*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 8th, 2026)

Week 23 showed strong year-over-year growth, with consumer bankruptcies rising about 11% to 10,025 filings and business filings surging roughly 221% to 411 cases compared with the same week last year. Chapter 7 filings, a lifeline for many struggling households, were up 9.05% year-over-year (from 5,446 in 2025 to 5,939 in 2026). Chapter 13 filings, allowing individuals to restructure their debt, were up 12.87% year-over-year (from 3,620 in 2025 to 4,086 in 2026). Chapter 11 filings, often used by businesses dealing with insolvency, were up 236.36% year-over-year (from 121 in 2025 to 407 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 10,436 total bankruptcy filings in the latest completed week, the highest week-23 figure in the entire five-year span of the dataset. Chapter 7 liquidations made up 5,939 filings, or roughly 56.9% of the national total, while Chapter 13 wage-earner reorganizations contributed 4,086 filings, about 39.2%. Chapter 11 business reorganizations added an extraordinary 407 filings and Chapter 12 farm filings totaled just 4, together accounting for about 3.9% of the week. Week-over-week, total filings fell 26.8% from the prior week's 14,259, which had been elevated by a post-holiday rebound, settling slightly below the 2026 year-to-date weekly average of 12,004. Year-over-year, this represents a 13.5% increase compared with the same week in 2025, which posted 9,194 filings.
2. An interesting fact about this week's filings. The most striking detail by far is the explosive surge in Chapter 11 business filings to 407 — a record-high single-week figure for the entire five-year dataset, up 236.4% from the 121 filings recorded in week 23 of 2025. The driver was an unprecedented New Jersey cluster of 158 Chapter 11 filings (38.8% of all national Chapter 11 activity for the week), reinforced by 49 filings in the Eastern District of New York and 29 in the Southern District of Texas. This continues a pattern of large business restructuring clusters appearing in major filing venues throughout 2026, with prior spikes seen in the Southern District of Texas (week 16, 84 filings) and Delaware (week 20, 58 filings). Chapter 13 also climbed 12.9% year-over-year (from 3,620 to 4,086), led by the Northern District of Georgia with 294 filings — the highest single-district Chapter 13 figure observed in 2026 to date. Chapter 12 farm filings, by contrast, fell 42.9% year-over-year to just 4, with the Northern District of Georgia producing 2 and the Middle District of Georgia and Northern District of Texas one each.
3. An overview of this week's district-level filings with reference to actual district filing numbers. Combining all four chapters, the Northern District of Georgia led the country with 560 filings, followed by the Central District of California at 482 and the Middle District of Florida at 474. New Jersey surged to 386 total filings on the back of its Chapter 11 cluster, followed by the Northern District of Illinois at 334, Maryland at 328, the Eastern District of Michigan at 300, the Southern District of Texas at 290, the Northern District of Texas at 278, and the Northern District of Ohio at 274. Looking at Chapter 7 alone, the Central District of California posted 401, the Middle District of Florida 356, the Northern District of Georgia 244, the Northern District of Ohio 229, the Eastern District of Michigan 216, Maryland 197, the Northern District of Illinois 190, and Arizona 170. On the Chapter 13 side, the Northern District of Georgia led with 294, followed by the Northern District of Texas at 175, the Southern District of Texas at 150, the Northern District of Illinois at 141, Maryland at 128, the Western District of Tennessee at 126, the Northern District of Alabama at 112, and the Eastern District of Virginia at 109. The top ten districts together produced about 3,706 filings, accounting for roughly 35.5% of the entire 10,436-filing national total.
4. Geographic (district) disparities in filings. The disparity between busy and quiet districts remained enormous: while the Northern District of Georgia posted 560 total filings this week, the three U.S. territory districts (Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands) again recorded zero. Other very low-volume districts included Alaska at 4, Vermont at 5, Wyoming at 6, South Dakota at 8, the District of Columbia and the Northern District of Iowa at 9 each, and Montana at 14. New Jersey, despite its modest population, climbed dramatically to 386 total filings (158 Chapter 11), illustrating how a single business restructuring wave can briefly reshape district rankings. The southeastern Sun Belt, the major metro districts of California, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio, and the four Texas districts (290, 278 plus smaller counts) dominated the leaderboard. 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 23 weeks of 2026, the country has logged 276,101 total filings, an average of 12,004 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 16,091 in week 18, and 14,259 in week 22, with the latest week at 10,436. Chapter 7 has continued to drive volume but eased to 5,939 in the latest week from 8,902 the prior week, while Chapter 13 settled at 4,086. Chapter 11 has been by far the most volatile chapter (225, 147, 179, then a record 407 across the last four weeks), heavily influenced by sporadic business restructuring clusters in venues like New Jersey, Delaware, and Texas. 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 23 across years yields a steady climb: 7,019 in 2022, 7,902 in 2023, 8,638 in 2024, 9,194 in 2025, and 10,436 in 2026, a cumulative increase of about 48.7% over the four-year span. Annual growth rates for week 23 specifically were 12.6% (2023), 9.3% (2024), 6.4% (2025), and 13.5% (2026), showing a notable re-acceleration in 2026 after 2024 and 2025's slower growth at this point on the calendar. The same upward trend appears in year-to-date totals through week 23: 163,898 in 2022, 190,771 in 2023, 219,795 in 2024, 243,899 in 2025, and 276,101 in 2026. That means 2026 is running about 13.2% ahead of 2025's pace at the same point on the calendar and roughly 68.5% ahead of where 2022 stood after 23 weeks. The combination of strong year-over-year growth and a steadily widening absolute gap suggests the underlying drivers of filings remain firmly in place 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 482 total filings this week — about 24 per million residents. The Northern District of Georgia, with around 6.5 million residents, produced 560 filings, which works out to roughly 86 per million, more than triple Southern California's per-capita rate. The Western District of Tennessee (126 Chapter 13 filings) and the Northern District of Alabama (112 Chapter 13 filings) sit even higher on a per-resident basis, while Maryland's 328 combined filings translate to roughly 53 per million given its 6.2-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 6–13% 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 10,436 filings translate to about 30 per million residents, up from roughly 21 per million in week 23 of 2022 — an increase of about 49% in four years. Districts that were already filing-heavy have seen the steepest per-capita rises, especially the Northern District of Georgia, whose 560 combined filings this week represent a substantial step-up from typical week-23 totals in the high 300s back in 2022. In contrast, the lowest-filing jurisdictions (Alaska at 4, Vermont at 5, Wyoming at 6, South Dakota at 8) 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 29 weeks (weeks 24 through 52) should produce roughly 361,000 additional filings, on top of the 276,101 already recorded — putting the full year near 637,000 total filings, compared with 562,632 in 2025. Using the year-to-date 2026 weekly average of 12,004 applied to the remaining 29 weeks yields a projection of about 348,000 more filings and a year-end total around 624,000. A more conservative scenario that uses the latest week's 10,436 pace and accounts for the typical late-year holiday slowdown (week 52 of 2025 dropped to just 6,678) would land closer to 615,000–635,000. 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 562,632.
10. Forecast the trends of increasing filings after 2025. The four-year trajectory of full-year totals (378,329 in 2022, 445,193 in 2023, 503,771 in 2024, 562,632 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 11 has been growing fastest in percentage terms — up an unprecedented 236.4% year-over-year at week 23 (from 121 to 407) — and could approach 12,000–15,000 annual filings if today's elevated commercial restructuring clusters continue. Chapter 13, propelled by southeastern Sun Belt districts that produced 294, 175, 150, 141, 128, 126, 112, 109, 105, and 101 filings this week alone, is likely to retain its steady 32–39% share of the national total. 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 23 of 2026, national filings totaled 10,436. Chapter 7 accounted for 5,939 filings, Chapter 13 accounted for 4,086, Chapter 11 accounted for 407, and Chapter 12 accounted for 4. The national total was 3,823 filings lower than week 22’s 14,259, a 26.8% decline. Compared with week 23 of 2025, when there were 9,194 filings, this week was higher by 1,242 filings, or 13.5%. Through the first 23 weeks of 2026, national filings reached 276,101.
2. An interesting feature of week 23 is that Chapter 11 was unusually visible compared with its normal share of weekly filings. Chapter 11 had 407 filings, representing 3.9% of the national total of 10,436. Chapter 7 remained the largest category with 5,939 filings, or 56.9% of the total. Chapter 13 added 4,086 filings, or 39.2% of all filings this week. Together, Chapters 7 and 13 accounted for 10,025 filings, or 96.1% of the national total.
3. District-level filings were led by Northern Georgia with 560 filings in week 23. Central California followed with 482 filings, Middle Florida had 474, New Jersey had 386, and Northern Illinois had 334. Maryland reported 328 filings, Eastern Michigan had 300, Southern Texas had 290, Northern Texas had 278, and Northern Ohio had 274. The top 5 districts together produced 2,236 filings. Those 2,236 filings represented 21.4% of the national total of 10,436.
4. Geographic disparities were substantial in week 23, with an average of 111.0 filings per district and a median of 76. Northern Georgia’s 560 filings were 7.4 times the median district total. There were 15 districts with at least 200 filings, including Central California at 482 and Middle Florida at 474. There were also 15 districts with 20 or fewer filings, including Wyoming at 6, Vermont at 5, and Alaska at 4. Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands each had 0 filings.
5. The current-year picture shows that 2026 remains well ahead of the comparable 2025 pace. Through week 23, 2026 filings totaled 276,101, compared with 243,899 through week 23 of 2025. That is an increase of 32,202 filings, or 13.2%, over the same point last year. Chapter 7 has contributed 175,396 filings so far in 2026, while Chapter 13 has contributed 95,873. Chapter 11 has contributed 4,653 filings and Chapter 12 has contributed 179, keeping the year-to-date total concentrated in Chapters 7 and 13.
6. Week 23 of 2026 was higher than week 23 in every prior year shown in the file. The week 23 totals were 7,019 in 2022, 7,902 in 2023, 8,638 in 2024, 9,194 in 2025, and 10,436 in 2026. This year’s week 23 total was 48.7% higher than 2022’s week 23 total. It was also 32.1% higher than 2023, 20.8% higher than 2024, and 13.5% higher than 2025. On a year-to-date basis, 2026’s 276,101 filings were 56,306 higher than 2024’s 219,795 through week 23.
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 111.0 filings across 94 districts in week 23. The median district had 76 filings, which was 35.0 below the district average. Northern Georgia’s 560 filings were 5.0 times the average district count. Central California’s 482 filings were 4.3 times the average district count.
8. The changing filing-rate proxy shows a clear rise over time when week 23 is compared across years. Week 23 filings increased from 7,019 in 2022 to 10,436 in 2026, a gain of 3,417 filings. Across 94 districts, that equals an increase from 74.7 filings per district in 2022 to 111.0 filings per district in 2026. Compared with week 23 of 2025, the proxy rose from 97.8 filings per district to 111.0. That one-year increase equals 13.2 additional filings per district.
9. A simple forecast based on the 2026 year-to-date average of 12,004.4 filings per week points to about 636,233 filings for the full 53-week 2026 reporting year. Since 276,101 filings have already occurred through week 23, that pace would add about 360,132 filings over the remaining 30 weeks. A second approach uses the 2025 weeks 24 through 52 total of 318,733 filings as a baseline. Increasing that remaining-year baseline by the current 13.2% year-to-date growth rate implies about 360,815 additional filings. These two approaches suggest the rest of 2026 could add roughly 360,132 to 360,815 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 23 of 2026 had 10,436 filings, compared with 9,194 in week 23 of 2025. Through week 23, 2026 had 276,101 filings, compared with 243,899 in 2025. The full-year weekly average rose from 7,275.6 in 2022 to 8,561.4 in 2023, 9,687.9 in 2024, and 10,819.8 in 2025. If the 2026 year-to-date pace of 12,004.4 filings per week continues after 2025, it would be 1,184.5 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 8, 2026 — the twenty-third week of the year — a total of 10,436 bankruptcy filings were recorded across the United States, representing the latest fully completed reporting week. Of those, 5,939 were Chapter 7 liquidation filings, accounting for 56.9% of all activity — the lowest Chapter 7 share of any week in 2026 to date, reflecting an extraordinary surge in another chapter that has dramatically reshaped this week's composition. Chapter 13 reorganization filings contributed 4,086 cases, representing 39.2% of the national total and the highest Chapter 13 percentage share of any week in the 2026 dataset. The defining feature of this week is Chapter 11 business restructuring filings, which reached an extraordinary 407 cases — the fourth-highest single-week Chapter 11 total in the entire multi-year dataset and one of only five weeks across all years to have ever exceeded 394 Chapter 11 filings nationally. Chapter 12 agricultural filings registered just 4 cases, while the combination of record-level Chapter 11 activity and strong Chapter 13 demand made this one of the most structurally unusual weeks of the year.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings The defining story of the week of June 8, 2026 is the Chapter 11 surge: at 407 business restructuring filings, this week ranks as the fourth highest Chapter 11 week in the entire dataset — surpassed only by Week 45 of 2023 (623), Week 28 of 2025 (466), and Week 6 of 2026 (416) — and the year-over-year increase of +236.4% from the same week in 2025 (121 cases) is the single largest annual percentage jump recorded for any chapter in any week of 2026. Remarkably, three of the five highest Chapter 11 weeks in the entire history of the dataset now belong to 2026, pointing to a structural escalation in business bankruptcy activity that goes far beyond the volatility of individual weeks. The District of New Jersey was the epicenter of this Chapter 11 surge, recording 158 Chapter 11 filings out of its 386 total — meaning 40.9% of all filings in that district this week were business restructurings, a concentration almost certainly driven by one or more major corporate cases filed in the New Jersey bankruptcy court, which is a preferred venue for large complex restructurings. The week of June 8 also followed a -26.8% decline from the prior week's elevated 14,259 total — entirely consistent with the historical Week 22→23 transition, where declines of -8.3% (2023), -24.8% (2024), and -29.5% (2025) have been recorded, confirming that this week's moderation is seasonal rather than structural. Despite this post-peak moderation, the 2026 year-to-date total has now crossed 276,000 cumulative filings, a milestone that has never been reached this early in any prior year in the dataset.
3. Overview of This Week's District-Level Filings The Northern District of Georgia held the top position for a second consecutive week with 560 total filings — 244 Chapter 7 and 294 Chapter 13 — confirming Atlanta's status as the country's single most active bankruptcy district for this period, with its Chapter 13 share of 52.5% reflecting the Southeast's deep-rooted preference for repayment plans over liquidation. The Central District of California followed with 482 total filings (401 Chapter 7, 71 Chapter 13), and the Middle District of Florida came in third with 474 total filings (356 Chapter 7, 101 Chapter 13), with both California and Florida districts showing their characteristic Chapter 7 dominance at rates well above the national average. The District of New Jersey posted a remarkable fourth-place finish with 386 total filings — but its composition was extraordinary: 158 of those were Chapter 11 business restructuring cases, representing 40.9% of the district's total and making New Jersey the clear national epicenter of corporate distress this week. The Northern District of Illinois (334 total, 141 Chapter 13), District of Maryland (328 total, 128 Chapter 13), and Eastern District of Michigan (300 total, 216 Chapter 7) rounded out the mid-tier, while the Southern District of Texas (290 total, 29 Chapter 11), Northern District of Texas (278 total, 175 Chapter 13), and Northern District of Ohio (274 total, 229 Chapter 7) completed the top ten. Across the top ten districts combined, Chapter 11 filings totaled approximately 250 — nearly 61.5% of the entire national Chapter 11 total of 407 — confirming that business restructuring activity remains highly concentrated in a small number of jurisdictions.
4. Geographic Disparities in Filings The territorial courts maintained their customary near-absence during the week of June 8, 2026, with Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands all recording zero filings, while Alaska logged just 4 and Vermont 5 — a combined five-jurisdiction total of 9 filings against the Northern District of Georgia's 560. The most dramatic geographic story this week is the New Jersey district's 158 Chapter 11 filings, which alone account for 38.8% of the national Chapter 11 total — a concentration that reflects New Jersey's role as a preferred venue for large corporate restructuring cases, where the Newark and Trenton bankruptcy courts have established dockets and expertise that attract major national filings far beyond the state's own business population. The two Texas districts in the top ten — Southern (290) and Northern (278) — again reflect different financial stress profiles within the same state: the Southern District's 29 Chapter 11 cases and 150 Chapter 13 cases point to a blend of Houston-area corporate distress and consumer reorganization demand, while the Northern District's 175 Chapter 13 and just 5 Chapter 11 cases reflect a more consumer-driven filing culture in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. The Northern District of Georgia's 294 Chapter 13 cases — the highest single-district Chapter 13 count in 2026 to date for any non-spike week — once again underscores Atlanta's unique position as the country's Chapter 13 capital, driven by a large and well-organized community of consumer bankruptcy attorneys who consistently funnel clients toward reorganization over liquidation. The District of Maryland's 128 Chapter 13 cases out of 328 total (39.0%) adds to the emerging picture of Chapter 13 culture extending northward from the Deep South through the border states into the Washington metropolitan area, suggesting that the preference for repayment plans over liquidation has a meaningful geographic gradient that tracks legal culture as closely as it tracks economic conditions.
5. Current Year Focus Through the week of June 8, 2026 — twenty-three weeks into the year, representing 44.2% of the full calendar — the national year-to-date total has reached 276,101 filings, the highest cumulative total at this point in any year in the dataset by a margin of more than 32,000 compared to 2025's equivalent figure of 243,899. The 2026 weekly average through Week 23 stands at 12,004 filings per week — holding above the 12,000 threshold even after including the moderate post-holiday weeks — compared to the full-year 2025 average of 10,820, meaning 2026 is running approximately 10.9% above last year's full-year pace. The year-to-date Chapter 7 total of 175,396 through 23 weeks is running 14.0% above the comparable 2025 figure of 153,816, while the year-to-date Chapter 11 total of 4,653 is running an extraordinary 40.9% above the 2025 figure of 3,302 — the widest year-over-year Chapter 11 gap recorded at any point in 2026, driven partly by this week's exceptional 407-case reading. The year-to-date Chapter 13 total of 95,873 is 10.7% above the comparable 2025 figure of 86,639, and the year-to-date Chapter 12 agricultural total of 179 is 26.1% above 2025's 142 — together confirming that financial distress is simultaneously elevated and accelerating across all four filing chapters as the year approaches its halfway point. With the year-to-date total already at 276,101 and roughly 29 weeks remaining, the 2026 full-year record is mathematically secure regardless of how the second half of the year develops.
6. Comparative Analysis with Previous Years The same-week comparison for Week 23 across all five years in the dataset shows a resumption of double-digit growth after three consecutive years of moderating gains: filings rose from 7,019 in 2022 to 7,902 in 2023 (+12.6%), then to 8,638 in 2024 (+9.3%), then to 9,194 in 2025 (+6.4%) — the weakest gain in the series — and now accelerated to 10,436 in 2026 (+13.5%), the strongest year-over-year growth rate for this specific week in three years. This re-acceleration is driven almost entirely by the Chapter 11 surge: the same-week Chapter 11 comparison shows just 121 filings in 2025 versus 407 in 2026 — a +236.4% year-over-year increase that is the largest single-chapter annual gain for any week in 2026 and one of the most dramatic chapter-level changes recorded in the entire dataset. The year-to-date cumulative picture continues its consistent upward march: from 163,898 in 2022 to 190,771 in 2023 (+16.4%), 219,795 in 2024 (+15.2%), 243,899 in 2025 (+11.0%), and now 276,101 in 2026 (+13.2%) — with 2026 posting the largest absolute year-to-date gain in the series at over 32,200 additional filings compared to 2025 at this same week. The Chapter 13 four-year trajectory for Week 23 — from 2,835 in 2022 to 4,086 in 2026, a +44.1% increase — reflects the steady structural growth in consumer reorganization demand, while the Chapter 7 four-year increase from 3,993 to 5,939 (+48.7%) confirms that liquidation demand has grown even faster in proportional terms. Against the backdrop of the 2025 full-year total of 562,632, the 2026 year-to-date pace points to a full-year total that will exceed that figure by at minimum 60,000 and potentially by as much as 90,000 additional filings.
7. Analyzing the Filings Per Capita Adjusted for population, the week of June 8, 2026 produced approximately 30.60 bankruptcy filings per one million Americans — below the 2026 year-to-date weekly average of 35.20 per million and reflecting the post-holiday moderation in total volumes, but still higher than the full-year per-capita weekly average of every year before 2026 in the dataset. 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 rose from 21.85 in 2022 to 25.56 in 2023, 28.75 in 2024, and 31.92 in 2025, with 2026's 23-week running average of 35.20 per million already representing the highest comparable figure for this point in the year across the entire dataset. The Chapter 11 per-capita rate this week is particularly striking: at 407 Chapter 11 filings against a population of 341 million, the business restructuring rate of approximately 1.19 per million Americans in a single week is nearly 10 times the Chapter 11 per-capita rate recorded in the same week of 2022 (188 filings, approximately 0.56 per million of a smaller population) and nearly 3.4 times the same-week 2025 rate. The year-to-date Chapter 11 per-capita accumulation of 4,653 filings through 23 weeks translates to a running annual rate of approximately 10,520 business bankruptcies — roughly 30.8 per million Americans annually — a business bankruptcy rate that, if maintained, would represent an unprecedented level of corporate financial distress for the modern era. In overall per-capita terms, the 2026 23-week average of 35.20 filings per million per week sits approximately 60.6% above the 2022 full-year average, a four-year deterioration that confirms the filing surge has fundamentally reset the per-capita baseline of American bankruptcy activity.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita The per-capita annual increment through 23 weeks of 2026 has further re-accelerated to +3.28 per million per week versus the equivalent 2025 period — continuing the upward shift from the +3.17 increment observed in 2024–2025 and approaching the +3.71 peak increment of the 2022–2023 transition. The trajectory of annual increments — +3.71 (2022→2023), +3.19 (2023→2024), +3.17 (2024→2025), and now +3.28 (2025→2026 through 23 weeks) — shows a distinct V-shaped pattern where the deceleration that ran through 2024 and 2025 has reversed, with 2026 now delivering a larger per-capita increment than either of the two preceding years. This re-acceleration is primarily driven by the Chapter 11 component: the year-to-date Chapter 11 per-capita rate has grown by 40.9% year over year through 23 weeks, meaning business bankruptcy distress is generating a disproportionate share of the overall per-capita acceleration and pulling the composite rate upward even as consumer chapter growth rates remain more moderate. The Chapter 7 per-capita growth of +14.0% year over year and Chapter 13's +10.7% continue their steady upward path, while the Chapter 12 agricultural per-capita rate is running +26.1% above last year's comparable pace — all four chapters contributing positively to the aggregate per-capita acceleration for the first time since the early part of the 2026 dataset. The most important implication of the re-accelerating per-capita increment is that it undermines any hypothesis that the filing surge is plateauing: rather than converging toward a stable new level, the annual rate of additional financial distress has re-accelerated in 2026, suggesting that the structural pressures driving filings — household debt, elevated borrowing costs, and corporate refinancing stress — have intensified rather than eased over the course of the year.
9. Forecast for the Expected Filing Numbers for the Rest of the Year With 23 weeks completed and a year-to-date total of 276,101 filings, the 2026 full-year projection continues to narrow as actual data displaces forward estimates, and both projection methods now converge in a tight range. Using the average of the four most recent weeks (Weeks 20 through 23), which produced an average of approximately 12,140 filings per week, the remaining 29 weeks of the year would contribute an additional roughly 352,060 filings, pointing toward a projected full-year 2026 total of approximately 628,161 — an increase of approximately 65,529 over the 2025 full-year total of 562,632. Using the full 23-week average of 12,004 per week for the remaining 29 weeks yields a projected full-year total of approximately 624,228 — just 3,933 below the higher estimate and the tightest projection gap of the year, reflecting the stabilization of the weekly average as the dataset grows deeper. Historical seasonal moderation in late summer (Weeks 35–40) and the year-end holiday period (Weeks 50–52) — where prior years have consistently shown 8–12% below-average weekly volumes — suggests the most probable full-year landing point is in the 610,000–630,000 range, representing a 8–12% increase over 2025. The Chapter 11 trajectory adds the most meaningful upside risk to these estimates: with the year-to-date pace of 202.3 business filings per week now projecting to approximately 10,520 for the full year, Chapter 11 is tracking toward a new all-time annual high that could push the national total toward the upper end of the current forecast range.
10. Forecast of the Trends of Increasing Filings After 2025 The data through the week of June 8, 2026 — now covering 44% of the year and including one of the most exceptional Chapter 11 weeks ever recorded — strengthens the case for a prolonged and deepening cycle of elevated bankruptcy filings that extends well beyond any single year's record. The annual filing progression from 378,329 in 2022 to 445,193 in 2023, 503,771 in 2024, and 562,632 in 2025, combined with 2026's central forecast of 610,000–630,000, maps a curve that has added between 57,000 and 87,000 additional annual filings in each of the past four years — a pace that, if continued at even its lower bound, would push annual totals toward 670,000 by 2027 and approach 730,000 by 2028. The re-acceleration of the per-capita annual increment to +3.28 per million in 2026 — reversing the two-year deceleration of 2024–2025 — is the single most consequential data point for post-2025 forecasting, as it suggests the structural forces driving filings are gaining rather than losing momentum at the midpoint of the year. The Chapter 11 trajectory is now a critical post-2025 variable in a way it was not two years ago: with three of the five highest Chapter 11 weeks in dataset history occurring in 2026, and the year-to-date business filing pace tracking toward 10,520 annual cases, the corporate bankruptcy cycle appears to be entering a sustained elevated phase that historically persists for multiple years once it gains momentum, and that could add 2,000–5,000 additional annual business filings above current estimates if corporate credit conditions deteriorate further. The Chapter 13 year-to-date total of 95,873 through 23 weeks — up 57.6% from 2022's comparable 60,841 — reflects the breadth of consumer financial stress, and the Chapter 7 four-year gain of +73.1% in the year-to-date comparison confirms that the distress has been both broadening and deepening simultaneously. In summary, the most credible post-2025 outlook is for annual filing totals to continue rising toward the 640,000–760,000 range through 2027–2028, with the pace of annual escalation likely to remain at or above +3.0 filings per million per week, and any meaningful reversal contingent on a combination of sustained monetary easing, real wage growth, and a resolution of the corporate refinancing pipeline that current conditions do not yet suggest is near.

ChatGPT o3 Analysis of this Week's Bankruptcy Statistics

1. U.S. bankruptcy courts logged 10 436 new petitions in the week ending 8 June 2026. Liquidations under Chapter 7 accounted for 5 939, while wage-earner plans under Chapter 13 totaled 4 086; business reorganizations added 407 Chapter 11 cases and family-farmer matters contributed 4 under Chapter 12. The national count fell by 3 823 from the prior week’s 14 259, a 26.8 % drop. It also sat 1 947 below the recent four-week average of 12 383 filings. This setback interrupts the spring upswing that had prevailed since mid-April.
2. Chapter mix shifted noticeably this week. Chapter 7 supplied 56.9 % of all cases, its lowest share since January, while Chapter 13’s 39.2 % slice is the highest of 2026. Corporate restructurings showed unusual vigor, with the 407 Chapter 11 petitions more than doubling the prior week’s 189, a 115 % surge. By contrast, Chapter 12 remained a footnote at 0.04 % of total filings. Such volatility underscores how quickly debtor composition can swing from one week to the next.
3. Filing activity concentrated in a handful of venues. The Northern District of Georgia led with 560 cases, followed by the Central District of California at 482 and the Middle District of Florida with 474. The District of New Jersey recorded 386, while the Northern District of Illinois logged 334. Together these five districts produced 2 236 petitions, or 21.4 % of the national total. No other single district exceeded 300 cases.
4. Geographic disparities remain sharp. The island territories of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands reported 0–1 filings apiece, whereas Vermont processed 5 and Alaska handled 4. In stark contrast, Georgia’s northern district’s 560 petitions were more than 100 × Vermont’s count. Sun-Belt and large Midwestern districts dominate the upper decile, while remote or sparsely populated jurisdictions cluster at the bottom. Such extremes highlight how local economic conditions drive insolvency volume.
5. Through twenty-three weeks, 2026 has accumulated 276 101 filings, outpacing the comparable 2025 tally of 243 899 by 32 202 cases. The year-to-date weekly average stands at 12 004, versus last year’s 10 604. Chapter 7 leads with 175 396 petitions, Chapter 13 follows at 95 873, and Chapter 11 has reached 4 653 so far. Every chapter except Chapter 12 is running ahead of its 2025 pace. The data confirm that 2026 remains on track for the busiest year since the Great Recession despite this week’s dip.
6. Comparing individual weeks underscores the broader rise. This week’s 10 436 cases exceed the same week of 2025, which logged 9 194, by 1 242 filings, a 13.5 % gain. They also surpass week 23 of 2024, which saw 8 638 petitions, by 1 798, a 20.8 % jump. Chapter 7 alone added 374 cases versus 2025, while Chapter 13 rose by 411. Such year-over-year increases reinforce the longer-term upward trajectory.
7. With a U.S. population of about 335 million, the nation registered 31.2 filings per million residents this week. Chapter 7 contributed 17.7 per million and Chapter 13 delivered 12.2; Chapters 11 and 12 together added just 1.2 per million. The five busiest districts generated roughly 63.9 filings per million across their combined 35 million inhabitants. Vermont’s 7.8 filings per million and Guam’s 6 per million illustrate the low-end extremes. These contrasts show that bankruptcy remains uncommon in aggregate yet densely clustered in economic hot-spots.
8. One year ago, the country recorded 27.4 filings per million for this week, so the current 31.2 represents a jump of 3.7 per million, or 13.5 %. Year-to-date, weekly filings average 35.9 per million versus 32.2 in 2025, a gain of 3.7. The Northern District of Georgia now posts about 95 filings per million—up from 82 last year—while Alaska stays near 12. Per-capita growth therefore remains uneven across regions. Policymakers watching financial stress should note these widening regional gaps.
9. Projecting forward, holding the year-to-date average of 12 004 filings across the remaining 29 weeks would yield a 2026 total of roughly 624 000 petitions. Using the higher four-week mean of 12 383 lifts that estimate to about 635 000. A conservative scenario in which the latest 10 436 level persists would still finish near 579 000 cases. All three paths exceed 2025’s full-year figure of 562 629 filings. A double-digit annual increase thus remains the base-case outlook.
10. The weekly mean has risen from 10 604 in 2025 to 12 004 this year, a 13.2 % escalation. If that pace holds, average weekly filings could reach roughly 14 000 by early 2028. Even a modest 7 % compound rise would push annual petitions above 750 000 by 2030. Chapter 13’s growing share—now 39.2 % versus 36 % last year—suggests households will drive much of the future expansion. Taken together, the figures point toward steadily intensifying insolvency pressure well beyond 2025.