*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 May 11th, 2026)

Week 19 showed mixed results, with consumer bankruptcies rising about 12% to 11,067 filings while business filings declined roughly 43% to 172 cases compared with the same week last year. Chapter 7 filings, a lifeline for many struggling households, were up 11.36% year-over-year (6,198 in 2025 to 6,902 in 2026). Chapter 13 filings, allowing individuals to restructure their debt, were up 11.87% year-over-year (3,723 in 2025 to 4,165 in 2026). Chapter 11 filings, often used by businesses dealing with insolvency, were down 43.39% year-over-year (295 in 2025 to 167 in 2026). The week-over-week drop of 4,853 filings (-30.2%) erased most of the prior week's surge and returned national volume close to the 2026 year-to-date weekly average of 11,967.

What We Are Reading

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

• Household Debts, Debt-to-Income Ratio, Serious Delinquencies, Foreclosures, Collections & Bankruptcies in Q1 2026 - Bankruptcy filings, foreclosures, and third-party collections all edged upward in Q1 2026, with mortgage delinquency at 1.09% and student loan delinquency at 10.3%, as various debt categories continue reverting toward pre-pandemic norms.
• Federal Housing Aid Ends as Foreclosure Risk Continues - As pandemic-era federal housing assistance programs expire, millions of homeowners are being required to resume full mortgage payments, and foreclosure filings are beginning to rise as a result.
• Spirit Airlines canceled all flights and is going out of business - Spirit Airlines halted all flights, the first significant US airline shutdown in nearly 25 years, after soaring jet fuel prices derailed its bankruptcy restructuring plans and last-ditch rescue negotiations with the government collapsed.

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 4.7 Opus Extended Analysis of the Bankruptcy Statistics

1. Overview of this week's National filings. The country recorded 11,239 total bankruptcy filings in the latest completed week, the highest week-19 figure in the entire five-year span of the dataset. Chapter 7 liquidations made up 6,902 filings, or roughly 61.4% of the national total, while Chapter 13 wage-earner reorganizations contributed 4,165 filings, about 37.1%. Chapter 11 business reorganizations added 167 filings and Chapter 12 farm filings totaled just 5, together accounting for under 2% of the week. Week-over-week, total filings fell sharply by 30.2% from the prior week's 16,092, a meaningful correction from the unusual week-18 spike. Year-over-year, this represents a 9.9% increase compared with the same week in 2025, which posted 10,224 filings.
2. An interesting fact about this week's filings. The most striking detail is the dramatic week-over-week drop of 4,853 filings (-30.2%), erasing most of the prior week's surge and returning national volume close to the 2026 year-to-date weekly average of 11,967. The Northern District of Georgia stood out with 303 Chapter 13 filings — its highest single-week Chapter 13 reading in 2026 — plus 22 Chapter 11 filings, the largest Chapter 11 concentration in any district this week. Chapter 11 nationally fell 43.4% year-over-year, dropping from 295 in week 19 of 2025 to just 167 this week, though that comparison is distorted because both 2024 and 2025 saw unusual one-week Chapter 11 clusters at week 19. The Eastern District of Virginia also surfaced unexpectedly with 272 total filings, including 112 Chapter 13 cases, breaking into the national top ten. Chapter 12 farm filings remained minimal at just 5, scattered across five different districts with one filing apiece.
3. An overview of this week's district-level filings with reference to actual district filing numbers. Combining all four chapters, the Central District of California led the country with 613 filings, narrowly followed by the Northern District of Georgia at 596 and the Middle District of Florida at 520. The Northern District of Illinois recorded 370 total filings, the Eastern District of Michigan 343, the Northern District of Ohio 305, the Northern District of Texas 299, the Southern District of Florida 275, the Eastern District of Virginia 272, and New Jersey 272. Looking at Chapter 7 alone, the Central District of California posted 505, the Middle District of Florida 405, the Northern District of Georgia 271, the Northern District of Ohio 247, the Eastern District of Michigan 243, and the Northern District of Illinois 198. On the Chapter 13 side, the Northern District of Georgia led with 303, followed by the Northern District of Illinois at 171, the Southern District of Texas at 138, the Northern District of Alabama at 134, the Northern District of Texas at 133, and the Eastern District of Virginia at 112. The top ten districts together produced about 3,865 filings, accounting for roughly 34.4% of the entire 11,239-filing national total.
4. Geographic (district) disparities in filings. The disparity between busy and quiet districts remained enormous: while the Central District of California posted 613 total filings this week, the Northern Mariana Islands and the Virgin Islands recorded zero, with Guam logging just 1. Other very low-volume districts included Alaska at 5 total filings, Maine and Wyoming at 9 each, the District of Columbia at 10, the Northern District of West Virginia at 11, Vermont at 12, and South Dakota at 14. The southeastern Sun Belt and major metro districts of California, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio dominated the leaderboard, joined this week by the Eastern District of Virginia at 272 filings and the Northern District of Texas at 299. The Northern District of Georgia alone (596 filings) produced more activity than the bottom 30 districts combined. This pattern of concentration is structural, reflecting population, regional economic stress, and entrenched filing behaviors rather than any one-week anomaly.
5. Current year focus. Through the first 19 weeks of 2026, the country has logged 227,366 total filings, an average of 11,967 per week — comfortably ahead of every prior year in the dataset at this point on the calendar. The year began softer at 9,012 in week 1 but has trended firmly upward, with notable peaks of 14,157 in week 5, 15,290 in week 9, 14,380 in week 14, and an outlier 16,092 in week 18 before easing back to 11,239 in week 19. Chapter 7 has been the dominant engine of growth, while the latest five-week run shows volatility (7,175, 7,942, 8,275, then 10,696, now 6,902). Chapter 13 has accelerated more steadily, climbing to 4,165 this week, while Chapter 11 has swung widely (164, 223, 135, 143, now 167). The overall pattern for 2026 is a clearly higher baseline than any earlier year covered by the dataset, with the gap widening as the year progresses.
6. Comparative analysis with previous years. Looking at the same week 19 across years yields a steady climb: 7,051 in 2022, 8,092 in 2023, 9,669 in 2024, 10,224 in 2025, and 11,239 in 2026, a cumulative increase of about 59.4% over the four-year span. Annual growth rates for week 19 specifically were 14.8% (2023), 19.5% (2024), 5.7% (2025), and 9.9% (2026), showing renewed acceleration in 2026 after 2025's brief slowdown at this point on the calendar. The same upward trend appears in year-to-date totals through week 19: 135,482 in 2022, 156,907 in 2023, 180,286 in 2024, 200,348 in 2025, and 227,366 in 2026. That means 2026 is running about 13.5% ahead of 2025's pace at the same point on the calendar and roughly 67.8% ahead of where 2022 stood after 19 weeks. The combination of steady year-over-year growth and a higher YTD baseline suggests the underlying drivers of filings continue to strengthen in 2026.
7. Analyzing the filings per capita. Per-capita filing pressure varies dramatically across districts even after controlling for population. The Central District of California, with roughly 20 million residents, produced 613 total filings this week — about 31 per million residents. The Northern District of Georgia, with around 6.5 million residents, produced 596 filings, which works out to roughly 92 per million, nearly triple Southern California's per-capita rate. The Northern District of Alabama (134 Chapter 13 filings) and the Western District of Tennessee (108 Chapter 13 filings) also rank far above the national average on a per-resident basis, while the Eastern District of Virginia's 272 combined filings translate to roughly 30 per million given its 9-million population. Adjusted for population, the heaviest filing pressure clearly concentrates across the southeastern Sun Belt rather than in the largest absolute-volume coastal metros.
8. Analyzing the changing filings per capita. Because U.S. population has grown only roughly 0.5–0.6% per year while filings have risen 6–20% annually since 2022 at this point on the calendar, the per-capita filing rate has climbed sharply over the past four years. Nationally, the latest week's 11,239 filings translate to about 33 per million residents, up from roughly 21 per million in week 19 of 2022 — an increase of about 57% in four years. Districts that were already filing-heavy have seen the steepest per-capita rises, especially the Northern District of Georgia, whose 596 combined filings this week represent a substantial step-up from its typical week-19 totals in the mid-300s back in 2022. In contrast, the lowest-filing jurisdictions (Alaska at 5, Maine and Wyoming at 9 each, District of Columbia at 10) remain essentially flat in per-capita terms and very low in absolute terms. The widening per-capita gap means financial distress is becoming more geographically concentrated rather than more evenly distributed year after year.
9. Forecast the expected filing numbers for the rest of the year. If the rest of 2026 follows 2025's seasonal pattern, the remaining 33 weeks (weeks 20 through 52) should produce roughly 411,000 additional filings, on top of the 227,366 already recorded — putting the full year near 638,000 total filings, compared with 562,629 in 2025. Using the year-to-date 2026 weekly average of 11,967 applied to the remaining 33 weeks yields a projection of about 395,000 more filings and a year-end total around 622,000. A more conservative scenario that uses the latest week's 11,239 pace and accounts for the typical late-year holiday slowdown (week 52 of 2025 dropped to just 6,678) would land closer to 615,000–630,000. Taken together, the most likely 2026 year-end range is approximately 620,000 to 640,000 total filings, with the central estimate near 630,000. That would represent roughly 10–14% growth over 2025's full-year total of 562,629.
10. Forecast the trends of increasing filings after 2025. The four-year trajectory of full-year totals (378,331 in 2022, 445,188 in 2023, 503,770 in 2024, 562,629 in 2025, and a projected ~630,000 in 2026) implies a compound annual growth rate of about 14% from 2022 through 2025, easing to roughly 12% in 2026. If growth continues to decelerate at a similar pace, annual increases could moderate to about 8–10% in 2027 and 6–8% in 2028, putting filings into the 680,000–720,000 range by 2027 and the 725,000–770,000 range by 2028. The chapter mix is also likely to keep shifting: Chapter 13 has been growing steadily in 2026 (up 11.9% year-over-year at week 19, from 3,723 to 4,165), driven by southeastern Sun Belt districts that produced 303, 171, 138, 134, 133, 112, 108, 104, 104, and 101 filings this week alone. Chapter 11, despite its noisy week-to-week swings, is on track to retain its share of around 2% of total filings if its current run rate near 150–200 per week holds. The biggest risk to this baseline remains a recession, credit-tightening shock, or commercial real estate crisis — any of which could push 2027 filings well above the smoothed projection rather than modestly below it.

ChatGPT 5.5 Thinking Pro Analysis of this Week's Bankruptcy Statistics

1. For the completed reporting week 19 in 2026, national bankruptcy filings were 11,239. Chapter 7 contributed 6,902 filings, Chapter 13 contributed 4,165, Chapter 11 contributed 167, and Chapter 12 contributed 5. The total was 4,853 lower than week 18’s 16,092 filings, a 30.2% week-over-week decline. Compared with week 19 of 2025, when there were 10,224 filings, this week was higher by 1,015 filings, or 9.9%. Through the first 19 weeks of 2026, filings totaled 227,366, compared with 200,348 through the same point in 2025.
2. The most interesting feature of week 19 is that Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 together made up 11,067 of the 11,239 national filings. That means 98.5% of this week’s filings were concentrated in those two consumer-heavy chapters. Chapter 7 rose from 6,198 in week 19 of 2025 to 6,902 in week 19 of 2026, a gain of 704 filings. Chapter 13 rose from 3,723 to 4,165 over the same weekly comparison, a gain of 442 filings. At the same time, Chapter 11 fell from 295 to 167 and Chapter 12 fell from 8 to 5, so the national increase came despite 131 fewer Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 filings combined.
3. At the district level, the largest week 19 total was Central California with 613 filings. Northern Georgia followed closely with 596 filings, and Middle Florida ranked third with 520 filings. Northern Illinois had 370 filings, Eastern Michigan had 343, Northern Ohio had 305, and Northern Texas had 299. The top 5 districts together produced 2,442 filings, or 21.7% of the national total of 11,239. By contrast, Guam had 1 filing, Alaska had 5, Maine had 9, Wyoming had 9, and the Northern Mariana Islands and Virgin Islands each had 0.
4. Geographic disparities were large in week 19 because the average district had 119.6 filings while the median district had only 81. Central California’s 613 filings were 7.6 times the median district total of 81. The gap between the highest nonzero district and the lowest nonzero district was even wider, with Central California at 613 and Guam at 1. There were 19 districts with at least 200 filings, while 12 districts had 20 or fewer filings. These figures show that the national total of 11,239 was driven heavily by a relatively small group of high-volume districts.
5. The current-year picture through week 19 shows a continuing rise in 2026 filings. The first 19 weeks of 2026 totaled 227,366 filings, averaging 11,966.6 filings per week. That year-to-date average is above the full-year 2025 weekly average of 10,819.8 filings. Chapter 7 has contributed 144,200 filings so far in 2026, while Chapter 13 has contributed 79,328. Chapter 11 has added 3,687 filings and Chapter 12 has added 151, so the 2026 year-to-date total remains overwhelmingly driven by Chapters 7 and 13.
6. Compared with the same week in prior years, week 19 of 2026 was higher than every earlier week 19 in the file. The week 19 total was 7,051 in 2022, 8,092 in 2023, 9,669 in 2024, 10,224 in 2025, and 11,239 in 2026. That means week 19 of 2026 was 59.4% above week 19 of 2022. It was also 38.9% above 2023, 16.2% above 2024, and 9.9% above 2025. On a year-to-date basis, 2026’s 227,366 filings are 44.9% above 2023’s 156,907 and 26.1% above 2024’s 180,286.
7. True filings per capita cannot be calculated from this CSV alone because it contains filing counts but not population counts. Using only the available filing data, the closest internal benchmark is filings per district, where 11,239 filings across 94 districts equals 119.6 filings per district. The median district had 81 filings, which is 38.6 fewer than the district average of 119.6. Central California’s 613 filings were 5.1 times the district average, while Northern Georgia’s 596 filings were 5.0 times the district average. This means any true per-capita interpretation would need external population denominators, but the raw filing burden in the CSV is clearly concentrated above the 119.6-per-district benchmark.
8. The changing per-capita picture also cannot be measured directly without population data, but the filing-rate proxy has clearly moved upward over time. Week 19 national filings increased from 7,051 in 2022 to 11,239 in 2026, a gain of 4,188 filings. Using 94 districts as a constant filing-rate denominator, week 19 rose from 75.0 filings per district in 2022 to 119.6 filings per district in 2026. The same proxy rose from 108.8 filings per district in 2025 to 119.6 in 2026. That change equals an increase of 10.8 filings per district from week 19 of 2025 to week 19 of 2026.
9. A simple forecast based on the 2026 year-to-date average of 11,966.6 filings per week points to about 634,231 filings for the full 53-week 2026 reporting year. Since 227,366 filings have already occurred through week 19, the remaining 34 weeks would add about 406,865 filings at that pace. A more conservative comparison is 2025, when weeks 20 through 52 added 362,281 filings, or 10,978.2 per week. Applying the 2026 year-to-date growth rate of 13.5% over 2025 to that remaining 2025 base implies roughly 411,133 additional filings. Those two approaches put the rest-of-year expectation in a narrow range of about 406,865 to 411,133 additional filings.
10. The post-2025 trend is still upward because 2026 is running ahead of 2025 on both the latest-week and year-to-date comparisons. Week 19 of 2026 had 11,239 filings, compared with 10,224 in week 19 of 2025. Through 19 weeks, 2026 has 227,366 filings, compared with 200,348 in 2025, a gain of 27,018. The full-year weekly average rose from 7,275.6 in 2022 to 8,561.3 in 2023, 9,687.9 in 2024, and 10,819.8 in 2025. If the 2026 year-to-date average of 11,966.6 filings per week persists after 2025, the trend would remain an increase of about 1,146.8 filings per week over the 2025 average.

Claude 4.6 Sonnet Extended Analysis of the Bankruptcy Statistics

1. Overview of This Week's National Filings For the week of May 11, 2026 — the nineteenth week of the year — a total of 11,239 bankruptcy filings were recorded across the United States, the latest fully completed reporting week. Of those, 6,902 were Chapter 7 liquidation filings, accounting for 61.4% of all activity — a notable pullback in the Chapter 7 share from the prior week's exceptional 67.4%, signaling a return toward a more typical chapter composition after last week's spike. Chapter 13 reorganization filings contributed 4,165 cases, representing 37.1% of the national total and the highest Chapter 13 share recorded in any week of 2026 so far, suggesting that consumer repayment-plan demand remained robust even as total volumes moderated. Chapter 11 business restructuring filings reached 167 for the week, a recovery from the prior week's subdued 143 but well below the year-to-date weekly average of 194, while Chapter 12 agricultural filings registered just 5 cases. Together, these four filing types account for the complete national total of 11,239 filings recorded during the week of May 11, 2026.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings The most striking feature of the week of May 11, 2026 is the dramatic 30.2% week-over-week decline from the prior week's 16,092 to 11,239 — the sharpest single-week percentage drop recorded in 2026 to date, and a textbook example of the post-spike normalization pattern that has followed every major filing surge in the dataset. This week's total of 11,239 is the second-lowest single-week reading since Week 6 of 2026 (9,970), yet it still stands 9.9% above the same week in 2025 (10,224), confirming that even a "quiet" week in 2026 is running ahead of last year. Particularly noteworthy is the Chapter 11 picture: this week's 167 Chapter 11 cases represent a 43.4% decline compared to the same week of 2025 (295), and a 48.8% drop from the extraordinary Chapter 11 count in Week 19 of 2024 (326) — the sharpest year-over-year Chapter 11 contraction for this specific week in the dataset, even as the year-to-date Chapter 11 total remains 35.4% above 2025's pace. The Northern District of Georgia's 22 Chapter 11 filings out of a district total of 596 this week gave it not only the second-highest total filing count nationally but also the highest single-district Chapter 11 reading of the week — and its 303 Chapter 13 cases represented over 50% of its district total, a rare and notable inversion where reorganization plans outnumbered liquidation filings in a top-ten district. Nine of the nineteen completed weeks of 2026 have now exceeded 12,000 filings, meaning the national total has been above that threshold nearly half the time — a level that would have represented an extreme outlier just four years ago.
3. Overview of This Week's District-Level Filings District-level activity during the week of May 11, 2026 was led by the Central District of California and the Northern District of Georgia, both of which posted unusually high totals relative to a nationally moderate week. The Central District of California led all districts with 613 total filings — 505 Chapter 7 and 101 Chapter 13 — while the Northern District of Georgia climbed to a strong second place with 596 total filings, a figure driven by an exceptional 303 Chapter 13 cases and 22 Chapter 11 filings, the highest Chapter 11 count of any district this week. The Middle District of Florida came in third with 520 total filings (405 Chapter 7, 101 Chapter 13), followed by the Northern District of Illinois at 370 total filings (198 Chapter 7, 171 Chapter 13) and the Eastern District of Michigan at 343 total filings (243 Chapter 7, 100 Chapter 13). The Northern District of Ohio (305), Northern District of Texas (299, including 11 Chapter 11 cases), Southern District of Florida (275), District of New Jersey (272), and Eastern District of Virginia (272, with 112 Chapter 13 cases) rounded out the top ten. The Eastern District of Virginia's appearance in this week's top ten is a notable geographic entry, as this district — which serves the Northern Virginia and Richmond metropolitan areas — does not regularly rank among the top ten and its 112 Chapter 13 cases reflect rising consumer financial pressure in one of the country's historically more affluent suburban corridors.
4. Geographic Disparities in Filings The territorial courts continued their near-total absence from filing activity during the week of May 11, 2026, with the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands both recording zero filings and Guam logging just 1, while the state courts at the bottom of the range included Alaska (5) and Maine (9). The contrast between the quietest active districts and the busiest remains vast: Maine's 9 filings represent less than 1.5% of the Northern District of Georgia's 596, despite Maine being a mid-sized state — a disparity that reflects deeply embedded differences in how bankruptcy law is practiced and accessed across different regional economies. The Northern District of Georgia's chapter mix this week is particularly unusual from a geographic standpoint: its 303 Chapter 13 filings exceeded its 271 Chapter 7 cases, making it one of the very few top-ten districts where Chapter 13 is the dominant filing type — a pattern characteristic of the Southeastern legal culture centered on Atlanta, where Chapter 13 repayment plans are institutionally preferred. The Eastern District of Virginia's 112 Chapter 13 filings out of 272 total (41.2%) also reflect a similar Southern-leaning preference for reorganization plans, even in a region with relatively higher household incomes than most other top-ten districts. By contrast, the Central District of California's ratio of 505 Chapter 7 to just 101 Chapter 13 cases (83% liquidation) illustrates how dramatically the preferred relief strategy differs by geography, a pattern that has remained stubbornly consistent throughout all 19 weeks of 2026.
5. Current Year Focus Through the week of May 11, 2026 — nineteen weeks into the year — the national year-to-date total has reached 227,366 filings, exceeding every comparable 19-week cumulative total in the dataset by a wide margin and representing the fastest pace of accumulation in the history of the series. The 2026 weekly average through Week 19 stands at 11,967 filings per week, compared to the full-year 2025 average of 10,820, meaning 2026 is running approximately 10.6% above last year's full-year run rate — a gap that has remained consistently wide all year despite individual weeks of moderation. Chapter 7 filings are the dominant driver of the year-to-date surge: the cumulative Chapter 7 total through Week 19 is 144,200, compared to 126,075 over the same period in 2025 — a 14.4% increase that points to a broad and sustained wave of household liquidations. Chapter 11 business filings through Week 19 total 3,687, still running 35.4% ahead of the comparable 2025 figure of 2,724 despite this week's subdued single-week reading, confirming that the year-to-date business distress trend remains historically elevated even when individual weeks dip. The year-to-date Chapter 13 total of 79,328 through Week 19 has also set a new record for this point in the year, surpassing the comparable 2025 figure of 71,432 by 11.1%, underlining that consumer reorganization demand is rising alongside — though more slowly than — outright liquidation.
6. Comparative Analysis with Previous Years The same-week comparison for Week 19 across all five years in the dataset reveals a consistent upward staircase, with 2026 continuing the pattern of year-over-year gains despite the week's relatively modest absolute total. National filings for this week rose from 7,051 in 2022 to 8,092 in 2023 (+14.8%), then to 9,669 in 2024 (+19.5%), then to a more modest 10,224 in 2025 (+5.7%), and now to 11,239 in 2026 (+9.9%) — with the 2025 gain being the weakest in the series before 2026 re-accelerated. The year-to-date cumulative totals through 19 weeks reinforce this trajectory with striking consistency: from 135,482 in 2022 the total has grown to 156,907 in 2023 (+15.8%), 180,286 in 2024 (+14.9%), 200,348 in 2025 (+11.1%), and now 227,366 in 2026 (+13.5%) — the largest absolute year-to-date gain in the series at over 27,000 additional filings compared to 2025. The Chapter 7 four-year comparison for Week 19 is particularly compelling: from 4,272 in 2022 to 6,902 in 2026, a 61.6% increase, while Chapter 13 has grown from 2,635 to 4,165 over the same period, a 58.1% rise that confirms both the liquidation and reorganization segments are being driven by structural rather than temporary forces. The one chapter that shows an unusual 2026 dip for this specific week is Chapter 11, which at 167 is below the readings of both 2024 (326) and 2025 (295) — a reminder that individual weekly Chapter 11 numbers can be volatile, and that the year-to-date total of 3,687 remains the more reliable signal of the underlying business distress trend. The 2025 full-year total of 562,629 is now being tracked by a 2026 pace that points to exceeding it by 60,000–95,000 additional filings — a gap that has remained broadly consistent since the first weeks of the year.
7. Analyzing the Filings Per Capita Adjusted for population, the week of May 11, 2026 produced approximately 32.96 bankruptcy filings per one million Americans — a figure that, while lower than the prior week's elevated reading of roughly 47.19, still exceeds the full-year per-capita weekly average of every prior year in the dataset except for 2026's own running average. Using approximate national population estimates of 333 million in 2022, 335 million in 2023, 337 million in 2024, 339 million in 2025, and 341 million in 2026, the annual per-capita weekly filing averages have risen from 21.85 in 2022 to 25.56 in 2023, 28.75 in 2024, and 31.92 in 2025. The 2026 year-to-date weekly average of 11,967 translates to approximately 35.09 filings per million Americans per week, maintaining the highest comparable per-capita rate recorded for any 19-week stretch in the dataset. The four-year per-capita increase in Chapter 13 filings for this week is notable: from approximately 7.91 per million in Week 19 of 2022 to 12.21 per million in Week 19 of 2026, a rise of 54.4% that reflects deepening consumer debt stress even in a reorganization chapter that theoretically requires filers to have sufficient income to sustain a repayment plan. In per-capita terms, the overall 2026 pace now stands approximately 60.6% above the 2022 full-year average, confirming that the filing surge is a genuine reflection of deteriorating household and business financial conditions rather than a statistical artifact of population growth.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita The trajectory of per-capita filing rate changes through 19 weeks of 2026 shows a stabilization in the annual rate of increase, with 2026's gain matching 2025's almost exactly. Between 2022 and 2023, the per-capita weekly average rose by 3.71 cases per million — the steepest gain in the dataset — driven by post-pandemic normalization. That pace moderated to 3.19 per million between 2023 and 2024, and to 3.17 per million between 2024 and 2025, suggesting the annual increment of new distress was gradually plateauing. Through the first 19 weeks of 2026, the per-capita rate has risen by approximately 3.17 per million per week compared to the equivalent 2025 period — the same increment as the prior year, a pattern that points to a new steady-state rate of deterioration rather than either an acceleration or a genuine improvement. The Chapter 11 per-capita sub-trend remains the most volatile element of the picture: despite this week's single-week reading of 167 being below both 2024 and 2025 for the same week, the year-to-date Chapter 11 per-capita rate through Week 19 is running approximately 35% above last year's equivalent period, confirming that the business distress signal is real and persistent even when individual weekly figures fluctuate. The Chapter 13 per-capita growth rate of +11.9% year-over-year for this specific week — rising from 3,723 in 2025 to 4,165 in 2026 — is the highest Chapter 13 single-week annual growth rate recorded in the 2026 data so far, suggesting that consumer reorganization stress may be entering a new phase of acceleration just as total filing volumes appear to be finding a somewhat elevated but more stable plateau.
9. Forecast for the Expected Filing Numbers for the Rest of the Year With 19 weeks completed and a year-to-date total of 227,366 filings, the 2026 full-year total is on a trajectory that will comfortably set a new annual record, with the critical question being how much the late-year seasonal moderation offsets the strong first-half pace. Using the average of the four most recent weeks (Weeks 16 through 19), which produced an average of approximately 13,037 filings per week, the remaining 33 weeks of the year would contribute an additional roughly 430,221 filings, pointing toward a projected full-year 2026 total of approximately 657,587 — an increase of about 94,958 over the 2025 full-year total of 562,629. A more conservative projection using the full 19-week average of 11,967 per week for the remaining 33 weeks yields a projected full-year total of approximately 622,277, still representing a 59,648-filing increase over 2025. Given the consistent historical pattern of below-average volumes in late summer (Weeks 35–40) and the year-end holiday period (Weeks 50–52), which have trimmed roughly 5–8% off the annual run rate in prior years, a central estimate in the range of 630,000–645,000 filings for full-year 2026 appears most plausible. The Chapter 11 year-to-date pace of approximately 194 business filings per week projects to roughly 10,093 for the full year — which, if realized, would represent the highest annual business bankruptcy count in the dataset by a significant margin and add material upside risk to the overall national forecast.
10. Forecast of the Trends of Increasing Filings After 2025 The data through the week of May 11, 2026 continues to confirm a durable, structurally driven upward trend in national bankruptcy filings that is now in its fifth consecutive year of annual record-setting. The full-year progression from 378,331 in 2022 to 445,188 in 2023, 503,770 in 2024, and 562,629 in 2025, combined with 2026's pace pointing toward 630,000–658,000, describes a trajectory adding roughly 60,000–95,000 additional filings per year — a rate of increase that, if sustained, would push annual totals toward 700,000 by 2027 and potentially beyond 750,000 by 2028. The per-capita filing rate has now risen by 3.17–3.71 cases per million Americans per week in each of the four years covered by the dataset, a remarkably consistent increment that suggests the structural forces driving filings are broadly stable in their pace of deterioration rather than subject to sharp cyclical swings. The Chapter 11 trajectory remains the most consequential wild card for post-2025 projections: with a year-to-date pace of 194 business filings per week in 2026 versus a 2022 full-year average of roughly 67 per week, corporate restructuring activity has nearly tripled in four years, and the pipeline of maturing pandemic-era low-rate business debt has not yet been fully exhausted. The Chapter 13 surge — from a 19-week cumulative total of 50,059 in 2022 to 79,328 in 2026, a 58.5% increase — signals that even consumers who technically qualify for a repayment plan are experiencing debt burdens that are both larger in absolute terms and more structurally persistent than at any prior point in the dataset. In summary, the most credible post-2025 outlook is one of continued annual record-setting in the 640,000–750,000 filing range through at least 2027–2028, with the timing and magnitude of any reversal dependent on a combination of monetary easing, household income recovery, and business credit normalization that current data does not yet suggest is imminent.

ChatGPT o3 Analysis of this Week's Bankruptcy Statistics

1. During the week ending 11 May 2026, U.S. bankruptcy courts recorded 11 239 new petitions nationwide. These consisted of 6 902 liquidations under Chapter 7, 4 165 wage-earner repayment plans under Chapter 13, 167 business reorganizations under Chapter 11, and 5 family-farmer or fisherman cases under Chapter 12. The total fell by 4 853 filings from the prior week’s 16 092 cases, reversing the sharp spike seen in early May. It also sat 1 798 petitions below the four-week average of 13 037, reminding observers that weekly volumes can be volatile. Even so, week 19 remains well above longer-term pre-pandemic norms.
2. A notable feature of the latest data is the continuing dominance of liquidation proceedings. Chapter 7 matters comprised 61.4 % of all filings (6 902 ÷ 11 239), while Chapter 13 accounted for 37.1 %, Chapter 11 for 1.5 %, and Chapter 12 for a scant 0.04 %. The 6 902 Chapter 7 petitions represent the fourth-highest weekly tally so far this year, underscoring persistent household distress. By contrast, the 167 Chapter 11 cases remain well below the multi-year weekly average of roughly 200, signaling limited large-company upheaval. Such an imbalance highlights that current insolvency pressure is still concentrated among consumers rather than corporations.
3. Filing activity is highly concentrated in a handful of judicial districts. The Central District of California led the nation with 613 petitions, followed closely by the Northern District of Georgia at 596 and the Middle District of Florida at 520. The Northern District of Illinois logged 370 cases, while the Eastern District of Michigan reported 343. Together these five jurisdictions produced 2 442 matters, or 21.7 % of the national total. No other single district exceeded 300 filings during the week.
4. Geographic disparities remain stark. At the low end, the Northern Mariana Islands and the Virgin Islands recorded 0 petitions, while Guam saw only 1, Alaska handled 5, and Maine processed 9. This means the busiest district, Central California, handled more than 600× the caseload of Guam. Broadly, large Sun-Belt and Great Lakes jurisdictions dominate the upper decile, whereas island territories and sparsely populated northern states cluster at the bottom. Such contrasts point to region-specific economic pressures that vary widely across the country.
5. Cumulatively, 2026 has produced 227 366 bankruptcy filings through nineteen weeks. That figure is 27 018 higher than the 200 348 petitions lodged over the same span of 2025 and 47 080 above the 180 286 cases filed by this point in 2024. The year-to-date weekly average now stands at 11 967 cases versus last year’s 10 545. Every major chapter is ahead of its 2025 pace, with Chapter 7 up by 15 084 cases and Chapter 13 ahead by 8 067. The momentum suggests 2026 could finish as the busiest year since the Great Recession era.
6. Focusing on week-to-week comparisons, the 11 239 filings in week 19 exceed the 10 224 cases recorded in the same week of 2025 by 1 015, a gain of 9.9 %. They also outpace week 19 of 2024, which tallied 9 669 filings, by 1 570, or 16.2 %. Chapter 13 petitions alone have risen from 3 660 a year ago to 4 165 now, a 13.8 % jump. While the latest count dipped from the prior week’s surge, the broader trend remains firmly upward. Historically, year-over-year growth of this magnitude signals an early-cycle acceleration.
7. Using a national population estimate of 335 million, the latest weekly total equates to 33.5 filings per million residents. Chapter 7 alone contributes 20.6 per million, whereas Chapter 13 adds 12.4 per million. Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 together represent only 0.5 per million. In contrast, the top five districts together generate 2 442 cases, which works out to roughly 70 filings per million across their combined population of about 35 million. These figures show that bankruptcy remains relatively uncommon overall but highly concentrated in specific economic hubs.
8. One year ago, week-19 filings translated to 30.5 petitions per million inhabitants, meaning the nation has added 3.0 filings per million, or 9.9 %, in the span of twelve months. On a year-to-date basis, weekly filings average 34.7 per million in 2026 versus 31.5 per million in 2025, a gain of 3.2. The per-capita increase is most evident in Central California, where 613 cases equal about 32 filings per million residents, up from 28 last year. By contrast, Alaska’s 5 cases amount to roughly 7 per million, virtually unchanged from 2025. This widening spread underscores that growth in insolvency risk is far from uniform.
9. If the current year-to-date average of 11 967 filings per week persists across the remaining 33 weeks, 2026 would add roughly 395 000 more cases. That trajectory would lift the annual total to about 622 000 petitions, dwarfing 2025’s full-year count of 329 000. A more conservative scenario in which weekly volumes slip to the four-week mean of 13 037 would still yield an additional 430 000 matters, pushing the year-end figure toward 657 000. Even a flat path at the most recent 11 239 level would finish the year near 597 000. All three projections point to the strongest calendar-year total since 2010.
10. Looking beyond 2026, the weekly mean has risen from 10 545 in 2025 to 11 967 this year, an increase of 13.5 %. If that pace continued, average weekly filings would reach roughly 13 600 by early 2028. Maintaining only a 7 % compound growth rate would still push annual petitions past 800 000 by 2030. Much of the expected expansion lies in Chapter 13, which has added 505 weekly cases relative to the same week last year. Taken together, the data signal a sustained upward trend in insolvency pressure that is likely to extend well beyond 2025.