*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 March 2nd, 2026)

Week 9 broke the pattern. Consumer bankruptcies climbed 10% YoY to 14,894 filings, but business cases dipped 5% to 161, the first meaningful pullback in weeks. Chapter 7 led the consumer side (+11%, from 8,714 to 9,685), with Chapter 13 close behind (+7%, from 4,885 to 5,209). Most notably, Chapter 11 filings ticked down 2.5% YoY (158 to 154), only the second weekly decline of 2026.

What We Are Reading

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

• Radio station owner Cumulus Media files to cut $697M debt - Radio station owner Cumulus Media filed Chapter 11 for the second time in a decade, seeking to eliminate roughly $600M of its $697M debt as streaming and digital audio continue to crush traditional radio audiences and ad revenues.
• Retailers at risk in 2026: Bankruptcy Edition - Forbes predicts at least three major U.S. specialty retailers will file bankruptcy in 2026, driven by high interest rates, AI disruption, and aggressive competition. Warning that even financially stable chains like Dick's Sporting Goods and Best Buy must adapt or face pressure.
• First Brands creditors reckon with dwindling chance of repayment - Creditors of bankrupt auto parts maker First Brands are facing the reality that upcoming asset sales may yield less than $200M against more than $12B in debt, leaving fraud victims and lenders with steep losses.
• Three major banks sued after subprime auto lender went bankrupt - Investors sued three major banks for allegedly ignoring "giant red flags" at Tricolor Holdings, a subprime auto lender that collapsed amid fraud allegations involving double-pledging of collateral across multiple bank credit lines.

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 4.6 Opus Extended Analysis of the Bankruptcy Statistics

1. Overview of This Week's National Filings. The nation recorded 15,055 total bankruptcy filings during the week ending March 2, 2026, making it the highest single-week total in the 2026 calendar year so far. Chapter 7 liquidations dominated with 9,685 filings, accounting for 64.3% of the national total, while Chapter 13 repayment plans followed with 5,209 filings at 34.6%. Chapter 11 reorganizations contributed 154 filings and Chapter 12 family-farmer cases added just 7, together representing barely 1% of the weekly volume. This week's 15,055 filings represent a sharp 44.4% jump from the prior week's 10,426, signaling a notable surge in activity. The week's total also stands 34.7% above the historical average for the ninth week of the year across 2022–2025, which was approximately 11,176 filings.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings. The 15,055 filings recorded this week are nearly double the 8,333 filings logged in the same week of 2022, reflecting an 80.7% increase in just four years. Even compared to the same week last year, which posted 13,769 filings, this week climbed by 9.3%, confirming a persistent upward trajectory. Remarkably, this single week's output exceeds what the entire nation averaged per week for the whole of 2022, when the weekly average stood at just 7,275 filings. Chapter 7 filings alone this week (9,685) surpassed the total filings for the same week in 2022 by a wide margin. This underscores how dramatically the bankruptcy landscape has shifted in a relatively short period.
3. Overview of This Week's District-Level Filings. The Central District of California led the country with 786 total filings this week, followed closely by the Middle District of Florida at 771 and the Northern District of Illinois at 674. The Northern District of Georgia posted 513 filings, while the Eastern District of Michigan recorded 461 and the Southern District of Florida contributed 448. Other high-volume districts included the Eastern District of California at 401, the Northern District of Texas at 363, New Jersey at 336, and the Eastern District of Virginia at 332. Among mid-tier districts, the Northern District of Ohio filed 316, Maryland filed 308, and the Southern District of Texas contributed 293. Out of 94 federal districts represented, 92 recorded at least one filing, demonstrating that bankruptcy activity is widespread rather than concentrated in only a few jurisdictions.
4. Geographic Disparities in Filings. The gap between the busiest and quietest districts is staggering: the Central District of California's 786 filings dwarf the Virgin Islands' 2 and Vermont's 4 filings this week. Even among sizable states, disparities persist — Alaska logged just 13 filings and Wyoming only 11, while similarly rural-adjacent Nevada posted 250. Districts in the Sun Belt and industrial Midwest consistently rank among the highest, with the Middle District of Florida, Northern District of Illinois, and Northern District of Georgia all exceeding 500 filings. The Southern and Western districts of Texas combined for 562 filings, reflecting broad economic pressures across that state's varied regions.
5. Current Year Focus. Through the first nine weeks of 2026, the nation has accumulated 99,261 total filings, averaging 11,029 per week. Chapter 7 filings make up 60,377 of that year-to-date total, while Chapter 13 accounts for 36,790. The weekly average of 11,029 in 2026 already exceeds the full-year weekly averages of every prior year in the dataset, including 2025's 10,819 per week. Week 5 of 2026 also spiked to 14,156, and now Week 9 has surpassed it at 15,055, suggesting the upward trend is accelerating rather than leveling off. If this pace holds, 2026 is on track to set a new annual record well beyond 2025's 562,595 total.
6. Comparative Analysis With Previous Years. The same ninth week posted 8,333 filings in 2022, 10,075 in 2023, 12,528 in 2024, and 13,769 in 2025 — a clear staircase of growth leading to this week's 15,055. Year-to-date through nine weeks, 2026's 99,261 filings represent a 14.1% increase over 2025's 86,957 and a 69.6% increase over 2022's 58,530. Full-year totals have risen each year, from 378,325 in 2022 to 445,177 in 2023, 503,754 in 2024, and 562,595 in 2025. The annual growth rate has moderated slightly from 17.7% in 2023 to 13.2% in 2024 and 11.7% in 2025, but 2026's early pace of 14.1% suggests the deceleration may be reversing. Every chapter type has participated in this multi-year escalation, with Chapter 7 growing from 5,181 in the ninth week of 2022 to 9,685 this week.
7. Analyzing the Filings Per Capita. Using estimated U.S. population figures, the ninth week of 2026 produced roughly 44.1 filings per million residents, up from 40.6 per million in the same week of 2025 and 25.0 per million in 2022. On a year-to-date basis through nine weeks, 2026 has reached approximately 291.1 filings per million, compared with 256.5 per million in 2025 and 175.8 per million in 2022. At the district level, Nevada's 250 filings against its roughly 3.2 million population yield about 78.1 filings per million, while the Northern District of Georgia's 513 filings across approximately 6.5 million residents produce a similar 78.9 per million. By contrast, Vermont's 4 filings against its 650,000 population translate to only about 6.2 per million, and Alaska's 13 filings yield roughly 17.8 per million. These per-capita figures reveal that raw filing counts alone can obscure which populations are facing the most acute financial distress.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita. The per-capita rate during the ninth week has grown steadily from 25.0 per million in 2022 to 30.1 in 2023, 37.2 in 2024, 40.6 in 2025, and now 44.1 in 2026. This amounts to a roughly 76% cumulative increase in the per-capita weekly filing rate over four years, outpacing population growth of only about 2.4% over the same span. Year-to-date per-capita filings have likewise climbed from 175.8 per million through nine weeks in 2022 to 291.1 per million in 2026, a 65.6% increase. The acceleration from 2025 to 2026 in per-capita terms (8.6% growth for the ninth week) suggests that economic strain is intensifying faster than the population is expanding. Notably, high-volume districts like the Middle District of Florida (approximately 70.1 per million this week) are pulling far ahead of the national average, indicating concentrated pockets of per-capita distress.
9. Forecast of Expected Filing Numbers for the Rest of the Year. If the current year-to-date average of 11,029 filings per week holds for all 52 weeks, 2026 would finish with approximately 573,508 total filings, modestly above 2025's 562,595. However, historically, filing volumes tend to be somewhat higher in the spring and summer months, and the upward intra-year trajectory — from 9,010 in Week 1 to 15,055 in Week 9 — suggests the weekly average will likely climb further. Applying the 14.1% year-over-year growth rate observed in the year-to-date data to 2025's full-year total would project roughly 641,921 filings for 2026. A reasonable middle-ground estimate, accounting for seasonal patterns and the observed acceleration, falls in the range of 600,000 to 640,000 total filings for the year. Under any scenario, 2026 appears virtually certain to surpass 2025 and continue the unbroken streak of annual increases.
10. Forecast of the Trend of Increasing Filings After 2025. Annual filings have grown from 378,325 in 2022 to 562,595 in 2025, and the early 2026 data already suggests a continuation toward 600,000 or more. Although the annual growth rate decelerated from 17.7% in 2023 to 11.7% in 2025, the 2026 year-to-date pace of 14.1% indicates the slowdown may not persist. If growth stabilizes in the 10–14% range, annual totals could reach 650,000 to 700,000 by 2027 and potentially approach 800,000 by 2028. Key drivers likely include lingering effects of elevated interest rates, the expiration of pandemic-era relief programs, and rising consumer debt burdens — all of which feed both Chapter 7 liquidations and Chapter 13 repayment plans. Unless a significant policy intervention or economic improvement materializes, the data strongly suggests that the upward trend will continue well beyond 2025, pushing national filing volumes toward levels not seen since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

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

1. For week 9 of 2026, ending March 2, there were 15,055 total bankruptcy filings nationwide. Of these, 9,685 were under Chapter 7, 5,209 under Chapter 13, 154 under Chapter 11, and 7 under Chapter 12. That means Chapter 7 accounted for about 64 percent of all cases, while Chapter 13 contributed roughly 35 percent and the reorganization chapters together were just over 1 percent. Compared with the year-to-date 2026 weekly average of 11,029 filings, this week’s 15,055 total is about 36 percent higher. In short, the latest complete week is not just busy, it is significantly above the typical early-year pace for 2026.
2. An interesting feature of this week is that the 15,055 national filings are the single highest weekly total in the entire 2022–2026 dataset. The same is true for Chapter 7, where the 9,685 cases in week 9 of 2026 exceed any prior weekly Chapter 7 total. Relative to the immediately preceding week 8 of 2026, when there were 10,426 filings, the latest week represents a jump of 4,629 cases, or about 44 percent. Compared with week 9 of 2025, which had 13,769 filings, this week is higher by 1,286 cases, or roughly 9 percent. Taken together, the data show that this particular week is both a new high point and part of an upward shift rather than a one-off fluctuation.
3. At the district level, the latest week’s 15,055 filings are spread across 94 districts with an average of about 160 cases each. The busiest district is CAC with 786 filings, followed closely by FLM with 771 and ILN with 674. Those three districts alone account for 2,231 cases, or roughly 15 percent of the national total for the week. The top ten districts together contribute 5,085 filings, which is about 34 percent of all 15,055 cases. At the other end of the spectrum, several small districts such as GU with 0 filings and VT with just 4 filings illustrate how uneven the distribution is across the country.
4. Geographic disparities are evident when we compare the busiest and quietest districts in the latest week. CAC’s 786 cases are more than six times the median district volume of about 119 cases and vastly higher than the smallest nonzero total of 2 cases in VI. In fact, 23 districts recorded fewer than 50 filings in week 9 of 2026, while 12 districts recorded more than 300 filings. The average district total is about 160 cases with a spread of roughly 154 cases, which points to significant variation around the mean. This means that a handful of high-volume districts contribute a disproportionate share of the 15,055 national filings, while many districts have very modest activity.
5. Focusing on the current year, the first nine weeks of 2026 sum to 99,261 filings, compared with 86,957 filings over the same nine weeks of 2025. That implies a year-to-date increase of about 14 percent in national weekly filings between 2025 and 2026. For 2026 so far, the average weekly totals by chapter are about 6,709 for Chapter 7, 4,088 for Chapter 13, 227 for Chapter 11, and 6 for Chapter 12. In 2025 over weeks 1 through 9, those averages were roughly 5,838, 3,686, 130, and 7 respectively, so Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 are up strongly while Chapter 12 is slightly lower. Against that backdrop, the week-9 spike to 9,685 Chapter 7 and 5,209 Chapter 13 cases looks like an intensification of a broader 2026 upward trend rather than a brief anomaly.
6. Looking across earlier years, the first nine weeks’ national totals have risen steadily from 58,530 in 2022 to 68,020 in 2023, 77,578 in 2024, 86,957 in 2025, and now 99,261 in 2026. The average weekly filings over those nine-week periods climbed from about 6,503 in 2022 to 7,558 in 2023, 8,620 in 2024, 9,662 in 2025, and 11,029 in 2026. These steps correspond to increases of roughly 18 percent between 2022 and 2023, 13 percent between 2023 and 2024, 12 percent between 2024 and 2025, and 14 percent between 2025 and 2026. The latest week’s 15,055 filings sit well above all of those nine-week averages, especially compared with the 6,503 average from early 2022. Even when we compare just week 9 across years, the pattern is clear, with 8,333 filings in 2022, 10,075 in 2023, 12,528 in 2024, 13,769 in 2025, and 15,055 in 2026.
7. To think about filings per person, we can treat weekly totals as a proxy for per-capita intensity under the reasonable assumption that the national population changes slowly between 2022 and 2026. On that basis, the latest week’s 15,055 filings imply about 36 percent more filings per person than the 2026 year-to-date average of 11,029 per week. Compared with the 2025 early-year average of 9,662 filings, the same 15,055 total implies roughly 56 percent more filings per person for this one week. Relative to the 2024 early-year average of 8,620 filings, the per-person intensity index for week 9 of 2026 is about 75 percent higher. Using the same idea at the district level, CAC’s 786 cases are about 4.9 times the average district’s 160 cases, whereas VI’s 2 cases and VT’s 4 cases correspond to per-person intensities far below the national mean if their populations are not proportionally smaller.
8. Over multiple years, this proxy for per-capita filings shows a steady upward drift. The average weekly totals over weeks 1 through 9 increased from about 6,503 in 2022 to 7,558 in 2023, 8,620 in 2024, 9,662 in 2025, and 11,029 in 2026, which implies more filings per person in each successive year if population is roughly stable. In percentage terms, that is roughly 18 percent growth in the per-person rate from 2022 to 2023, about 13 percent from 2023 to 2024, about 12 percent from 2024 to 2025, and about 14 percent from 2025 to 2026. Because the latest week’s 15,055 filings are well above even the 2026 average, they suggest a per-person rate that is temporarily even higher than this already rising trend. If similar patterns persist through later weeks of 2026, the implied per-capita filing rate for the full year would likely exceed that of 2025, when the annual total reached 562,595 cases.
9. Historically, the first nine weeks account for only about 15 percent of annual filings, with early-year shares of roughly 15.3 to 15.5 percent in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. Using those patterns, the 99,261 filings recorded in the first nine weeks of 2026 imply a full-year forecast of around 644,499 filings when we scale by an average factor of about 6.49. A different method that projects forward from the 2025 annual total of 562,595 using the recent average annual growth rate of about 14 percent yields a similar 2026 estimate of roughly 642,313 filings. If the chapter mix stays close to the latest week’s pattern, where Chapter 7 accounted for about 64 percent of the 15,055 cases and Chapter 13 for about 35 percent, then a 644,000-filing year would translate into on the order of 400,000 or more Chapter 7 cases and just over 220,000 Chapter 13 cases. These forecasts are inherently approximate, but the weekly data through week 9 of 2026 consistently point toward a materially higher full-year volume than in 2025.
10. To explore trends beyond 2025, we can extend the observed weekly growth pattern into simple forward scenarios. Annual totals have already climbed from 378,325 filings in 2022 to 445,177 in 2023, 503,754 in 2024, and 562,595 in 2025, which corresponds to increases of about 18, 13, and 12 percent per year. If overall filings were to continue growing at a more conservative 10 percent per year from the 2025 base, annual volume would reach about 748,814 by 2028 and around 906,065 by 2030. Using a higher growth rate of roughly 14 percent, closer to what the early-2026 data suggest, the same projections rise to about 833,509 filings by 2028 and roughly 1,083,229 by 2030. These long-run estimates simply extend the weekly trends seen through week 9 of 2026, where the 15,055 filings and 99,261 year-to-date total signal that post-2025 filing levels are likely to remain elevated unless underlying economic or policy conditions change.

Claude 4.6 Sonnet Extended Analysis of the Bankruptcy Statistics

1. Overview of This Week's National Filings The most recently completed week of 2026 — the week ending March 2, 2026 — recorded a national total of 15,055 bankruptcy filings across all chapters and all districts in the United States. Of those filings, Chapter 7 liquidation cases accounted for the overwhelming majority at 9,685 cases, representing approximately 64.3% of all filings for the week. Chapter 13 wage-earner repayment plans contributed 5,209 filings, making up roughly 34.6% of the weekly national total. Chapter 11 business reorganization cases came in at 154 for the week, while Chapter 12 family farmer filings were minimal at just 7 cases. Combined, these figures confirm that consumer bankruptcy — driven by Chapters 7 and 13 together — continues to dominate the national filing landscape by an overwhelming margin.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings The most striking aspect of this week's total of 15,055 filings is just how dramatically it rises above the prior week: the week ending February 23, 2026 recorded only 10,426 total filings nationally, making this week's count a single-week surge of 4,629 additional cases, or a 44.4% jump in just seven days. This week stands as the single highest weekly filing total recorded in the entire dataset spanning from 2022 through early 2026. Even the previously notable spike in Week 5 of 2026 — which itself reached 14,156 filings — falls short of this week's 15,055 by nearly 900 cases. The pattern of recurring mid-quarter surges, visible in both Week 5 and now Week 9, suggests that a seasonal or calendar-driven compression of filing activity may be a structural feature of the early part of each calendar year. Notably, the Chapter 7 count alone this week, at 9,685, exceeds the total filings from all chapters combined that were recorded in the equivalent week of 2022, which stood at only 8,333.
3. An Overview of This Week's District-Level Filings Across the country's federal court districts, Chapter 7 filings this week were led by the Central District of California with 650 cases, followed closely by the Middle District of Florida with 597 cases. The Northern District of Illinois ranked third in Chapter 7 with 418 filings, while the Eastern District of California added 331 and the Eastern District of Michigan tallied 307. On the Chapter 13 side, the Northern District of Illinois led the nation with 249 filings, trailed by the Northern District of Georgia at 220, the Southern District of Florida at 190, and the Middle District of Florida at 160. The Eastern District of Michigan rounded out the top five Chapter 13 districts with 153 filings for the week. Together, these five leading Chapter 13 districts accounted for 972 filings — nearly 18.7% of the 5,209 national Chapter 13 total — illustrating how heavily concentrated repayment-plan filings are in a handful of major metropolitan areas.
4. Geographic Disparities in Filings The range between the highest and lowest filing districts this week underscores a dramatic geographic inequality in bankruptcy activity across the United States. The Central District of California recorded 650 Chapter 7 filings this week on its own, while the District of Vermont managed only 3 Chapter 7 filings and the District of the Virgin Islands reported a single Chapter 7 case. Two U.S. territories — Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands — recorded zero Chapter 7 filings for the entire week, reflecting the very different financial and legal infrastructure found in those jurisdictions. Even within the contiguous United States, the disparities are substantial: Chapter 13 filings in the Northern District of Illinois (249) and the Northern District of Georgia (220) vastly overshadow the many rural and lightly populated districts that recorded fewer than 10 Chapter 13 filings this week. These differences likely reflect a combination of state-level exemption laws, regional economic conditions, local legal culture, and the concentration of bankruptcy attorneys in high-population urban centers.
5. Current Year Focus Through the first nine weeks of 2026, national bankruptcy filings have accumulated to a year-to-date total of 99,261 cases — a figure that already surpasses the comparable nine-week cumulative total from any prior year in the dataset. The nine-week average for 2026 stands at 11,029 filings per week, which is modestly above the full-year 2025 weekly average of 10,819. Weekly totals in 2026 have fluctuated considerably: the low point was 9,010 filings in Week 1, there was a major spike to 14,156 in Week 5, a pullback to 9,969 in Week 6, and now the dataset's record peak of 15,055 in Week 9. Chapter 7 filings have dominated throughout 2026, averaging approximately 6,709 cases per week across the first nine weeks. The 2026 year-to-date Chapter 11 total stands at 2,043 filings, indicating an elevated pace of business reorganization filings compared to the levels observed in earlier years of the dataset.
6. Comparative Analysis With Previous Years Comparing Week 9 across all years in the dataset reveals a steady and unbroken upward march in filing volumes: Week 9 of 2022 recorded 8,333 total national filings, rising to 10,075 in 2023, then 12,528 in 2024, 13,769 in 2025, and now 15,055 in the equivalent week of 2026. The year-over-year percentage growth at Week 9 was 20.9% between 2022 and 2023, 24.3% between 2023 and 2024, 9.9% between 2024 and 2025, and 9.3% between 2025 and 2026. While the growth rate has clearly moderated from the sharp acceleration recorded between 2023 and 2024, the absolute filing count has increased every single year without exception. The year-to-date cumulative total through nine weeks rose from 58,530 in 2022 to 68,020 in 2023, 77,578 in 2024, 86,957 in 2025, and 99,261 in 2026 — a 14.1% increase from 2025 to 2026. Full-year annual totals reinforce the same picture: 2022 closed at 378,325 filings, 2023 at 445,177, 2024 at 503,754, and 2025 at 562,595 — four consecutive years of rising totals.
7. Analyzing the Filings Per Capita With the United States population estimated at approximately 335 million in 2026, the 15,055 filings recorded this week translate to roughly 44.9 filings per million residents for a single week. Annualizing the current 2026 pace of 11,029 filings per week yields a projected annual total of approximately 573,508 filings, or about 1,712 filings per million people for the full year. By comparison, the 2025 full-year total of 562,595 filings equated to approximately 1,679 filings per million, while 2024's 503,754 filings represented roughly 1,504 per million. The lowest per-capita annual rate in the dataset belongs to 2022, when 378,325 total filings equated to just approximately 1,129 per million people — meaning the per-capita rate has grown by roughly 52% between 2022 and the current 2026 projection. These figures indicate that more than one-in-a-thousand Americans is now filing for bankruptcy each year, and that ratio continues to climb.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita The year-over-year change in the per-capita annual filing rate reveals a clear upward trend that has only recently begun to slow: from 2022 to 2023 the rate climbed from approximately 1,129 to 1,329 per million people — a jump of roughly 200 filings per million, representing a 17.7% per-capita increase in a single year. The rate continued rising to approximately 1,504 per million in 2024 and 1,679 per million in 2025, with each year adding 175 to 200 additional filings per million residents to the cumulative burden. At the current 2026 projected pace of 1,712 per million, the incremental per-capita increase over 2025 narrows considerably to just 33 filings per million — suggesting the rate of acceleration is slowing, even as the absolute level remains elevated. However, even a modest per-capita increase now arrives on top of a much higher baseline than existed in 2022, meaning each additional filing represents a structurally higher plateau of financial distress rather than an isolated spike. The consistent multi-year upward drift in per-capita filings strongly suggests that American households face persistently growing debt burdens that the bankruptcy system is increasingly being called upon to resolve.
9. Forecast for the Remainder of 2026 Based on the 2026 weekly average of 11,029 filings through the first nine weeks, and with 43 weeks remaining in the calendar year, a straightforward projection estimates that approximately 474,247 additional filings will occur from Week 10 through Week 52. Adding that figure to the 99,261 already recorded through Week 9, total 2026 filings are projected to reach approximately 573,508 by year's end — a roughly 1.9% increase over 2025's full-year total of 562,595. However, the notable spikes in Week 5 (14,156 filings) and Week 9 (15,055 filings) suggest the average may be understated if similar surges recur in later quarters, which could push the full 2026 total comfortably above 580,000. Conversely, if those spike weeks reflect temporary compressions of deferred filing activity, and weekly counts return to the 10,000–10,500 range observed in Weeks 6, 7, and 8, the year-end total could settle closer to 560,000 to 565,000 instead. Either scenario would still represent the highest annual filing total in this dataset, continuing the unbroken year-over-year escalation observed from 2022 through 2025.
10. Forecasting Filing Trends Beyond 2025 The four-year trajectory from 2022 through 2025 shows national annual filing totals growing by an average of approximately 61,400 additional cases per year — from 378,325 in 2022 to 562,595 in 2025, a cumulative increase of 184,270 filings over three years. If this pace of absolute annual growth continues as a rough baseline, 2026 could close near or above 620,000 filings, meaningfully higher than the more conservative projection derived from 2026's nine-week average alone. However, the year-over-year percentage growth rate has been decelerating in recent years — from 24.3% between 2023 and 2024 down to approximately 9.3% at the equivalent week in 2025–2026 — suggesting that the most explosive phase of the post-pandemic filing surge may have already passed. Even under a more moderate assumption of 7–9% annual growth in 2027 and 2028, national filings could exceed 600,000 in 2027 and approach or surpass 650,000 by 2028. The persistent structural pressures underlying this trend — including elevated consumer debt burdens, higher-for-longer interest rates, and the gradual exhaustion of pandemic-era household savings — point toward sustained above-historical-average filing volumes well into the second half of the decade.

ChatGPT 5.2 Analysis of this Week's Bankruptcy Statistics

1. For the week ending March 2, 2026, the national total was 15,055 filings. By chapter, that week included 9,685 under Chapter 7, 154 under Chapter 11, 7 under Chapter 12, and 5,209 under Chapter 13. Compared with the prior week’s 10,426, this week rose by 4,629 filings (about a 44% jump). Against the same week one year earlier (Week 9 of 2025 at 13,769), this week was higher by 1,286. Versus Week 9 of 2024 (12,528), the increase was 2,527 filings.
2. The most striking feature this week is how concentrated filings were in consumer chapters: 9,685 (Chapter 7) plus 5,209 (Chapter 13) equals 14,894 of the 15,055 national filings. That means only 161 filings combined came from Chapters 11 and 12 (154 + 7), which is about 1% of the total. This mix also shifted upward from last week because the national total jumped from 10,426 to 15,055 while Chapter 11 stayed comparatively small at 154 this week. Year over year, the national total rose from 13,769 (Week 9 of 2025) to 15,055 (Week 9 of 2026), showing growth even before considering the chapter mix. A simple “headline” comparison shows Chapter 7 alone at 9,685 is larger than last week’s entire national total minus 741 (since 10,426 − 9,685 = 741).
3. District activity was led by California Central (786), Florida Middle (771), and Illinois Northern (674) filings this week. Next were Georgia Northern (513) and Michigan Eastern (461), followed closely by Florida Southern (448) and California Eastern (401). Those top three districts alone sum to 2,231 filings (786 + 771 + 674), which is roughly 15% of the 15,055 national total. Several districts were much smaller, such as Virgin Islands (2), Vermont (4), and Wyoming (11) this week. Even among small-volume districts, the combined count of 2 + 4 + 11 = 17 is dwarfed by California Central’s 786, illustrating how uneven the distribution is.
4. The spread between the highest and lowest districts this week was extreme: 786 filings in California Central versus 2 in the Virgin Islands, a difference of 784. Florida Middle’s 771 was also enormous relative to Vermont’s 4, exceeding it by 767. Put another way, California Central’s 786 is 393 times the Virgin Islands’ 2 (based strictly on this week’s counts). Even a mid–top-ten district like New Jersey (336) outpaced Rhode Island (14) by 322. These gaps matter because the national jump from 10,426 last week to 15,055 this week can be driven by a handful of large districts moving at once.
5. Looking at the current year so far (Weeks 1 through 9 of 2026), the national total adds up to 99,261 filings. Over the same nine-week span in 2025, the total was 86,957, so 2026 is ahead by 12,304 filings. That is about a 14% increase year to date (99,261 ÷ 86,957 ≈ 1.14). In 2026 year to date, Chapter 7 totals 60,377 and Chapter 13 totals 36,790, together making 97,167 of the 99,261 filings. The latest week alone contributed 15,055, which is about 15% of the year-to-date total (15,055 ÷ 99,261 ≈ 0.15).
6. Over full prior years, the annual totals rose from 378,325 (2022) to 445,177 (2023) to 503,754 (2024) to 562,595 (2025). That means 2025 exceeded 2024 by 58,841 filings and exceeded 2022 by 184,270 filings. On a weekly-comparable basis, Week 9 totals climbed from 12,528 (2024) to 13,769 (2025) to 15,055 (2026). The step from Week 9 of 2025 to Week 9 of 2026 is +1,286, while the step from Week 9 of 2024 to Week 9 of 2026 is +2,527. Even within 2026, the latest week’s 15,055 stands well above the average of Weeks 1–8 (10,526), implying acceleration rather than a flat pace.
7. Using an estimated U.S. population of about 349,035,000 in 2026, this week’s 15,055 filings translate to roughly 43.1 filings per million residents. Using the analogous 2025 population estimate of about 347,276,000, Week 9 of 2025’s 13,769 filings equal about 39.6 filings per million. That implies the week-level per-person filing intensity rose by about 3.5 filings per million year over year (43.1 − 39.6), consistent with the raw increase of 1,286 filings (15,055 − 13,769). If you prefer a “per 100,000” lens, 43.1 per million is 4.31 per 100,000 for this week. This per-person view reinforces that the rise from 13,769 to 15,055 is not just population growth, but a real increase in filings per resident.
8. The per-person pace also changed sharply from last week: Week 8 of 2026 had 10,426 filings, or about 29.9 filings per million using the same 349,035,000 population basis. This week’s rate of about 43.1 per million is an increase of roughly 13.3 per million in just one week (43.1 − 29.9). In raw terms, that corresponds to +4,629 filings week over week (15,055 − 10,426). Relative to the recent baseline, the average national total across Weeks 5–8 was 11,197.5, so Week 9’s 15,055 is higher by 3,857.5 filings (about 34% above that recent average). Put simply, both the total filings (15,055) and the per-person rate (~43.1 per million) show a clear step-up versus the immediately preceding weeks.
9. A straightforward forecast for the rest of 2026 can be built from how 2026 is tracking versus 2025 through Week 9: 99,261 year-to-date filings in 2026 versus 86,957 in 2025 implies a multiplier of about 1.1415. Applying that same multiplier to 2025’s full-year total of 562,595 yields an implied 2026 total near 642,200 filings. Under that scenario, the remaining filings after Week 9 would be about 542,939 (642,200 − 99,261) across the remaining 43 weeks. That equates to an average of about 12,626 filings per week for the rest of the year (542,939 ÷ 43), compared with the current-year-to-date weekly average of about 11,029 (99,261 ÷ 9). If weeks resemble the latest completed week more often, the pace could skew higher, because 15,055 is well above both 11,029 and 12,626.
10. The post-2025 trajectory has been consistently upward in the annual totals: 378,325 (2022), 445,177 (2023), 503,754 (2024), and 562,595 (2025). That pattern implies a rough growth rate on the order of 14% per year over 2022–2025, which aligns with 2026’s year-to-date multiple of about 1.1415 versus 2025 through Week 9 (99,261 vs 86,957). If a similar growth rate persisted, totals would be on the order of ~733,000 in 2027 and ~837,000 in 2028 (using 2025’s 562,595 as the base and compounding). This upward trend is also visible at the weekly level, with Week 9 rising from 12,528 (2024) to 13,769 (2025) to 15,055 (2026). Because this week’s chapter mix is dominated by consumer filings (9,685 Chapter 7 and 5,209 Chapter 13), sustained increases after 2025 would most likely be driven by continued growth in those two categories rather than by the relatively small Chapter 11 (154) or Chapter 12 (7) counts.