*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 April 6th, 2026)

With a total of 14,191 cases filed, week 14 showed mixed results. Consumer bankruptcies rose about 17% to 14,023 filings, while business filings declined roughly 12% to 168 cases compared with the same week last year. Chapter 7 filings, a lifeline for many struggling households, were up 21.8% year-over-year (7,789 in 2025 to 9,487 in 2026). Chapter 13 filings, allowing individuals to restructure their debt, were up 7.9% year-over-year (4,204 in 2025 to 4,536 in 2026). Chapter 11 filings, often used by businesses dealing with insolvency, were down 17.4% year-over-year (184 in 2025 to 152 in 2026).

Just as we were writing about stabilization, Week 14 threw us a curveball. Could it be a shift in consumer behavior? Tax season? Court processing changes? Broader economic patterns? With so many factors at play, it's hard to say, but we're watching.

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. The nation recorded 14,191 total bankruptcy filings during the week ending April 5, 2026, marking the highest single-week total so far this year. Chapter 7 liquidations dominated with 9,487 filings, accounting for 66.9% of all cases. Chapter 13 reorganizations followed at 4,536 filings, representing 32.0% of the week's total. Chapter 11 business reorganizations contributed 152 filings and Chapter 12 family-farmer cases added 16. This week's total rose 627 filings from the prior week's 13,564, a 4.6% week-over-week increase.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings. Week 14 of 2026 saw 14,191 filings compared to just 7,089 during the same week in 2022, meaning filings have effectively doubled in four years. The year-over-year jump from 2025's Week 14 total of 12,184 represents a 16.5% increase, continuing a multi-year acceleration. Chapter 12 filings hit 16 this week, their highest Week 14 figure across all five years in the dataset and double the typical count of 5–8. Meanwhile, Chapter 7 filings alone this week (9,487) exceeded the entire national total for Week 14 of 2022 (7,089) by more than 2,000 cases. This underscores the sheer scale of growth the bankruptcy system has absorbed in a relatively short period.
3. Overview of This Week's District-Level Filings. The Middle District of Florida led the nation with 749 filings, closely followed by the Central District of California at 739. The Northern District of Georgia posted 528 filings, while the Northern District of Illinois recorded 496 and the Eastern District of Michigan came in at 444. The Southern District of Florida added 376, the Northern District of Texas filed 348, and New Jersey reported 343. At the lower end, Alaska recorded only 14 filings, Vermont posted just 5, and several districts including Wyoming, South Dakota, and Montana each logged 18.
4. Geographic Disparities in Filings. The gap between the busiest and quietest districts is enormous: Florida Middle's 749 filings dwarf Vermont's 5, a ratio of roughly 150 to 1. Large Sun Belt districts — Florida Middle (749), Central California (739), and Northern Georgia (528) — collectively account for over 2,000 filings, about 14% of the national total from just three districts. Meanwhile, eight districts including Alaska (14), New Hampshire (19), and Washington D.C. (21) each contributed fewer than 25 filings. Northern Ohio (333) and Southern Ohio (290) together posted 623 filings, illustrating how even within a single state filings can vary significantly. These disparities reflect differences in population, local economic conditions, and regional legal cultures surrounding debt relief.
5. Current Year Focus. Through the first 14 weeks of 2026, the nation has accumulated 163,460 total bankruptcy filings. Chapter 7 cases account for 102,620 of that year-to-date figure, while Chapter 13 filings total 57,903. The weekly trajectory in 2026 has been volatile, ranging from a low of 9,012 in Week 1 to 15,290 in Week 9 and now 14,191 in Week 14. The year-to-date total of 163,460 already surpasses the same 14-week stretch of 2025 (144,243) by 13.3%. If the current pace holds, 2026 is on track to be the highest-volume filing year in this dataset by a wide margin.
6. Comparative Analysis With Previous Years. Week 14 filings have climbed steadily from 7,089 in 2022 to 7,410 in 2023, then 8,883 in 2024, 12,184 in 2025, and now 14,191 in 2026. The sharpest single-year acceleration occurred between 2024 and 2025, when Week 14 totals surged 37.2%. Full-year totals tell a similar story: 378,328 in 2022 grew to 445,183 in 2023, then 503,763 in 2024, and 562,612 in 2025. Year-to-date through 14 weeks, 2026's 163,460 filings represent a 13.3% increase over 2025's 144,243 for the same period. The growth rate has moderated from 2025's explosive jump but remains well above the 4.5% increase seen between 2022 and 2023.
7. Analyzing the Filings Per Capita. Using an approximate U.S. population of 335 million, the 2022 full-year total of 378,328 filings translates to roughly 1.13 filings per 1,000 people. That rate rose to 1.33 per 1,000 in 2023, 1.50 in 2024, and 1.68 in 2025. Annualizing 2026's year-to-date pace of 163,460 filings over 14 weeks yields a projected annual total of roughly 607,000, or about 1.81 filings per 1,000 people. This means the per-capita filing rate has grown roughly 60% from 2022 to the current 2026 pace. Even adjusting for slight population growth, the trend indicates substantially more Americans are seeking bankruptcy protection each year.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita. The per-capita rate jumped from 1.13 per 1,000 in 2022 to 1.33 in 2023, an increase of about 0.20 per 1,000. It then rose by 0.17 to reach 1.50 in 2024 and by another 0.18 to hit 1.68 in 2025. The 2026 annualized pace implies a jump of 0.13 to approximately 1.81 per 1,000, suggesting the rate of acceleration is beginning to slow. However, a per-capita rate near 1.81 remains historically elevated and suggests broad financial stress across the population. Whether this deceleration reflects stabilizing economic conditions or simply a ceiling effect as more distressed borrowers have already filed remains an open question.
9. Forecast of Expected Filing Numbers for the Rest of the Year. Through 14 weeks, 2026 has averaged approximately 11,676 filings per week (163,460 divided by 14). If that weekly average holds for the remaining 38 weeks, the nation would add roughly 443,700 more filings, bringing the full-year total to about 607,000. This would represent an approximate 7.9% increase over 2025's 562,612 full-year total. However, filing volumes typically rise in the second and third quarters due to tax-refund-driven attorney retainers and seasonal economic patterns, so the actual total could push toward 620,000–640,000. Given that Week 14 alone hit 14,191 — well above the year-to-date average — the upward trajectory suggests the higher end of that range is plausible.
10. Forecast of Trends Beyond 2025. Annual filings have increased every year in this dataset: from 378,328 in 2022, to 445,183, to 503,763, to 562,612 in 2025 — adding roughly 60,000–70,000 filings per year. The 2026 annualized pace near 607,000 suggests that pattern is continuing, though the annual increment may be narrowing slightly. If filings continue growing at even a modest 8–10% annually, the nation could see 650,000–700,000 annual filings by 2027 or 2028. Drivers likely include elevated consumer debt levels, higher interest rates persisting longer than expected, and the compounding effect of inflation on household budgets. Barring a significant policy intervention or economic recovery, the data strongly suggests filings will remain on an upward trajectory well beyond 2025.

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

1. Through April 6, 2026, the latest fully completed week shows 14,191 national filings. That was up 627 from 13,564 in the prior week, a 4.6% increase. It was also up 2,007 from 12,184 in the same week of 2025, a 16.5% gain. By chapter, the week consisted of 9,487 Chapter 7 filings, 152 Chapter 11 filings, 16 Chapter 12 filings, and 4,536 Chapter 13 filings. This means Chapter 7 plus Chapter 13 alone accounted for 14,023 of 14,191 filings, showing that the national picture remains overwhelmingly driven by consumer-oriented cases.
2. The most interesting feature this week is how concentrated the mix was, because Chapter 7 represented 66.9% of all filings and Chapter 13 added another 32.0%. Together those two chapters made up 98.8% of the 14,191 national total, leaving just 168 cases for Chapters 11 and 12 combined. Even within that small remainder, Chapter 12 rose to 16 from 10 in the prior week and from 7 in the same week last year. Chapter 11, by contrast, fell to 152 from 184 in week 14 of 2025 even as the national total climbed. So the headline growth this week was not being led by business reorganization filings, but mainly by higher Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 volume, which rose by 1,698 and 332 year over year, respectively.
3. At the district level, the largest volumes this week were Middle Florida with 749 filings, Central California with 739, Northern Georgia with 528, Northern Illinois with 496, and Eastern Michigan with 444. Those five districts alone produced 2,956 filings, or 20.8% of the 14,191 national total. The next tier included Southern Florida at 376, Northern Texas at 348, New Jersey at 343, Eastern California at 342, and Northern Ohio at 333. Outside the very top, Maryland still posted 316, Southern Texas 308, Southern Ohio 290, Eastern New York 279, and Arizona 276, so the filing load was broad rather than isolated to one state. The district map therefore shows several large engines rather than a single outlier, with many major districts landing in a fairly tight band from roughly 250 to 750 filings.
4. The geographic disparities were still striking, because Middle Florida’s 749 filings were nearly 150 times Vermont’s 5 filings in the same week. Even among nonzero districts, Alaska had 14, Montana 18, South Dakota 18, Wyoming 18, and New Hampshire 19, which is a very different scale from the 700-plus districts. The top 10 districts generated 4,698 filings, or 33.1% of the national total, while the bottom 10 nonzero districts generated only 175. Another way to see the imbalance is that Middle Florida and Central California together had 1,488 filings, which was more than the lowest 20 districts combined at 421. That spread suggests local legal, economic, and demographic conditions are still producing highly uneven filing pressure across the country.
5. Focusing on the current year through week 14, national filings total 163,460 in 2026, compared with 144,243 through week 14 of 2025. That puts 2026 ahead by 19,217 filings, or 13.3%, on a year-to-date basis. The 2026 year-to-date weekly average is 11,676 filings, versus 10,303 over the first 14 weeks of 2025. By chapter, 2026 year to date includes 102,620 Chapter 7 filings, 2,841 Chapter 11 filings, 96 Chapter 12 filings, and 57,903 Chapter 13 filings. So the current year is not just one strong week at 14,191, but a consistently higher run rate across the first quarter and into early April.
6. Compared with the same week in prior years, week 14 has risen from 7,089 in 2022 to 7,410 in 2023, 8,883 in 2024, 12,184 in 2025, and 14,191 in 2026. That sequence shows the latest week is exactly double the 2022 level and 59.8% above the 2024 level. The year-to-date path tells the same story, moving from 97,810 in 2022 to 113,281 in 2023, 128,937 in 2024, 144,243 in 2025, and 163,460 in 2026. In other words, each of the last four annual comparisons through week 14 has set a new high. The multi-year pattern is therefore a rising weekly staircase, not a one-off spike limited to a single season.
7. On a per-person basis, the 14,191 filings in this week equal about 4.14 filings per 100,000 U.S. residents when compared with a U.S. population of 342,417,444 on April 6, 2026. Within that weekly rate, Chapter 7 alone was about 2.77 filings per 100,000 and Chapter 13 was about 1.32 per 100,000. Chapter 11 was only about 0.04 per 100,000, and Chapter 12 was effectively 0.00 per 100,000 at 16 cases nationally. Using this lens helps put the 14,191 total in context, because it means roughly 1 out of every 24,130 residents generated a filing during the week. That is still a small share of the population, but it is materially higher than the same-week filing intensity seen earlier in the series.
8. The same-week filing rate has climbed from about 2.13 per 100,000 in 2022, to 2.22 in 2023, 2.64 in 2024, 3.57 in 2025, and 4.14 in 2026. That means the comparable weekly filing rate has nearly doubled in four years, rising by about 94.4% from 2022 to 2026. The year-to-date filing rate shows the same acceleration, increasing from 29.43 per 100,000 through week 14 of 2022 to 47.74 through week 14 of 2026. The practical takeaway is that the rise in filings is not just a function of a larger population, because filings are growing faster than the resident base. By weekly standards, 2026 is therefore running at the most elevated per-capita pace in this file.
9. A simple weekly forecast based on 2026’s year-to-date growth rate of 13.3% over 2025 implies about 474,107 filings over the remaining 38 weeks of the year. Added to the 163,460 already recorded through week 14, that points to roughly 637,567 filings for full-year 2026. That projection would be about 74,955 above the 2025 full-year total of 562,612. On an average-week basis, the implied pace for the rest of 2026 is about 12,477 filings, which sits above the current 2026 year-to-date average of 11,676 because later weeks in 2025 were seasonally larger. The most reasonable weekly expectation, then, is continued totals mostly in the low- to mid-12,000s, with occasional spikes back toward the 14,000 range seen in week 14.
10. Looking beyond 2025, the weekly trend is still upward, because the same week moved from 12,184 in 2025 to 14,191 in 2026, a gain of 16.5%. Across the longer 2022-to-2026 span, the comparable week rose from 7,089 to 14,191, which is an annualized growth rate of about 18.9%. I would not assume that pace persists indefinitely, but the data support a continued post-2025 uptrend unless economic or legal conditions change materially. If growth cools into a more moderate 8% to 12% range after 2026, the comparable week would still land around 15,300 to 15,900 in 2027 and roughly 16,500 to 17,800 in 2028. So the most defensible forward view from this weekly file is not a reversal after 2025, but a still-rising trend with growth likely slower than the jump from 2024 to 2025 yet positive versus the 14,191 benchmark in 2026.

Claude 4.6 Sonnet Extended Analysis of the Bankruptcy Statistics

1. Overview of This Week's National Filings The week ending April 6, 2026 (Week 14) recorded a national total of 14,191 bankruptcy filings across all chapters and all districts. Chapter 7 liquidations were the dominant filing type, accounting for 9,487 filings — approximately 66.9% of the weekly national total. Chapter 13 wage-earner repayment plans represented the second-largest category with 4,536 filings, contributing roughly 32.0% of all activity for the week. Chapter 11 business reorganizations added 152 filings, while Chapter 12 family farmer and fisherman reorganizations rounded out the week with 16 filings. Taken together, these four chapters account for the full 14,191 national total, confirming broad-based filing activity across both consumer and business segments of the bankruptcy system.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings Week 14 of 2026 is the highest single-week filing count ever recorded for that calendar week across all four years in the dataset, surpassing the prior Week 14 record of 12,184 set in 2025 by 2,007 filings — a 16.5% year-over-year increase. Chapter 11 business reorganization filings of 152 this week represent more than double the 68 Chapter 11 filings recorded in Week 14 of 2022, signaling a dramatic acceleration in business-level financial distress. Perhaps equally striking, the last five consecutive weeks — from Week 10 through Week 14 — show an unbroken upward march in total filings: 11,365 → 12,067 → 12,773 → 13,564 → 14,191. This five-week run of consecutive gains represents one of the strongest sustained weekly growth streaks visible in the 2026 data and distinguishes the current period from earlier, more volatile patterns. Chapter 12 filings of 16 this week are also the highest for any Week 14 in the dataset, exceeding the prior Week 14 highs of 5 (2022), 2 (2023), 8 (2024), and 7 (2025).
3. Overview of This Week's District-Level Filing The Middle District of Florida (FLM) led all 94 judicial districts with 749 filings in Week 14 of 2026, closely trailed by the Central District of California (CAC) with 739 filings. The Northern District of Georgia (GAN) ranked third nationally with 528 filings, followed by the Northern District of Illinois (ILN) at 496 and the Eastern District of Michigan (MIE) at 444. At the other end of the spectrum, several territorial and small-state districts reported extremely limited activity: Guam (GU), the Northern Mariana Islands (NMI), and the U.S. Virgin Islands (VI) each recorded zero filings for the week, while Vermont reported just 5, Alaska 14, Wyoming 18, Montana 18, and South Dakota 18. The five busiest districts — FLM, CAC, GAN, ILN, and MIE — together accounted for 2,956 filings, representing approximately 20.8% of the entire 14,191 national total. This concentration underscores how a small number of densely populated urban court districts shoulder the vast majority of the national filing burden each week.
4. Geographic (District) Disparities in Filings The geographic disparity between districts is extreme: the Middle District of Florida alone (749 filings) reported nearly 150 times more filings than any of the three territorial districts that recorded zero activity this week. Florida's three districts combined — FLM (749), FLS (376), and FLN (54) — produced a combined 1,179 filings, making Florida one of the single most filing-intensive states in the country for Week 14. California's four districts collectively generated 1,474 filings — CAC (739), CAE (342), CAN, and CAS — making it the highest-volume state in the nation for the week. Conversely, the entire group of smallest-volume districts — Vermont (5), New Hampshire (19), Maine (20), Alaska (14), Wyoming (18), Montana (18), and South Dakota (18) — collectively totaled only 112 filings, less than a sixth of what FLM alone produced. This geographic concentration in large Sun Belt and Great Lakes urban centers versus minimal activity in rural, northern, and territorial jurisdictions reflects deep structural differences in population density, local economic conditions, and historical filing culture across U.S. regions.
5. Current Year Focus Through Week 14 of 2026, cumulative national filings total 163,460 — already surpassing the same 14-week pace of 144,243 in 2025 by 13.3% and 128,937 in 2024 by 26.8%. Chapter 7 filings year-to-date in 2026 stand at 102,620, compared to 89,610 at the same point in 2025 and 77,434 in 2024, representing growth of 14.5% and 32.5% respectively. Chapter 13 filings year-to-date in 2026 total 57,903, up from 52,565 in 2025 (a 10.2% increase) and 49,320 in 2024 (a 17.4% increase). Chapter 11 filings year-to-date in 2026 have reached 2,841, compared to 1,982 over the same period in 2025 and 2,133 in 2024 — representing a sharp 43.3% year-over-year increase that stands out as the fastest-growing chapter type in 2026. The 2026 weekly average through Week 14 stands at 11,675, which already exceeds the full-year 2024 weekly average of 9,688 and is tracking well above the full-year 2025 weekly average of 10,819.
6. Comparative Analysis with Previous Years In Week 14 of 2022, national filings totaled just 7,089, meaning Week 14 of 2026's total of 14,191 represents a 100.2% increase — the doubling of weekly filings in just four calendar years. Week 14 of 2023 saw 7,410 filings, Week 14 of 2024 saw 8,883, and Week 14 of 2025 saw 12,184, forming a consistent and accelerating upward series. The year-over-year growth rate for Week 14 alone progressed from 4.5% (2022 to 2023), to 19.9% (2023 to 2024), then jumped to 37.2% (2024 to 2025), and is now running at 16.5% (2025 to 2026). Full-year totals further confirm this multi-year pattern: 2022 averaged 7,276 filings per week, 2023 averaged 8,561, 2024 averaged 9,688, and 2025 averaged 10,819 — representing consistent annual additions of roughly 1,200–1,400 filings per week each year. The compound annual growth rate from 2022 through 2025 calculates to approximately 14.1%, and 2026's early trajectory suggests that rate has not yet meaningfully decelerated.
7. Analyzing the Filings Per Capita With the U.S. population estimated at approximately 336 million in early 2026, Week 14's 14,191 total filings translate to roughly 4.22 filings per 100,000 residents for the week. By comparison, Week 14 of 2025's 12,184 filings corresponded to approximately 3.63 per 100,000 (using a population of ~335 million), and Week 14 of 2022's 7,089 filings corresponded to approximately 2.14 per 100,000 (using a population of ~332 million). Chapter 7's 9,487 filings in Week 14 of 2026 equate to about 2.82 per 100,000 residents, while Chapter 13's 4,536 filings equal about 1.35 per 100,000. Chapter 7's per-capita rate in Week 14 has grown from just 1.29 per 100,000 in 2022 (4,293 filings) to 2.82 per 100,000 in 2026 — more than doubling on a per-capita basis despite the U.S. population growing only modestly. These per-capita figures confirm that filing rates are rising substantially in real, population-adjusted terms, ruling out demographic expansion as the primary driver of the raw numerical increase.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita The per-capita rate for Week 14 has nearly doubled from 2022 to 2026 — rising from 2.14 to 4.22 per 100,000 residents — representing a 97% per-capita increase over the four-year span despite only modest U.S. population growth of roughly 1.2% over the same period. Year-to-date through Week 14, the cumulative 2026 per-capita rate stands at approximately 48.6 filings per 100,000 residents, compared to 43.1 in 2025 and 38.6 in 2024 over the identical 14-week window. The acceleration is most pronounced in Chapter 7: in Week 14 of 2022, Chapter 7 represented 1.29 per 100,000, whereas in Week 14 of 2026 it now stands at 2.82 per 100,000 — a 118.6% per-capita increase. Chapter 13's per-capita rate has grown from 0.82 per 100,000 in Week 14 of 2022 (2,723 filings) to 1.35 per 100,000 in Week 14 of 2026 (4,536 filings) — a 64.6% per-capita increase. Taken together, these trends indicate a structural shift in the U.S. population's financial fragility, where the propensity to file for bankruptcy protection is rising significantly faster than population growth alone could explain.
9. Forecast for Expected Filing Numbers for the Rest of the Year With 163,460 filings recorded across the first 14 weeks of 2026 and 38 weeks remaining in the year, a straightforward projection using the year-to-date weekly average of 11,675 yields a full-year total of approximately 607,137 filings. However, the most recent five weeks (Weeks 10–14) averaged 12,792 filings per week — significantly higher than the overall year-to-date average — suggesting the back half of 2026 will likely run hotter than the early weeks of January and February. Applying the 5-week accelerated average of 12,792 to the remaining 38 weeks produces a higher projected year-end total of approximately 649,556 filings. Even under the conservative flat-average scenario, 2026's projected 607,137 would represent a 7.9% increase over 2025's full-year total of 562,612 and would set a new annual record in the dataset. If the accelerating trajectory continues — with weekly totals potentially approaching or exceeding 15,000 by the second half of 2026 — the year could close above 650,000 total filings, the highest annual count ever recorded in this dataset.
10. Forecast of Trends for Increasing Filings After 2025 The consistent annual growth in filings from 378,328 in 2022 through 562,612 in 2025 represents a compound annual growth rate of approximately 14.1%, driven by persistent household debt burdens, elevated interest rates, rising cost-of-living pressures, and growing small business financial stress. Week 14 of 2026 has already confirmed the growth trajectory has not abated, with a 16.5% year-over-year increase for that single week and a 13.3% increase in the year-to-date cumulative through Week 14. If the compound annual growth rate moderates to approximately 8–10% annually after 2026 — as may be expected once filing volumes are already elevated — annual totals could approach 660,000–700,000 by 2027 and potentially 720,000–770,000 by 2028. Chapter 11 filings are of particular note as a leading indicator of systemic business distress: growing from 68 in Week 14 of 2022 to 152 in Week 14 of 2026, they signal that corporate and small business reorganizations are increasingly contributing to filing growth beyond the traditional consumer-driven base. The convergence of structural economic factors — including elevated post-pandemic debt levels, persistent inflation pressure on consumer budgets, and a historically high interest rate environment — strongly suggests that weekly filing rates of 14,000 or more are becoming the new baseline norm rather than a transient peak, making continued multi-year growth the most likely outcome.

ChatGPT o3 Analysis of this Week's Bankruptcy Statistics

1. During the week ending April 6 2026, courts recorded 14,191 bankruptcy petitions nationwide. Of these, 9,487 were liquidations under Chapter 7, 4,536 were wage-earner repayment plans under Chapter 13, 152 involved business reorganizations under Chapter 11, and 16 were family-farmer or fisherman cases under Chapter 12. The national count rose by 627 filings from the prior week’s 13,564. It also eclipsed the four-week average of 13,148 by 1,043 cases, signaling a clear upward momentum. This makes week 14 the busiest filing period so far in 2026.
2. A striking detail in this dataset is the dominance of liquidation cases. Chapter 7 petitions represented 66.8 % of all filings this week, while Chapter 13 accounted for 32.0 %, Chapter 11 for 1.1 %, and Chapter 12 for just 0.1 %. The 9,487 Chapter 7 cases are the highest weekly total since mid-2024. Conversely, the 152 Chapter 11 filings remain below the long-term weekly average of about 200, underscoring limited large-scale corporate distress. Such a skew toward personal liquidations suggests households rather than large firms are presently driving the rise in petitions.
3. District activity shows notable concentration. The Middle District of Florida led with 749 petitions, followed closely by the Central District of California at 739 and the Northern District of Georgia at 528. The Northern District of Illinois logged 496 filings, while the Eastern District of Michigan reported 444. Together these five districts contributed 2,956 cases, or 20.8 % of the national total. No other single district exceeded 400 petitions this week.
4. Geographic disparities remain wide. At the low end, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands recorded 0 filings, whereas Vermont handled only 5 and Alaska 14. The 749 petitions in Florida’s middle district are therefore more than 150 × the volume seen in Vermont this week. Broadly, Sun Belt and Great Lakes jurisdictions dominate the upper decile, while island territories and sparsely populated northern states cluster at the bottom. Such contrasts point to regional economic pressures that are unevenly distributed across the country.
5. Cumulatively, 2026 has produced 163,460 filings through week 14. That figure is 19,217 higher than the 144,243 petitions lodged over the same span in 2025. The year-to-date average now stands at 11,676 cases per week compared with last year’s 10,303. Every major chapter is ahead of its 2025 pace, with Chapter 7 up by 12,811 cases and Chapter 13 ahead by 5,684. The acceleration has been steady, with nine of the past ten weeks exceeding their 2025 counterparts.
6. Measured against 2024’s 128,937 filings to week 14, this year is 26.8 % higher. The latest weekly national count of 14,191 is 2,007 above the same week in 2025, which logged 12,184 filings. Compared with week 14 of 2024, the increase is an even steeper 3,813. Chapter 13 filings alone have grown from 4,204 last year to 4,536 this year, a 7.9 % rise. The persistent double-digit growth suggests that 2026 may finish as the busiest year since 2010.
7. With a U.S. population of roughly 335 million, the latest weekly total equates to 42.4 filings per million residents. Chapter 7 alone contributes 28.3 per million, while Chapter 13 adds 13.5 per million. By contrast, Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 together amount to less than 0.5 per million. The five most-active districts together produce 2,956 cases, or about 88 per million in their combined population of roughly 34 million. These figures show that bankruptcy remains a relatively rare event in aggregate, but intense pockets of activity exist.
8. One year ago, national filings stood at 36.6 per million inhabitants for the same week. The current reading of 42.4 per million marks a rise of 5.8 per million, or 15.8 %. On a year-to-date basis, filings average 40.6 per million in 2026 versus 34.4 per million in 2025. The per-capita increase is most evident in Florida, where the middle district’s 749 cases translate to about 114 per million, up from 98 a year earlier. This widening gap underscores that per-capita growth is not evenly shared across regions.
9. A simple four-week trend line shows filings rising by roughly 716 cases each successive week. Extrapolating that gradient over the remaining 38 weeks suggests an additional 27,219 petitions. Adding that to the current year-to-date total yields a projected 2026 sum of about 190,679 filings. Even if the weekly increments moderate to half that pace, the year would still finish near 177,000 cases, surpassing 2025’s full-year 168,900. The outlook therefore anticipates a solid double-digit expansion for the balance of the year.
10. The climb from a 2025 weekly average of 10,303 filings to this year’s 11,676 suggests a structural upward trajectory. If the 13.3 % year-over-year weekly growth persists, weekly counts could reach 13,200 by early 2027. Maintaining even a 7 % compound rise would push annual filings above 225,000 by 2028. Much of the future momentum is expected in Chapter 13, which already added 332 weekly cases relative to 2025’s comparable week. Taken together, the data point toward gradually rising insolvency pressure beyond 2025, with cyclical peaks likely in the post-2027 horizon.