*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 June 1st, 2026)

Week 22 showed modest year-over-year growth, with consumer bankruptcies rising about 2% to 13,169 filings and business filings increasing roughly 18% to 187 cases compared with the same week last year. Chapter 7 filings, a lifeline for many struggling households, were up 4.39% year-over-year (from 8,528 in 2025 to 8,902 in 2026). Chapter 13 filings, allowing individuals to restructure their debt, were down 1.95% year-over-year (from 4,352 in 2025 to 4,267 in 2026). Chapter 11 filings, often used by businesses facing insolvency, were up 16.23% year-over-year (from 154 in 2025 to 179 in 2026).

What We Are Reading

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

• Leading Companies Filing for Bankruptcy 2026 - A continuously updated global tracker of major company bankruptcy, insolvency, and liquidation filings, logging each by company, industry, country, and filing type.
• Map Shows Where Bankruptcies are Soaring - Bankruptcies are climbing in 49 of 50 states, and a new map reveals the Southern "bankruptcy belt" where families are filing fastest as record debt, stubborn inflation, and high borrowing costs squeeze American households.
• Household Debt Edges up to New High, but Credit Card Balances Dip - American household debt just hit a record $18.8 trillion, but here's the surprising twist: credit card balances actually fell, even as mortgages, auto loans, and gas-pump prices kept rising.
• 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.

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 13,356 total bankruptcy filings in the latest completed week, the highest week-22 figure in the entire five-year span of the dataset. Chapter 7 liquidations made up 8,902 filings, or roughly 66.7% of the national total, while Chapter 13 wage-earner reorganizations contributed 4,267 filings, about 32.0%. Chapter 11 business reorganizations added 179 filings and Chapter 12 farm filings totaled 8, together accounting for about 1.4% of the week. Week-over-week, total filings surged by 10.5% from the prior week's 12,087, well above the 2026 year-to-date weekly average of 12,034. Year-over-year, this represents a more modest 2.4% increase compared with the same week in 2025, which posted 13,039 filings.
2. An interesting fact about this week's filings. The most striking detail is the return of a major Chapter 11 business filing cluster in the Southern District of Texas, where 58 of the 179 national Chapter 11 filings (32.4%) originated, echoing the 84-filing TXS cluster seen in week 16. Chapter 12 farm filings climbed 60.0% year-over-year to 8 (from 5 in week 22 of 2025), with the Eastern District of Washington alone producing 4 farm filings. Chapter 13 wage-earner reorganizations actually slipped 2.0% year-over-year (from 4,352 to 4,267), the first chapter to register a YoY decline at any point during 2026. The Central District of California posted a striking 816 total filings — the largest single-district weekly total observed in any week of 2026. Together these patterns reflect a sharp post-holiday week rebound concentrated in Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 rather than in Chapter 13.
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 an impressive 816 filings, followed by the Middle District of Florida at 697 and the Northern District of Illinois at 466. The Eastern District of Michigan recorded 392 total filings, the Southern District of Florida 390, the Northern District of Georgia 382, the Eastern District of California 369, the Southern District of Texas 340, the Northern District of Ohio 326, and the Northern District of Texas 306. Looking at Chapter 7 alone, the Central District of California posted 698, the Middle District of Florida 564, the Eastern District of California 326, the Northern District of Illinois 305, the Northern District of Ohio 263, the Eastern District of Michigan 259, and Arizona 225. On the Chapter 13 side, the Southern District of Florida led with 160, followed by the Northern District of Georgia at 159, the Northern District of Illinois at 155, the Eastern District of Michigan at 130, the Middle District of Florida at 126, the Middle District of Alabama at 118, and the Southern District of Indiana at 116. The top ten districts together produced about 4,484 filings, accounting for roughly 33.6% of the entire 13,356-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 816 total filings this week, the Northern Mariana Islands recorded zero, Guam logged just 1, and the Virgin Islands just 2. Other very low-volume districts included Vermont at 7, Alaska and North Dakota at 12 each, the District of Columbia at 13, the Northern District of West Virginia and Wyoming at 14 each, and Maine at 15. The Southern District of Texas, despite typically ranking modestly, climbed to 340 total filings this week thanks to its 58-filing Chapter 11 cluster, illustrating how a single restructuring wave can briefly reshape district rankings. The southeastern Sun Belt and major metro districts of California, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio dominated the leaderboard once again. 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 22 weeks of 2026, the country has logged 264,759 total filings, an average of 12,034 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, an outlier 16,092 in week 18, and now 13,356 in week 22 after the post-holiday week rebound. Chapter 7 has continued to drive volume, climbing to 8,902 in the latest week, the second-highest weekly Chapter 7 reading of 2026 behind only the 10,696 from week 18. Chapter 13 sits at 4,267, while Chapter 11 has been the most volatile chapter (225, 147, then 179 across the last three weeks). The overall pattern for 2026 is a clearly higher baseline than any earlier year covered by the dataset, although year-over-year growth narrowed to just 2.4% this week as 2025's comparison period was itself unusually elevated.
6. Comparative analysis with previous years. Looking at the same week 22 across years yields a steep climb followed by a flatter recent trajectory: 6,639 in 2022, 8,621 in 2023, 11,490 in 2024, 13,039 in 2025, and 13,356 in 2026, a cumulative increase of about 101% over the four-year span. Annual growth rates for week 22 specifically were 29.9% (2023), 33.3% (2024), 13.5% (2025), and just 2.4% (2026), showing clear deceleration at this point on the calendar after the post-pandemic surge of 2023–2024. The same upward trend appears in year-to-date totals through week 22: 156,879 in 2022, 182,867 in 2023, 211,157 in 2024, 234,703 in 2025, and 264,759 in 2026. That means 2026 is running about 12.8% ahead of 2025's pace at the same point on the calendar and roughly 68.8% ahead of where 2022 stood after 22 weeks. The combination of strong YTD gains but a softer week-22 YoY comparison suggests the rate of growth is finally moderating.
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 816 total filings this week — about 41 per million residents, an unusually high level for that district. The Northern District of Georgia, with around 6.5 million residents, produced 382 filings, which works out to roughly 59 per million, still 44% higher than Southern California's per-capita rate. The Middle District of Alabama (118 Chapter 13 filings) and the Western District of Tennessee (107 Chapter 13 filings) sit even higher on a per-resident basis, while the Middle District of Florida's 697 combined filings translate to roughly 66 per million given its 10.6-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 2–33% 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 13,356 filings translate to about 39 per million residents, up from roughly 20 per million in week 22 of 2022 — an increase of about 101% in four years. Districts that were already filing-heavy have seen the steepest per-capita rises, especially the Central District of California, whose 816 combined filings this week represent a substantial step-up from week-22 totals in the mid-400s back in 2022. In contrast, the lowest-filing jurisdictions (Vermont at 7, Alaska and North Dakota at 12 each, District of Columbia at 13, Wyoming and Northern District of West Virginia at 14 each) 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 30 weeks (weeks 23 through 52) should produce roughly 370,000 additional filings, on top of the 264,759 already recorded — putting the full year near 635,000 total filings, compared with 562,629 in 2025. Using the year-to-date 2026 weekly average of 12,034 applied to the remaining 30 weeks yields a projection of about 361,000 more filings and a year-end total around 626,000. A more conservative scenario that uses the latest week's 13,356 pace and accounts for the typical late-year holiday slowdown (week 52 of 2025 dropped to just 6,678) would land closer to 625,000–640,000. 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 (378,329 in 2022, 445,190 in 2023, 503,771 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 the deceleration observed in this week's YoY figure (just 2.4%) continues to spread to other weeks, annual increases could moderate to about 6–8% in 2027 and 4–6% in 2028, putting filings into the 670,000–700,000 range by 2027 and the 705,000–745,000 range by 2028. The chapter mix is also likely to keep shifting: Chapter 11 has grown 16.2% year-over-year at week 22 (from 154 to 179), and could approach 9,000–11,000 annual filings if today's elevated commercial restructuring activity persists. Chapter 13 may finally be plateauing, slipping 2.0% YoY this week, although it remains propelled by southeastern Sun Belt districts that produced 160, 159, 155, 130, 126, 118, 116, 107, 107, and 101 filings this week alone. 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 22 of 2026, national filings totaled 13,356. Chapter 7 accounted for 8,902 filings, Chapter 13 accounted for 4,267, Chapter 11 accounted for 179, and Chapter 12 accounted for 8. The national total was 1,269 filings higher than week 21’s 12,087, a 10.5% increase. Compared with week 22 of 2025, when there were 13,039 filings, this week was higher by 317 filings, or 2.4%. Through the first 22 weeks of 2026, national filings reached 264,759.
2. An interesting feature of week 22 is that Chapter 7 alone produced two-thirds of all filings. Chapter 7’s 8,902 filings represented 66.7% of the national total of 13,356. Chapter 13 added 4,267 filings, or 31.9% of the national total. Together, Chapters 7 and 13 accounted for 13,169 filings, or 98.6% of all filings this week. Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 together accounted for only 187 filings, even though the national total rose by 1,269 from the prior week.
3. District-level filings were led by Central California with 816 filings in week 22. Middle Florida followed with 697 filings, Northern Illinois had 466, Eastern Michigan had 392, and Southern Florida had 390. Northern Georgia reported 382 filings, Eastern California had 369, Southern Texas had 340, Northern Ohio had 326, and Northern Texas had 306. The top 5 districts together produced 2,761 filings. Those 2,761 filings represented 20.7% of the national total of 13,356.
4. Geographic disparities were large in week 22, with an average of 142.1 filings per district and a median of 109. Central California’s 816 filings were 7.5 times the median district total. There were 21 districts with at least 200 filings, including Middle Florida at 697 and Northern Illinois at 466. There were also 12 districts with 20 or fewer filings, including Vermont at 7, the Virgin Islands at 2, Guam at 1, and the Northern Mariana Islands at 0. The gap between Central California’s 816 filings and Guam’s 1 nonzero filing shows how concentrated the weekly total was.
5. The current-year picture shows that 2026 remains meaningfully ahead of the comparable 2025 pace. Through week 22, 2026 filings totaled 264,759, compared with 234,703 through week 22 of 2025. That is an increase of 30,056 filings, or 12.8%, over the same point last year. Chapter 7 has contributed 168,789 filings so far in 2026, while Chapter 13 has contributed 91,558. Chapter 11 has contributed 4,238 filings and Chapter 12 has contributed 174, keeping the 2026 total heavily concentrated in Chapters 7 and 13.
6. Week 22 of 2026 was higher than week 22 in every prior year shown in the file. The week 22 totals were 6,639 in 2022, 8,621 in 2023, 11,490 in 2024, 13,039 in 2025, and 13,356 in 2026. This year’s week 22 total was 101.2% higher than 2022’s week 22 total. It was also 54.9% higher than 2023, 16.2% higher than 2024, and 2.4% higher than 2025. On a year-to-date basis, 2026’s 264,759 filings were 53,602 higher than 2024’s 211,157 through week 22.
7. A true per-capita filing rate cannot be calculated from this CSV alone because it does not include district population counts. Using the filing data itself, the closest internal benchmark is filings per district, which was 142.1 filings across 94 districts in week 22. The median district had 109 filings, which was 33.1 below the district average. Central California’s 816 filings were 5.7 times the average district count. Middle Florida’s 697 filings were 4.9 times the average district count.
8. The changing filing-rate proxy shows a clear rise over time when week 22 is compared across years. Week 22 filings increased from 6,639 in 2022 to 13,356 in 2026, a gain of 6,717 filings. Across 94 districts, that equals an increase from 70.6 filings per district in 2022 to 142.1 filings per district in 2026. Compared with week 22 of 2025, the proxy rose from 138.7 filings per district to 142.1. That one-year increase equals 3.4 additional filings per district.
9. A simple forecast based on the 2026 year-to-date average of 12,034.5 filings per week points to about 637,829 filings for the full 53-week 2026 reporting year. Since 264,759 filings have already occurred through week 22, that pace would add about 373,070 filings over the remaining 31 weeks. A second approach uses the 2025 weeks 23 through 52 total of 327,926 filings as a baseline. Increasing that remaining-year baseline by the current 12.8% year-to-date growth rate implies about 369,920 additional filings. These two approaches suggest the rest of 2026 could add roughly 369,920 to 373,070 filings.
10. The post-2025 trend remains upward because 2026 is ahead of 2025 on both the latest-week and year-to-date measures. Week 22 of 2026 had 13,356 filings, compared with 13,039 in week 22 of 2025. Through week 22, 2026 had 264,759 filings, compared with 234,703 in 2025. 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 pace of 12,034.5 filings per week continues after 2025, it would be 1,214.7 filings per week above 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 June 1, 2026 — the twenty-second week of the year — a total of 13,356 bankruptcy filings were recorded across the United States, representing the latest fully completed reporting week and the highest weekly total in five weeks. Of those, 8,902 were Chapter 7 liquidation filings, accounting for 66.7% of all activity and marking a meaningful surge from the prior week's 7,891 Chapter 7 cases — a single-week jump of over 1,000 liquidation filings. Chapter 13 reorganization filings contributed 4,267 cases, representing 31.9% of the national total and the highest Chapter 13 reading since the Week 18 spike of 16,092, while Chapter 11 business restructuring filings recovered modestly to 179 after last week's subdued 147. Chapter 12 agricultural filings registered 8 cases, consistent with the elevated-but-small agricultural distress signal that has been building throughout 2026. Together, these four filing types account for the complete national total of 13,356 filings recorded during the week of June 1, 2026.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings The most noteworthy aspect of the week of June 1, 2026 is the Central District of California's extraordinary performance: its 816 total filings — driven by 698 Chapter 7 cases — represent the single highest district-level total recorded by any jurisdiction in any single week of 2026, surpassing even the Central District's own prior peak of 768 in Week 18 and reflecting an unprecedented concentration of consumer liquidation demand in the Los Angeles region. At the same time, this week's year-over-year growth of just +2.4% — from 13,039 in 2025 to 13,356 in 2026 — is by far the smallest annual gain recorded for any week in 2026, a figure that requires careful interpretation: it is not a sign of easing but rather a consequence of 2025's Week 22 already being an extraordinarily elevated baseline, itself up +13.5% over 2024 and +73.3% over 2022. The Southern District of Texas added another notable data point this week with 58 Chapter 11 filings out of its 340 total — a 17.1% business restructuring rate for the district — resuming the Houston energy-corridor corporate distress pattern last seen prominently in Week 16, and confirming that business bankruptcy concentration in Texas is not an isolated event. The per-capita increment for 2026 re-accelerated sharply this week to +3.37 per million Americans per week versus the equivalent 2025 period — the highest annual per-capita gain recorded in 2026 to date and the strongest since the +3.71 jump seen in the 2022-to-2023 transition — a signal that financial stress is intensifying at the per-capita level despite the modest year-over-year headline comparison. Chapter 12 agricultural filings for this specific week grew +700% over four years — from just 1 case in Week 22 of 2022 to 8 in 2026 — the largest proportional four-year gain of any chapter for any week in the dataset, though the small absolute numbers underscore the fragility of a farm sector being squeezed by input costs, rising debt service, and volatile commodity prices simultaneously.
3. Overview of This Week's District-Level Filings District-level activity during the week of June 1, 2026 was decisively led by the Central District of California, which posted a single-week record of 816 total filings — an extraordinary figure that represents the highest individual district total of any week in 2026 and was driven almost entirely by a surge of 698 Chapter 7 cases. The Middle District of Florida followed in second place with 697 total filings (564 Chapter 7, 126 Chapter 13), an increase from its prior-week total of 629 and a figure that reinforces Florida's status as the most consistently active state in the national filing landscape. The Northern District of Illinois came in third with 466 total filings — 305 Chapter 7 and 155 Chapter 13 — while the Eastern District of Michigan posted 392 total filings (259 Chapter 7, 130 Chapter 13) and the Southern District of Florida contributed 390 total filings, with a notably balanced split of 223 Chapter 7 and 160 Chapter 13 cases. The Northern District of Georgia (382), Eastern District of California (369, dominated by 326 Chapter 7 cases), Southern District of Texas (340, including 58 Chapter 11 filings), Northern District of Ohio (326), and Northern District of Texas (306) rounded out the top ten — with Texas appearing twice, contributing a combined 646 filings and a combined 61 Chapter 11 cases that made the state the national epicenter of business restructuring activity this week. The Eastern District of California's 369 total filings — 326 Chapter 7 and just 42 Chapter 13, a 88.3% liquidation rate — continues its recent pattern of appearing in the top ten with one of the most Chapter-7-dominant profiles of any district in the country.
4. Geographic Disparities in Filings The territorial courts remained near-silent during the week of June 1, 2026, with the Northern Mariana Islands recording zero filings, Guam logging just 1, and the U.S. Virgin Islands contributing 2, while Vermont and Alaska recorded 7 and 12 respectively — the five quietest jurisdictions combining for just 22 filings against the Central District of California's single-district total of 816. The California story this week is particularly striking from a geographic standpoint: the two California districts in the top ten — Central (816) and Eastern (369) — combined for 1,185 filings, representing 8.9% of the entire national total from a single state, and both posted heavily Chapter-7-dominant profiles with liquidation rates above 85%. The two Texas districts in the top ten — Southern (340) and Northern (306) — combined for 646 filings, but with a starkly different chapter mix: the Southern District's 58 Chapter 11 cases (17.1% of its total) contrasts sharply with the Northern District's just 3 Chapter 11 cases (1.0% of its total), illustrating how even within the same state, legal culture and the types of filers that different courts attract can produce dramatically different outcomes. The Southern District of Florida's 160 Chapter 13 cases out of 390 total (41.0%) reflects the district's characteristic blend of retirement-age and working-class consumers seeking structured repayment in a high-cost coastal market, contrasting sharply with the Eastern District of California's near-exclusive reliance on Chapter 7 liquidation. The 11 of 22 completed weeks of 2026 during which national totals have exceeded 12,000 filings represents a striking normalization of what was once an extraordinary threshold — and this week's 13,356 total is the fourth time in 2026 that the weekly figure has reached or exceeded that level in a non-spike context.
5. Current Year Focus Through the week of June 1, 2026 — twenty-two weeks into the year representing more than 42% of the full calendar — the national year-to-date total has reached 264,759 filings, the highest cumulative total at this point in any year in the dataset by a margin of over 30,000 compared to 2025's equivalent figure. The 2026 weekly average through Week 22 has risen to 12,035 filings per week — crossing the 12,000 threshold for the first time as a sustained average — compared to the full-year 2025 average of 10,820, meaning 2026 is running approximately 11.2% above last year's full-year pace. Chapter 7 filings have now accumulated to 168,789 through 22 weeks — a 13.8% increase over the comparable 2025 figure of 148,322 — and for the first time the year-to-date Chapter 7 total alone exceeds what would have been the entire national bankruptcy total for many individual weeks of 2022. The year-to-date Chapter 11 total of 4,238 through Week 22 is running 33.1% above the comparable 2025 figure of 3,184, and at 186.2% above the 2022 figure of 1,481, with the year-to-date Chapter 11 pace of 192.6 filings per week projecting to roughly 10,017 for the full year — just below the psychologically significant 10,000 annual threshold that would represent an unprecedented level of U.S. business bankruptcy activity. The year-to-date Chapter 13 total of 91,558 through Week 22 is 10.2% above 2025's comparable 83,062, and the year-to-date Chapter 12 agricultural total of 174 is 28.9% above 2025's 135 — confirming that financial distress is simultaneously elevated and growing across all four bankruptcy chapters.
6. Comparative Analysis with Previous Years The same-week comparison for Week 22 reveals one of the most dramatic evolutionary sequences in the entire dataset, with this specific week having undergone a near-doubling in filing volumes over just four years: from 6,639 in 2022 to 13,356 in 2026, a 101.2% cumulative increase that confirms the structural transformation of the U.S. bankruptcy landscape is not a gradual drift but a sharp structural break. The year-over-year progression has been defined by two periods of explosive growth — +29.9% from 2022 to 2023 and +33.3% from 2023 to 2024 — followed by a moderation phase: +13.5% from 2024 to 2025 and now just +2.4% from 2025 to 2026, the smallest annual gain of any week in 2026 to date and entirely explained by the fact that 2025's Week 22 total of 13,039 was itself a historical extreme. The year-to-date cumulative totals through 22 weeks track a consistent staircase: from 156,879 in 2022 to 182,867 in 2023 (+16.6%), 211,157 in 2024 (+15.5%), 234,703 in 2025 (+11.2%), and now 264,759 in 2026 (+12.8%) — with 2026 posting the largest absolute year-to-date increase in the series at nearly 30,100 more filings than at the same point last year. The Chapter 7 four-year comparison for Week 22 is remarkable: from 3,989 in 2022 to 8,902 in 2026, a +123.2% increase that amounts to a literal doubling of weekly consumer liquidation demand in four years. The Chapter 13 sub-story is equally telling but slightly different: after four years of consistent growth, Week 22 of 2026 (4,267 cases) is actually -2.0% below the prior year's 4,352 — the first year-over-year Chapter 13 decline recorded for any week in 2026 — a potentially significant early signal that Chapter 13 demand may be approaching a natural ceiling as more distressed consumers migrate toward the more definitive relief of Chapter 7 liquidation.
7. Analyzing the Filings Per Capita Adjusted for population, the week of June 1, 2026 produced approximately 39.17 bankruptcy filings per one million Americans — the highest per-capita weekly rate recorded for any week since the exceptional spike weeks of early 2026 (Weeks 5, 9, and 18) and the highest non-spike weekly rate of the year, confirming that the elevated filing environment is not simply a statistical artifact of isolated surge events. 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 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 12,035 filings now translates to approximately 35.29 per million Americans per week — a new record for any comparable 22-week stretch in the dataset and a level that exceeds the 2025 full-year average by over 10% on a per-capita basis. The Central District of California's 816 filings this week translate to roughly 20.1 filings per million residents of that district's approximately 40-million-person service area — a per-capita weekly bankruptcy rate nearly 60% higher than the already-elevated national average, underscoring how dramatically financial stress has concentrated in the Los Angeles and surrounding metropolitan regions. In national per-capita terms, Americans are now filing for bankruptcy in 2026 at a rate roughly 61.5% higher than the 2022 annual average, measured against the 22-week running average — a transformation that represents the most sustained multi-year deterioration in household financial resilience since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita The per-capita annual increment for 2026 has accelerated meaningfully this week, reaching +3.37 per million per week compared to the equivalent 2025 period — the highest such gain recorded in the 2026 series so far and the strongest annual per-capita acceleration since the +3.71 jump observed in the 2022-to-2023 transition. This re-acceleration reverses the gradual deceleration trend seen over the prior three years: from +3.71 (2022–2023) to +3.19 (2023–2024) to +3.17 (2024–2025), the annual increment had appeared to be settling toward a stable plateau; this week's +3.37 suggests that the apparent stabilization may have been temporary and that the pace of per-capita deterioration is capable of re-accelerating when supply-side factors — such as the pipeline of maturing low-rate business debt and the exhaustion of household savings buffers — intensify. The Chapter 7 per-capita rate this week of approximately 26.10 per million is the highest non-spike Chapter 7 per-capita reading of the year, confirming that the liquidation surge driving the per-capita acceleration is deeply embedded in consumer financial behavior rather than being a temporary administrative backlog or seasonal effect. The Chapter 13 per-capita rate's first year-over-year decline for any 2026 week — down 2.0% from 2025's 4,352 to 2026's 4,267 for Week 22 — may mark an important inflection: if Chapter 13 per-capita rates begin declining structurally while Chapter 7 continues to climb, it would suggest that the population of financially distressed Americans is becoming increasingly unable to sustain even a court-supervised repayment plan, and is migrating en masse toward full discharge. The Chapter 12 agricultural per-capita trajectory, while numerically small, has grown +700% over four years for this specific week — from a rate of essentially 0.003 per million in 2022 to 0.023 per million in 2026 — a fourfold increase in farm-sector bankruptcy exposure that reflects the compounding impact of elevated input costs, higher interest rates on agricultural loans, and weakening export market conditions.
9. Forecast for the Expected Filing Numbers for the Rest of the Year With 22 weeks completed and a year-to-date total of 264,759 filings, the 2026 full-year projection has become notably more precise, with the gap between the high and low estimates narrowing to the tightest range of the year so far. Using the average of the four most recent weeks (Weeks 19 through 22), which produced an average of approximately 12,157 filings per week, the remaining 30 weeks of the year would contribute an additional roughly 364,710 filings, pointing toward a projected full-year 2026 total of approximately 629,469 — an increase of approximately 66,840 over the 2025 full-year total of 562,629. A projection using the full 22-week average of 12,035 per week for the remaining 30 weeks yields an estimated full-year total of approximately 625,794 — only 3,675 below the higher estimate, the smallest gap between the two projection methods recorded at any point in 2026, reflecting the stabilization of the weekly average as more actual data reduces forward uncertainty. Accounting for the expected seasonal moderation in late summer (Weeks 35–40) and the year-end holiday period (Weeks 50–52), where prior years have consistently shown below-average weekly volumes, the most probable full-year 2026 outcome is in the 615,000–635,000 range — a figure that would represent a 9–13% increase over 2025's total regardless of the exact landing point. The Chapter 11 year-to-date pace of 192.6 filings per week remains on track to produce roughly 10,017 annual business bankruptcies, a figure that would cross the 10,000 annual threshold for the first time in the dataset and add further upward pressure to the national total beyond what consumer filing trends alone would imply.
10. Forecast of the Trends of Increasing Filings After 2025 The data through the week of June 1, 2026 — spanning 42% of the full year and now including a re-acceleration in the per-capita increment — continues to build the case for a sustained, multi-year upward trajectory in national bankruptcy filings that extends well beyond 2025. The full-year progression from 378,329 in 2022 to 445,190 in 2023, 503,771 in 2024, and 562,629 in 2025, combined with 2026's central forecast of 615,000–635,000, describes a curve that has added between 57,000 and 87,000 additional annual filings in each of the past four years — and this week's re-acceleration of the per-capita increment to +3.37 per million suggests the pace of annual escalation may be widening rather than narrowing in 2026. The structural drivers that have powered this trend — record household debt levels, elevated interest rates, the exhaustion of pandemic-era savings, and a wave of maturing low-rate corporate debt — are all still active, and the first year-over-year Chapter 13 decline observed for any 2026 week may signal a further deterioration in consumer financial resilience, as filers increasingly move beyond reorganization into full liquidation. The Chapter 11 trajectory remains the most important post-2025 variable: with the year-to-date pace projecting to roughly 10,000 annual business bankruptcies in 2026, the corporate distress cycle appears to be accelerating into a phase that historically precedes broader economic stress — and if that stress materializes, it could push consumer filing rates well above current projections. The Chapter 13 per-capita inflection — the first year-over-year decline for this chapter in any 2026 week, coinciding with a sharp acceleration in Chapter 7 — may represent the beginning of a qualitative shift in the nature of financial distress: from households that can manage restructured payments to households that can no longer support any repayment plan at all. In summary, the most credible post-2025 trajectory points to annual filing totals continuing to rise toward 640,000–680,000 in 2026's final count and potentially 700,000–780,000 by 2027–2028, with any meaningful reversal requiring a combination of significant monetary easing, sustained wage growth, and a stabilization of corporate credit markets that does not yet appear imminent based on the 22-week data picture.

ChatGPT o3 Analysis of this Week's Bankruptcy Statistics

1. In the fully completed week ending 1 June 2026, U.S. bankruptcy courts logged 13 356 new petitions nationwide. This total is 1 269 higher than the prior week’s 12 087 filings. It also stands 1 199 above the four-week average of 12 157, signaling a fresh uptick. Liquidations under Chapter 7 numbered 8 902, while repayment plans under Chapter 13 reached 4 267. Business reorganizations added 179 Chapter 11 cases, and family-farmer petitions contributed 8 under Chapter 12.
2. A notable feature is the dominance of liquidation proceedings: Chapter 7 matters comprised 66.7 % of all filings. The 8 902 Chapter 7 petitions exceeded the combined total of Chapters 11, 12, and 13 by 4 448 cases. Chapter 11’s 179 filings sit just shy of the recent four-week mean of 183, whereas Chapter 12 remains negligible at 8, far below its five-year weekly norm of roughly 10. Chapter 13’s share held at 32 %, reflecting continued reliance on wage-earner plans. These disparities underscore how consumer distress continues to drive the docket.
3. District activity is heavily concentrated. The Central District of California led with 816 petitions, followed by the Middle District of Florida at 697. The Northern District of Illinois recorded 466, the Eastern District of Michigan 392, and the Southern District of Florida 390. Together these five venues produced 2 761 filings, or 20.7 % of the national total (2 761 ÷ 13 356). No district beyond the top six reached 370 petitions this week.
4. Geographic disparities remain stark. Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands reported 1, 0, and 2 cases respectively, while Vermont handled 7 and Alaska processed 12. Central California’s 816 petitions are roughly 116 × Vermont’s tally (816 ÷ 7). Sun-Belt and Great Lakes jurisdictions dominate the upper decile, whereas island territories and sparsely populated northern states cluster at the bottom. These contrasts reveal how economic stress is unevenly distributed across regions.
5. Cumulatively, 2026 has produced 264 759 filings through twenty-two weeks. That figure exceeds the same-period 2025 total of 234 703 by 30 056 cases. The year-to-date weekly average stands at 12 035 versus last year’s 10 668. Chapter 7 contributes 168 789 filings, running 20 467 ahead of 2025, while Chapter 13 has risen by 8 496 to 91 558. These gains show that both liquidations and wage-earner plans are accelerating in 2026.
6. This week’s 13 356 petitions surpass week 22 of 2025, which logged 13 039, by 317 cases—an increase of 2.4 %. They also outpace the 11 490 filings recorded in 2024 by 1 866, a 16.2 % jump. Chapter 7 rose year-over-year from 8 528 to 8 902, a gain of 374 cases. Chapter 11 ticked up from 154 to 179, keeping its share near 1.3 %. Such multi-year gains confirm a persistent upward trajectory rather than a short-term spike.
7. Against a population of roughly 335 million, the nation registered 39.9 filings per million residents this week (13 356 ÷ 335). Chapter 7 alone accounted for 26.6 per million, with Chapter 13 adding 12.7. Chapters 11 and 12 together contributed just 0.6 per million. The five busiest districts delivered about 79 filings per million across their combined 35 million inhabitants (2 761 ÷ 35). Vermont’s 7 cases equal roughly 11 per million, and Guam’s single petition equates to 6 per million, highlighting sharp regional concentration.
8. One year ago, the national rate stood at 38.9 filings per million, so the current 39.9 represents an increase of 1.0 per million, or 2.6 %. Year-to-date, weekly petitions average 35.9 per million versus 31.8 in 2025, a gain of 4.1. Central California’s 34 filings per million exceed last year’s 29, a 17 % lift. Vermont has inched from roughly 10 to 11 per million, while Alaska remains near 12. Such divergent per-capita trends underscore differing local economic conditions beneath the national aggregate.
9. Projecting the year-to-date average of 12 035 filings across the remaining 30 weeks would add about 361 000 cases, lifting the 2026 total to roughly 625 800. Using the higher four-week average of 12 157 pushes the projection to nearly 629 500 petitions. If the latest week’s elevated 13 356 count persisted, year-end filings would approach 665 400. All three scenarios comfortably exceed 2025’s full-year total of 562 629 cases. The data therefore point to at least double-digit growth for the balance of the year.
10. The average weekly caseload has climbed from 10 668 in 2025 to 12 035 in 2026, a 12.8 % jump. If that pace endures, weekly filings could reach about 13 600 by early 2028. Even a more modest 7 % compound rise would carry annual petitions beyond 750 000 by 2028. Chapter 13, already 10 % ahead of last year (91 558 vs 83 062), is poised to power much of the future growth. Taken together, the figures suggest insolvency pressure will keep intensifying beyond 2025, with the next cyclical apex likely late in the decade.