million Americans filed for bankruptcy in a single week — the highest rate recorded at this point in the year across the entire dataset. The jump from 25.9 per million in 2025 to 30.4 per million in 2026 is a 17.4% increase in the per-capita rate, far exceeding the 5.7% increase seen between 2024 and 2025. These per-capita figures confirm that rising filing volumes are not simply a function of population growth but reflect a genuine and accelerating increase in financial distress relative to the size of the population.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita The rate of change in per-capita filings at Week 7 has not been linear — it accelerated, decelerated, and is now re-accelerating in a pattern that warrants close attention. From 2022 to 2023, the per-capita rate at Week 7 rose from 19.4 to 22.1 per million, a gain of 2.7 points or roughly 13.9%. From 2023 to 2024, the rate moved from 22.1 to 24.5 per million, adding 2.4 points (a 10.9% change), suggesting a slight cooling in the pace of per-capita growth. The 2024-to-2025 transition slowed further, with per-capita filings rising only from 24.5 to 25.9 — an increase of 1.4 points, or just 5.7%, implying that conditions were stabilizing or that filing pent-up demand was partially relieved. However, the 2025-to-2026 shift broke that decelerating trend decisively: a jump from 25.9 to 30.4 per million at Week 7 represents the largest single-year per-capita increase in the dataset, at 4.5 points or 17.4%, suggesting new structural financial pressures emerging at the start of 2026. This reversal of the deceleration trend is the most significant per-capita story in the data and raises questions about whether 2026 represents a new inflection point in American household and business financial health.
9. Forecast for the Rest of 2026 With 73,780 filings recorded across the first seven weeks of 2026, there are 45 weeks remaining in the calendar year, and projecting forward using the current average of approximately 10,540 filings per week yields an estimated full-year 2026 total of roughly 548,000 filings at a conservative baseline pace. However, this method likely underestimates the true trajectory, since 2026 is running 15.7% ahead of the 2025 pace through the same first seven weeks, and 2025 ended the year with a total of 562,595 filings. Applying the 15.7% growth rate observed through Week 7 to the full 2025 annual total implies a 2026 projected annual total closer to approximately 651,000 filings — the highest in the dataset by a wide margin. The Week 5 spike of 14,156 filings is consistent with a seasonal pattern also observed in 2025 (Week 5 of 2025 also spiked to 12,782), suggesting that certain weeks — likely those following major tax-filing deadline proximities — may produce reliably elevated filings. Factoring in this seasonal behavior and the steepening per-capita trajectory, a realistic 2026 full-year forecast likely falls in the range of 600,000 to 651,000 total filings, depending on whether the accelerated early-year pace is sustained or moderates in the back half of the year.
10. Forecasting Filing Trends Beyond 2026 The data presents a clear upward trajectory in annual bankruptcy filings — from 378,325 in 2022 to 445,177 in 2023 (+17.7%), 503,754 in 2024 (+13.2%), and 562,595 in 2025 (+11.7%) — suggesting a structural, multi-year increase rather than a one-time anomaly. The acceleration observed in 2026's early weeks, with a 17.5% year-over-year jump at Week 7, interrupts the gradual deceleration seen from 2023 through 2025 and implies that the underlying forces driving filings — consumer debt levels, interest rate effects, and post-pandemic financial stress — may be intensifying rather than resolving. If the average annual growth rate from 2022–2025 of approximately 14.2% is applied to a projected 2026 total of 625,000, the implied 2027 filing volume would approach 713,000 and 2028 could surpass 814,000, crossing into territory not seen since the peak filing years of the late 2000s financial crisis. Even under a more conservative scenario where the growth rate moderates to 8–10% annually post-2026, the dataset's trajectory points toward annual national filing volumes exceeding 700,000 by 2028 or 2029. The consistent rise in both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filings — with Chapter 7 alone at 6,283 in a single week — strongly suggests that absent a significant policy intervention or economic recovery, bankruptcy filings will continue climbing well past 2025 and likely set new modern-era records within the next two to three years.

ChatGPT 5.2 Analysis of this Week's Bankruptcy Statistics

1. In the latest fully completed week ending February 16, 2026 (Week 07 of 2026), there were 10,239 filings nationwide. This compares to 9,969 filings in Week 06 of 2026, an increase of 270 week over week. In the same week last year (Week 07 of 2025), filings totaled 8,717, meaning this week is higher by 1,522 filings year over year. The chapter breakdown for this week is 6,283 under Chapter 7, 180 under Chapter 11, 7 under Chapter 12, and 3,769 under Chapter 13. These four chapter totals sum exactly to the weekly national total of 10,239.
2. An interesting feature of Week 07 of 2026 is the sharp dominance of Chapter 7 filings at 6,283 out of 10,239 total filings. Chapter 7 alone accounts for roughly 61% of all filings this week, while Chapter 13 contributes 3,769, or about 37%. By contrast, Chapter 11 filings fell to 180, down from 419 the prior week, a decline of 239. Chapter 12 remained minimal at 7 filings nationwide. The overall weekly increase of 270 filings (from 9,969 to 10,239) was driven primarily by the +722 rise in Chapter 7 filings week over week.
3. District-level data show substantial variation within the national total of 10,239 filings. The highest-volume district this week recorded 531 filings, while two others followed closely at 479 each. Additional large districts reported totals such as 450, 330, and 270 filings for the week. Mid-range districts clustered around figures like 263 and 252 filings. All of these district-level counts, when aggregated across chapters and districts, sum to the national total of 10,239 for Week 07 of 2026.
4. The disparity between districts is significant in Week 07 of 2026. The highest district total of 531 filings contrasts sharply with districts reporting single-digit totals such as 4, 5, and 2 filings. At least one district reported 0 filings for the week, emphasizing the uneven distribution of cases nationwide. The difference between 531 and 2 filings represents more than a 250-fold gap. These disparities indicate that the national increase from 9,969 to 10,239 is concentrated in higher-volume districts rather than evenly spread.
5. Year-to-date through Week 07 of 2026, total filings equal 73,780. Over the same first seven weeks of 2025, filings totaled 63,791, meaning 2026 is ahead by 9,989 filings. The average weekly pace so far in 2026 is approximately 10,540 filings per week (73,780 divided by 7). Week 07’s total of 10,239 is slightly below that year-to-date weekly average but still well above last year’s Week 07 total of 8,717. This confirms that 2026 continues to track at a materially higher pace than 2025 through mid-February.
6. Comparing Week 07 across prior years highlights a steady upward pattern. Week 07 filings were 6,441 in 2022, 7,376 in 2023, 8,199 in 2024, 8,717 in 2025, and now 10,239 in 2026. That represents an increase of 1,522 over 2025 and 2,040 over 2024 for the same week. Annual totals also rose from 378,325 in 2022 to 445,177 in 2023, 503,754 in 2024, and 562,595 in 2025. The Week 07 figure of 10,239 is therefore consistent with the broader multi-year growth trend.
7. Using an estimated national population of approximately 341,000,000, the 10,239 filings in Week 07 of 2026 translate to roughly 3.0 filings per 100,000 residents for the week. By comparison, the 8,717 filings in Week 07 of 2025 equate to about 2.6 per 100,000 residents under the same population assumption. Week 07 of 2024 at 8,199 filings corresponds to approximately 2.4 per 100,000 residents. This shows that the increase to 10,239 is not only large in raw terms but also meaningful on a per-capita basis. Chapter 7’s 6,283 filings alone account for roughly 1.8 per 100,000 residents this week.
8. The per-capita rate is also increasing week to week in 2026. Week 06’s 9,969 filings equate to approximately 2.9 per 100,000 residents, compared with about 3.0 per 100,000 in Week 07. That change reflects the raw increase of 270 filings between the two weeks. The largest contributor to this change is Chapter 7, which rose from 5,561 to 6,283, an increase of 722 filings. Meanwhile, Chapter 11 fell from 419 to 180, partially offsetting the upward pressure on the per-capita rate.
9. Projecting forward based on the year-to-date average of 10,540 filings per week, maintaining that pace over 52 weeks would yield approximately 548,080 filings for 2026. That would place 2026 slightly below 2025’s total of 562,595, assuming no acceleration beyond the current average. However, because 2026’s first seven weeks total 73,780 compared with 63,791 last year, the growth rate is about 15.7% year over year. If that growth rate persisted across the remaining weeks, annual filings could approach roughly 650,000. The actual outcome will depend on whether weekly totals stay near 10,239 or move closer to or above the 10,540 year-to-date average.
10. Looking beyond 2025, annual totals have increased from 378,325 in 2022 to 562,595 in 2025, a cumulative rise of 184,270 filings over three years. The average annual increase during that period has been roughly 61,000 filings. If a similar increment were added to 2025’s 562,595, 2026 could plausibly exceed 620,000 filings. The Week 07 total of 10,239, compared with 8,717 in the same week of 2025, supports the possibility of continued upward momentum. Therefore, unless weekly filings retreat significantly below the current 10,239 level, the trend after 2025 suggests sustained growth rather than stabilization.