*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 30th, 2026)

Week 13 showed continued year-over-year growth, with consumer bankruptcies rising about 5% to 13,152 filings and business filings increasing roughly 8% to 130 cases compared with the same week last year. Chapter 7 filings, a lifeline for many struggling households, were up 6.32% year-over-year (8,475 in 2025 to 9,011 in 2026). Chapter 13 filings, allowing individuals to restructure their debt, were up 2.47% year-over-year (4,041 in 2025 to 4,141 in 2026). Chapter 11 filings, often used by businesses dealing with insolvency, were up 5.13% year-over-year (117 in 2025 to 123 in 2026).

Q1 closes with all chapters still running above 2025 levels, but the pace seems to be cooling. Subscribe to our newsletter for more bankruptcy statistics and insights.

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.
• U.S. home foreclosures impact nearly 40K homeowners - U.S. foreclosure filings rose for the 12th consecutive month in February, hitting nearly 40K properties, a 20% jump from last year, as housing affordability continues to squeeze homeowners

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. During the week ending March 30, 2026 (Week 13), a total of 13,282 bankruptcy petitions were filed nationwide. Chapter 7 liquidations accounted for the largest share at 9,011 filings, representing approximately 67.8% of all cases. Chapter 13 reorganizations followed with 4,141 filings, making up about 31.2% of the national total. Chapter 11 filings contributed 123 cases, while Chapter 12 filings added just 7 cases, together accounting for roughly 1.0% of the week's activity. This week's total of 13,282 marks a 4.0% increase over the prior week's 12,773 filings, signaling continued upward momentum in consumer and business distress.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings. Week 13 of 2026 recorded 13,282 total filings, which is 40.7% higher than the 9,439 filings recorded in the same week of 2022, illustrating a dramatic multi-year escalation. Notably, the single highest-volume week on record so far occurred just four weeks earlier in Week 9 of 2026, when 15,290 filings were logged in a single seven-day period. Chapter 7 filings alone this week (9,011) exceeded the entire national total for Week 13 of 2022 (9,439) by nearly matching it as a single chapter. Chapter 13 filings this week (4,141) are 28.0% higher than the 3,235 Chapter 13 filings from the same week in 2022, showing that repayment-plan bankruptcies are rising alongside liquidations. Meanwhile, Chapter 11 filings have more than doubled from 54 in Week 13 of 2022 to 123 this week, reflecting growing stress among mid-sized businesses.
3. Overview of This Week's District-Level Filings. The Central District of California led the nation this week with 680 total filings, followed closely by the Middle District of Florida at 661 filings. The Northern District of Illinois registered 500 filings, while the Eastern District of Michigan posted 482 and the Northern District of Georgia recorded 435. The Southern District of Florida contributed 382 filings, the Northern District of Ohio saw 368, and the Southern District of Ohio added 324 cases. At the lower end, the District of Alaska recorded only 3 filings, the Territory of Guam had just 1, and the Northern Mariana Islands and the Virgin Islands each recorded zero filings. Across these districts, a clear pattern emerges: metropolitan areas with large populations and higher costs of living continue to generate the overwhelming majority of the nation's bankruptcy petitions.
4. Geographic Disparities in Filings. The gap between the busiest and quietest federal districts is staggering, with the Central District of California's 680 filings dwarfing Alaska's 3 filings by a factor of roughly 227 to 1. Southern and Sun Belt districts such as Florida Middle (661), Georgia Northern (435), and Arizona (320) consistently appear in the top tier, reflecting economic pressures in fast-growing regions. Eastern seaboard districts like New Jersey (308), Maryland (282), and Eastern Virginia (315) also posted substantial numbers, underscoring financial stress in the mid-Atlantic corridor. By contrast, rural and low-population districts including Vermont (7), Maine (6), Hawaii (15), North Dakota (17), and the District of Columbia (13) remained well below 20 filings each. These geographic disparities highlight how urbanization, regional economic conditions, and population density interact to produce vastly different levels of bankruptcy activity across the country.
5. Current Year Focus. Through the first 13 weeks of 2026, the United States has recorded 148,986 total bankruptcy filings, averaging approximately 11,461 filings per week. Chapter 7 filings account for 92,904 of that year-to-date total, while Chapter 13 filings have reached 53,312, and Chapter 11 filings stand at 2,693. This year-to-date total of 148,986 already exceeds the first 13 weeks of 2025 by 12.8%, when 132,058 filings had been recorded through the same period. The weekly trajectory in 2026 has been volatile, ranging from a low of 9,012 in Week 1 to a peak of 15,290 in Week 9, suggesting seasonal surges and possible responses to economic policy shifts. If the current pace holds, 2026 is on track to surpass every prior year in the dataset by a significant margin, signaling that financial distress continues to broaden across the American economy.
6. Comparative Analysis with Previous Years. Week 13 filings have risen steadily from 9,439 in 2022 to 11,280 in 2023, then 12,845 in 2024, 12,636 in 2025, and now 13,282 in 2026. On a year-to-date basis through 13 weeks, filings climbed from 90,721 in 2022 to 105,871 in 2023, 120,054 in 2024, 132,058 in 2025, and 148,986 in 2026. Full-year totals for completed years show a persistent upward march: 378,327 in 2022, 445,183 in 2023, 503,761 in 2024, and 562,606 in 2025. The annual growth rate has hovered between 11.7% and 17.7%, with the 2022-to-2023 jump being the steepest and more recent years showing a gradual moderation in the rate of increase. Despite that slight deceleration in growth rate, the absolute volume of filings continues to set new highs each year, meaning more Americans are entering bankruptcy proceedings than at any point since the dataset began.
7. Analyzing Filings Per Capita. Using a U.S. population estimate of approximately 335 million, the annualized filing rate has risen from roughly 112.9 per 100,000 residents in 2022 to 132.9 in 2023, 150.4 in 2024, and 167.9 in 2025. If the 2026 pace of 11,461 filings per week continues for the full year, the projected annual total of approximately 595,944 would translate to about 177.9 filings per 100,000 residents. This means that roughly 1 in every 562 Americans would file for bankruptcy in 2026, compared to about 1 in every 886 in 2022. The per capita rate has thus increased by approximately 57.5% over the four-year span from 2022 to the 2026 projection, outpacing general population growth by a wide margin. These figures underscore that the rise in filings is not merely a function of population increase but reflects genuine deterioration in household and business financial health.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita. The year-over-year growth in per capita filings was most pronounced between 2022 and 2023, when the rate jumped by approximately 17.7%. Growth moderated to about 13.2% between 2023 and 2024, and further eased to 11.7% between 2024 and 2025. The 2026 year-to-date pace suggests a per capita growth rate of roughly 12.8% over 2025, indicating that the deceleration trend may have stalled or slightly reversed. Chapter 7 filings per capita have driven much of this growth, with weekly Chapter 7 counts rising from 6,148 in Week 13 of 2022 to 9,011 in 2026, a 46.6% increase in just four years. While the rate of growth is no longer accelerating as sharply as in 2022–2023, the persistent double-digit annual increases mean the cumulative burden on courts, trustees, and affected families continues to compound year after year.
9. Forecast of Expected Filing Numbers for the Rest of 2026. Through 13 weeks, 2026 has accumulated 148,986 filings, leaving 39 weeks remaining in the year. A simple extrapolation at the current weekly average of 11,461 filings would project a full-year total of approximately 595,944 filings. However, historical patterns show that filings tend to accelerate in the second and third quarters, which suggests the actual total could reach closer to 620,000–635,000. Applying the 12.8% year-to-date growth rate directly to the 2025 full-year total of 562,606 yields an alternative projection of roughly 634,724 filings for 2026. Either estimate would represent a new annual high, exceeding 2025's record of 562,606 by between 33,000 and 72,000 additional filings and placing enormous pressure on the federal court system.
10. Forecast of Increasing Filing Trends Beyond 2025. The annual growth trajectory from 378,327 filings in 2022 to 562,606 in 2025 represents a compound annual growth rate of approximately 14.1% over three years. If filings continue growing at even a moderated rate of 10–12% annually, the nation could see between 650,000 and 700,000 filings by 2027 and potentially approach 750,000 to 800,000 by 2028. Several macroeconomic factors support this outlook, including elevated interest rates, mounting consumer credit card debt, the resumption of student loan payments, and persistent inflation in housing and healthcare. Chapter 7 filings, which have grown from 56,270 in the first 13 weeks of 2022 to 92,904 in 2026, are likely to remain the primary driver, though Chapter 11 business filings—which have more than tripled on a year-to-date basis from 827 to 2,693 over the same span—signal rising corporate distress as well. Absent a significant easing of monetary policy or a substantial improvement in wage growth, the data strongly suggests that bankruptcy filings will continue climbing well beyond 2025 and into the latter part of this decade.

ChatGPT 5.2 Thinking Pro Analysis of this Week's Bankruptcy Statistics

1. Using the completed week 13 row for 2026, national filings totaled 13,282. That was up 509 from week 12’s 12,773 and up 646 from the comparable week in 2025, which came in at 12,636. The chapter mix was 9,011 in Chapter 7, 123 in Chapter 11, 7 in Chapter 12, and 4,141 in Chapter 13. Chapter 7 therefore represented 67.8% of all filings, while Chapter 13 represented 31.2% and the other two chapters combined were just 1.0%. Compared with the same completed week in 2024, 2023, and 2022, this week was also above 12,845, 11,280, and 9,439.
2. The most interesting fact this week is how concentrated the volume remains in just two chapters. Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 together accounted for 13,152 of the 13,282 filings, which is 99.0% of the national total. Chapter 11 contributed only 123 filings and Chapter 12 just 7, so the combined gap between the two dominant chapters and the two smaller chapters was 13,022 filings. Even within that concentration, Chapter 7 alone exceeded Chapter 13 by 4,870 filings this week. That means the broad national story is still being driven overwhelmingly by standard liquidation and wage-earner cases rather than by reorganization or farm-related filings.
3. District-level activity was led by CAC with 680 filings and FLM with 661, followed by ILN at 500, MIE at 482, and GAN at 435. The next tier included FLS at 382, OHN at 368, OHS at 324, AZ at 320, and VAE at 315. CAE posted 312, NJ had 308, INS had 290, MD had 282, and TXN had 274, showing that the high-volume districts were spread across several regions rather than concentrated in one state block. The 10 largest districts together produced 4,468 filings, or 33.6% of the national total of 13,282. At the other end, GU had 1 filing, AK had 3, ME had 6, VT had 7, and DC had 13.
4. The geographic spread in filings was wide this week, with the largest district at 680 filings and the smallest nonzero district at 1. The median district recorded 104 filings, while the average district recorded 141.3, which shows the distribution is pulled upward by a relatively small set of large districts. CAC’s 680 filings were 6.5 times the median district count of 104 and 680 times GU’s 1 filing. The top 5 districts alone accounted for 2,758 filings, or 20.8% of the 13,282 national total. This disparity suggests that the current national rise is not uniform, because a handful of large districts are contributing a disproportionate share of the weekly increase.
5. Through week 13, 2026 has accumulated 148,986 filings, which is 16,928 above 2025’s 132,058 through the same point. That puts 2026 ahead of 2024 by 28,932, ahead of 2023 by 43,115, and ahead of 2022 by 58,265 on a like-for-like weekly basis. The year-to-date chapter totals are 92,904 for Chapter 7, 2,693 for Chapter 11, 77 for Chapter 12, and 53,312 for Chapter 13. The current year-to-date weekly average is 11,460.5 filings, compared with 10,158.3 in 2025 and 9,234.9 in 2024. In other words, 2026 is not just posting a strong single week at 13,282, but is running at a consistently higher level across all 13 completed weeks.
6. On a same-week basis, the national total has risen from 9,439 in 2022 to 11,280 in 2023, 12,845 in 2024, 12,636 in 2025, and 13,282 in 2026. That sequence includes a small dip of 209 between 2024 and 2025, but the new week 13 reading has more than reversed it with a gain of 646 year over year. The recent momentum also looks firm, because the 4-week average ending in week 13 was 12,371.8 in 2026 versus 11,275.0 in 2025 and 10,619.0 in 2024. On a full-year basis, earlier totals climbed from 378,327 in 2022 to 445,183 in 2023, 503,761 in 2024, and 562,606 in 2025. The weekly and annual comparisons both point to a rising multi-year pattern, even though the path from one year to the next is not perfectly smooth.
7. For a per-person benchmark, the 13,282 filings this week equal about 3.89 filings per 100,000 U.S. residents when measured against the Census Bureau’s 341.8 million national population estimate for July 1, 2025. Using the same method, the comparable weekly rates were about 3.70 per 100,000 in 2025, 3.78 in 2024, 3.37 in 2023, and 2.83 in 2022. That means the current weekly level is about 5.1% above 2025 on a raw-count basis and also the highest per-capita reading in this same week comparison. Because the file does not include district population denominators, the cleanest per-capita reading available from the data is national rather than district-specific. Even so, the jump from 2.83 per 100,000 in 2022 to 3.89 in 2026 shows that the rise is not merely a population story.
8. The per-capita trend is also rising on a cumulative basis. Through 13 completed weeks, 148,986 filings work out to about 43.59 filings per 100,000 residents using the same 341.8 million population benchmark, versus 38.64 in 2025 and 35.30 in 2024. The comparable cumulative figures were about 31.61 per 100,000 in 2023 and 27.22 in 2022. That means the cumulative per-capita pace has increased by roughly 12.8% versus 2025 and by roughly 60.1% versus 2022. In practical terms, the increase in filings per person has persisted over many weeks, so the trend is broad enough to matter even if weekly totals occasionally swing around holidays or calendar effects.
9. A straightforward forecast for the rest of 2026 points to a full-year total between about 626,918 and 634,724 filings. That range comes from applying the historical remainder-of-year pattern after week 13 to the current year-to-date total of 148,986. It implies that the remaining 39 weeks would add roughly 477,932 to 485,738 filings, which is an average of about 12,255 to 12,455 per week from week 14 onward. Either end of that range would exceed the 2025 full-year total of 562,606 by at least 64,312 filings. Unless there is an abrupt reversal after week 13, the data support a view that 2026 is on track to set another annual high.
10. Looking beyond 2025, the trend still points upward rather than flattening out. A simple line through the annual totals of 378,327 in 2022, 445,183 in 2023, 503,761 in 2024, and 562,606 in 2025 projects about 625,323 for 2026, which is very close to the seasonal forecast range of 626,918 to 634,724. On the week 13 snapshot alone, the fitted increase is about 904 filings per year across 2022 to 2026, rising from 9,439 to 13,282 over that span. That does not guarantee the same step-up every year after 2026, but it does suggest that filings are still on an expanding path rather than a post-2025 plateau. My base case is therefore continued increases after 2025, with growth remaining positive but likely less explosive than the jump from 2022 to 2024 unless the weekly pace starts running materially above the current 13-week average of 11,460.5.

Claude 4.6 Sonnet Extended Analysis of the Bankruptcy Statistics

1. Overview of This Week's National Filings The week ending March 30, 2026 — the latest fully completed week in the dataset — recorded a national total of 13,282 bankruptcy filings across all chapters. Chapter 7 liquidation filings dominated, accounting for 9,011 cases, or approximately 67.9% of all filings for the week. Chapter 13 wage-earner repayment plans were the second-largest category, contributing 4,141 filings and representing about 31.2% of the national total. Chapter 11 business reorganization filings added 123 cases to the weekly count, while Chapter 12 family farmer and fisherman filings contributed a modest 7. Together, these four chapter categories produced a combined weekly total that reinforces the broad-based and ongoing nature of financial distress affecting American households and businesses alike.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings Week 13 of 2026 stands out as the highest single-week filing total ever recorded for that same calendar week across all five years of available data — 2022 through 2026. In the same week of 2025, the national total was 12,636, meaning 2026 surpassed it by 646 filings, a year-over-year increase of about 5.1% for that specific week. Going back further, week 13 of 2022 recorded only 9,439 filings, meaning the equivalent week in 2026 is now 40.7% higher than it was just four years ago. Chapter 7 filings for this week at 9,011 also set a new five-year high for week 13, surpassing the previous record of 8,475 set during week 13 of 2025. This consistent record-breaking for the same calendar week, year after year, strongly suggests that the structural upward trend in filings is not cyclical noise but a sustained, directional shift in national financial health.
3. Overview of This Week's District-Level Filings At the district level, the Central District of California led all jurisdictions in week 13 of 2026, recording 680 total filings across all chapters. The Middle District of Florida followed closely in second place with 661 filings, while the Northern District of Illinois came in third with 500 filings. The Eastern District of Michigan contributed 482 filings, and the Northern District of Georgia added 435, rounding out the top five most active districts for the week. Further down the ranking, the Southern District of Florida recorded 382, the Northern District of Ohio filed 368, the Southern District of Ohio submitted 324, and the District of Arizona and the Eastern District of Virginia contributed 320 and 315 filings respectively. Collectively, these ten leading districts accounted for approximately 4,467 filings, or roughly 33.6% of the entire national total of 13,282 for the week.
4. Geographic Disparities in Filings The geographic disparity between the busiest and quietest districts in week 13 of 2026 is striking. The Central District of California alone — with 680 filings — filed more cases than the Virgin Islands (0), the Northern Mariana Islands (0), Guam (1), Alaska (3), and Maine (6) combined, which together totaled just 10 filings. High-volume districts are concentrated in large urban states such as California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Georgia, and Ohio, reflecting both population density and elevated household debt levels in those regions. The next tier of active districts, including the Northern District of Georgia (435) and the Southern District of Florida (382), also correspond to metropolitan areas with historically elevated consumer credit stress. This concentration means that policy changes, economic shocks, or local employment disruptions in a handful of large urban districts can meaningfully move the national total in any given week.
5. Current Year Focus Through the first 13 weeks of 2026, cumulative national bankruptcy filings have reached 148,986 cases — a year-to-date total that already exceeds the same period in 2025 by 16,928 filings. Chapter 7 filings account for 92,904 of the year-to-date total, Chapter 13 contributes 53,312, Chapter 11 adds 2,693, and Chapter 12 rounds out the count with 77 cases. The weekly average for 2026 through week 13 stands at approximately 11,460 filings per week, compared to 10,158 per week for the same 13-week span in 2025 — a 12.8% acceleration in average weekly volume. This faster pace in the opening quarter suggests that 2026's filing momentum is considerably stronger than it was at the same point in the prior year. If this weekly rate holds, the total year-to-date count will surpass 200,000 filings before the end of May, a milestone that would arrive weeks earlier than it did in any prior year in the dataset.
6. Comparative Analysis with Previous Years Comparing week 13 filing totals across all five available years reveals an unmistakable upward staircase: 9,439 in 2022, 11,280 in 2023, 12,845 in 2024, 12,636 in 2025, and 13,282 in 2026. The year-to-date totals through week 13 mirror this progression: 90,721 in 2022, 105,871 in 2023, 120,054 in 2024, 132,058 in 2025, and 148,986 in 2026 — a 64.2% cumulative increase over the four-year span. The 2026 year-to-date figure of 148,986 is 12.8% above the same period in 2025 and 24.1% above where 2024 stood through week 13. Full-year annual totals confirm the trend, rising from 378,327 in 2022 to 445,183 in 2023, 503,761 in 2024, and 562,606 in 2025 — an average annual increase of roughly 61,426 filings per year. The minor week-13 dip seen in 2025 versus 2024 (12,636 vs. 12,845) was temporary; 2026 has not only erased that softness but surpassed all prior benchmarks by a notable margin.
7. Analyzing the Filings Per Capita Based on a U.S. population of approximately 335 million, week 13 of 2026 produced roughly 3.96 bankruptcy filings per 100,000 people, a rate that illustrates the real-world breadth of financial hardship across the country. Chapter 7 alone accounted for approximately 2.69 filings per 100,000 people this week, while Chapter 13 contributed approximately 1.24 per 100,000, underscoring that liquidation remains the primary relief mechanism chosen by distressed Americans. By comparison, week 13 of 2025 yielded approximately 3.77 filings per 100,000 people — meaning the per-capita rate has risen by about 0.19 points year-over-year for this specific week. The year-to-date per-capita rate through week 13 of 2026 stands at approximately 44.47 per 100,000 people, compared to 39.42 per 100,000 for the same period in 2025 — a 12.8% increase in annualized per-capita burden. These numbers suggest that even accounting for gradual population growth, the financial stress reflected in bankruptcy filings is intensifying on a population-adjusted basis.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita The per-capita filing rate for week 13 has moved steadily upward over the five-year window, rising from 2.82 per 100,000 in 2022 to 3.37 in 2023, 3.83 in 2024, then dipping slightly to 3.77 in 2025, before reaching a new five-year high of 3.96 in 2026. On a full-year basis, annual per-capita rates have climbed from 112.9 per 100,000 in 2022 to 132.9 in 2023, 150.4 in 2024, and 167.9 in 2025 — each year adding between 17 and 20 additional annual filings per 100,000 people. This consistent per-capita escalation indicates that the growth in filings is not simply a function of population expansion but reflects genuine deterioration in household and business financial resilience. The year-to-date per-capita rate in 2026 of 44.47 per 100,000 already surpasses the 2025 year-to-date rate of 39.42 — a difference of more than 5 points in just 13 weeks. If the per-capita rate continues to climb at its current pace, the annual per-capita figure for 2026 could approach or exceed 178 per 100,000 people by year-end.
9. Forecasting Expected Filing Numbers for the Rest of the Year With 13 weeks complete and a weekly average of approximately 11,460 filings, the remaining 39 weeks of 2026 are projected to add approximately 446,940 additional cases at the current pace. Combined with the already-recorded 148,986 year-to-date filings, the projected full-year 2026 total would reach approximately 595,944 filings — representing a year-over-year increase of roughly 5.9% over the 2025 full-year total of 562,606. Chapter 7 is on track to account for roughly 373,000 of those projected filings, while Chapter 13 could approach approximately 210,000 cases, based on their respective shares of weekly filings in 2026. It is important to note that the 2026 weekly average of 11,460 is already well above the full-year 2025 weekly average of 10,819 per week (562,606 ÷ 52 weeks), meaning the current pace could produce a final figure even higher than 595,944 if it maintains or accelerates. Conversely, a seasonal slowdown in the second half of the year — as has occasionally appeared in prior years — could moderate the final count somewhat, but based on the current trajectory, surpassing 562,606 appears virtually certain.
10. Forecasting the Trends of Increasing Filings After 2025 The multi-year trajectory from 378,327 annual filings in 2022 to 562,606 in 2025 represents a compound annual growth rate of approximately 14.1%, and nothing in the 2026 data suggests that rate is decelerating. If the 14% compound growth pattern continues into 2027, annual filings could approach approximately 641,000 cases — and by 2028, the trajectory could push total annual filings toward 730,000 or beyond. The sustained increase in Chapter 7 filings — which grew from an average of roughly 5,000 per week in early 2022 to over 9,000 per week in week 13 of 2026 — points to deepening consumer insolvency as a structural feature of the post-pandemic economy, driven by elevated debt balances, higher interest rates on revolving credit, and wage growth failing to keep pace with cost-of-living pressures. Chapter 11 business filings have also trended upward over the five-year window, with week 13 of 2026 tying the 2024 high of 123 filings for that week — signaling that corporate and small-business distress is accelerating alongside consumer filings. Based on the weight of the available evidence, there is no year in the dataset that reversed the annual upward trend, and 2026's exceptionally strong opening quarter reinforces the view that bankruptcy filings will continue rising in 2027 and 2028, absent a significant and sustained improvement in macroeconomic conditions for American households and businesses.

ChatGPT o3 Analysis of this Week's Bankruptcy Statistics

1. For the week ending March 30 2026 (calendar week 13), the United States recorded 13 282 bankruptcy filings. Chapter 7 cases dominated with 9 011, while Chapter 13 contributed 4 141. The specialist chapters were far smaller, posting 123 Chapter 11 matters and 7 Chapter 12 petitions. Altogether, these sums confirm more than thirteen thousand new proceedings in a single seven-day span. The tally exceeds the prior week’s 12 773 filings by 509.
2. A striking feature of the latest data is that Chapter 13’s 4 141 cases outnumber Chapter 11’s 123 by more than thirty-three to one. Chapter 7 alone equals almost 68 percent of the national total, supplying 9 011 of 13 282 filings. Combining Chapters 7 and 13 yields 13 152, leaving just 130 for the other two chapters. The Chapter 12 count of 7 highlights how rare farm-related restructurings remain. Such proportions underline the overwhelmingly consumer-centric nature of the current docket.
3. District activity is led by Central California with 680 filings, followed by Middle Florida at 661. Northern Illinois contributed 500, Eastern Michigan added 482, and Northern Georgia posted 435. Together, these five districts account for 2 758 of the national 13 282 cases. That figure is a shade above 20 percent of all filings this week. Their combined weight shows how a handful of populous venues drive a sizable share of the workload.
4. Geographic disparity is vivid when contrasting Central California’s 680 cases with Guam’s solitary 1. The 679-case gap demonstrates the concentration of filings in large economic centers relative to remote jurisdictions. Even within the high-volume tier, Middle Florida trails Central California by 19 matters. Several lightly populated districts register fewer than 10 filings, while the leaders exceed 600. The spectrum spans three orders of magnitude, revealing stark regional differences in bankruptcy pressure.
5. Cumulatively, the first thirteen weeks of 2026 have produced 148 986 filings, outpacing the corresponding 2025 total of 132 058 by 16 928. The weekly mean has risen from 10 158 last year to 11 460 this year. Chapter 7 alone has averaged more than 7 800 cases per week in 2026. Chapter 13 is averaging roughly 3 180 weekly filings. These figures point to the busiest opening quarter since 2019.
6. Comparing the same week across years shows filings moving from 12 845 in 2024 to 12 636 in 2025 and up to 13 282 in 2026. The 2025 decline of 209 cases was followed by a 646-case rebound this year. Chapter 13 mirrored the pattern, sliding from 4 289 to 4 041 and then climbing to 4 141. Chapter 7 rose from 8 475 to 9 011 over the last twelve months. These swings suggest temporary relief in 2025 before renewed growth in 2026.
7. Using a national population estimate of 335 million, the week’s 13 282 filings equate to roughly 39.6 cases per million residents. Central California’s 680 filings in a region of about 8 million people translate to approximately 85 per million—more than double the national rate. Guam’s single case against 170 000 inhabitants yields only 5.9 per million. Chapter 7 alone represents 26.9 cases per million nationwide. Chapter 11, by contrast, adds just 0.37 per million.
8. The national per-million figure climbed from 38.1 last week (based on 12 773 filings) to 39.6 this week, a gain of 1.5 per million. Year-over-year, the increase is from 37.7 per million in week 13 of 2025 to today’s 39.6. Central California’s rate nudged upward as its caseload rose from 676 to 680. Several small districts, including Guam, stayed flat at one or two cases, illustrating uneven growth. The gradual rise shows that population-adjusted pressure is intensifying alongside raw totals.
9. Maintaining the 2026 weekly average of 11 460 for the remaining 39 weeks would add about 446 958 cases to the docket. Including the year-to-date 148 986 produces a full-year projection near 595 944 filings. If Chapter 7 continues at its current pace, it will close the year with roughly 405 000 cases. Chapter 13, averaging 3 180 weekly, would finish around 165 000. Such totals would return national volume to levels last seen in 2011.
10. The 646-case jump between 2025 and 2026 implies an annual growth rate of roughly 5 percent. Extending that rate suggests week 13 filings could reach 13 960 in 2027 and 14 670 in 2028. By 2030, the weekly count could approach 16 000, lifting annual totals above 650 000. Chapter 13 would likely exceed 4 600 weekly filings by 2028 if it keeps adding about 100 cases each year. The data therefore point to steadily rising consumer bankruptcies after 2025, with no immediate sign of reversal.