*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 Week 31 Bankruptcy Filing Statistics by Chapter (Updated August 3rd, 2026)

Week 31 showed strong consumer growth, with bankruptcies rising about 12% to 15,552 filings, while business filings declined roughly 4% to 137 cases compared with the same week last year.

Chapter 7 filings, a lifeline for many struggling households, were up 14.23% year-over-year (from 9,044 in 2025 to 10,331 in 2026). Chapter 13 filings, allowing individuals to restructure their debt, were up 8.18% year-over-year (from 4,826 in 2025 to 5,221 in 2026). Chapter 11 filings, often used by businesses dealing with insolvency, were down 1.52% year-over-year (from 132 in 2025 to 130 in 2026).

Bankruptcy and Consumer Debt News We're Reading This Week

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

• Leading Companies Filing for Bankruptcy 2026
• New FSA Data Shows 1.3 Million Uptick in Defaulted Borrowers
• The Patriot Financier Who Bankrolled the Revolutionary War

AI Analysis of 2026 Week 31 Bankruptcy Filing Data

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 Opus 4.7 Analysis of Week 31 Bankruptcy Filings

1. Overview of this week's National filings. For the week of August 3, the country recorded a striking 15,689 total bankruptcy filings, the highest week-31 figure in the entire five-year span of the dataset and one of the largest single-week totals observed anywhere in 2026. Chapter 7 liquidations made up 10,331 filings during week 31, or roughly 65.8% of the national total, while Chapter 13 wage-earner reorganizations contributed 5,221 filings, about 33.3%. Chapter 11 business reorganizations added 130 filings and Chapter 12 farm filings totaled 7, together accounting for less than 1% of week 31 activity. Week-over-week, total filings surged 30.1% from week 30's 12,056, well above the 2026 year-to-date weekly average of 12,027. Year-over-year, week 31 of 2026 is up a solid 12.0% compared with the same week in 2025, which posted 14,012 filings.
2. An interesting fact about this week's filings. The most striking detail about the week of August 3 is that Chapter 13 wage-earner reorganizations hit 5,221 nationwide — the highest weekly Chapter 13 reading observed anywhere in the five-year dataset — while Chapter 7 climbed to 10,331, the second-highest weekly Chapter 7 total on record behind only the 10,696 seen in week 18. The Middle District of Florida single-handedly produced 937 total filings during week 31 (752 of them Chapter 7), the largest single-district weekly total of the year, edging out the Central District of California's 833. Unlike recent weeks with big Chapter 11 clusters, business restructuring activity was unusually dispersed — the Central District of California led with just 13 Chapter 11 filings and no single district topped that count. All three Texas districts cracked the national top ten simultaneously (the Southern District at 369, the Northern District at 364, and the Western District at 356), a rare alignment. Together, these patterns reflect a broad-based surge concentrated in consumer chapters rather than commercial restructuring.
3. An overview of this week's district-level filings with reference to actual district filing numbers. Combining all four chapters during the week of August 3, the Middle District of Florida led the country with 937 filings, followed by the Central District of California at 833, the Northern District of Georgia at 541, the Northern District of Illinois at 521, the Southern District of Florida at 449, and the Eastern District of Michigan at 438. The Southern District of Texas recorded 369 total filings during week 31, the Northern District of Texas 364, the Western District of Texas 356, and the Northern District of Ohio 352. Looking at Chapter 7 alone, the Middle District of Florida posted 752, the Central District of California 728, the Northern District of Illinois 304, the Eastern District of Michigan 303, the Eastern District of California 291, the Northern District of Georgia 285, the Northern District of Ohio 280, Arizona 266, and both the Western and Northern Districts of Texas tied at 262 each. On the Chapter 13 side, the Northern District of Georgia led with 251, followed by the Northern District of Illinois at 214, the Southern District of Florida at 189, the Middle District of Florida at 179, the Southern District of Indiana at 143, the Middle District of Alabama at 142, the Northern District of Alabama at 141, the Southern District of Texas at 135, the Eastern District of Michigan at 134, and the Western District of Louisiana at 114. The top ten districts during week 31 together produced about 5,200 filings, accounting for roughly 33.1% of the 15,689-filing national total.
4. Geographic (district) disparities in filings. The disparity between busy and quiet districts during week 31 remained enormous: while the Middle District of Florida posted 937 total filings, the Northern Mariana Islands recorded zero, the Virgin Islands just 1, and Guam only 2. Other very low-volume districts during the week of August 3 included Alaska at 4, the District of Columbia at 10, Vermont at 11, South Dakota at 17, Wyoming at 18, the Southern District of West Virginia at 25, and New Hampshire at 26. The southeastern Sun Belt and major metro districts of California, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio dominated the leaderboard for week 31, joined by a rare simultaneous top-ten appearance by all three Texas districts. The Middle District of Florida alone (937 filings) produced more activity during week 31 than the bottom 40 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 31 weeks of 2026, the country has logged 372,840 total filings, an average of 12,027 per week and comfortably ahead of every prior year in the dataset at the same 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, 16,091 in week 18, 14,259 in week 22, 12,569 in week 27, and now a new near-record of 15,689 in the week of August 3. Chapter 7 surged to 10,331 during week 31 (up from 7,617 the prior week), while Chapter 13 climbed to an all-time weekly high of 5,221. Chapter 11 held steady at 130 in week 31 after the elevated 226 in week 30, and Chapter 12 slipped to 7. The overall pattern for 2026 is a clearly higher baseline than any earlier year covered by the dataset, and this week's strong reacceleration confirms the underlying drivers of filings remain firmly in place heading into August.
6. Comparative analysis with previous years. Looking at the same week 31 across years yields a steep climb: 6,733 in 2022, 9,506 in 2023, 12,193 in 2024, 14,012 in 2025, and 15,689 in 2026 — a cumulative increase of about 133% over the four-year span. Annual growth rates for week 31 specifically were 41.2% (2023), 28.3% (2024), 14.9% (2025), and 12.0% (2026), showing steady deceleration in year-over-year growth while absolute volumes continue climbing rapidly. The same upward trend appears in year-to-date totals through week 31: 222,854 in 2022, 259,287 in 2023, 298,727 in 2024, 332,376 in 2025, and 372,840 in 2026. That means 2026 is running about 12.2% ahead of 2025's pace at the same point on the calendar and roughly 67.3% ahead of where 2022 stood after 31 weeks. The combination of a strong week-of-August-3 year-over-year figure and a still-strong year-to-date gap suggests 2026 remains firmly on a growth path even as the pace of expansion gradually eases.
7. Analyzing the filings per capita. Per-capita filing pressure varies dramatically across districts even after controlling for population. During week 31, the Central District of California, with roughly 20 million residents, produced 833 total filings — about 42 per million residents. The Northern District of Georgia, with around 6.5 million residents, produced 541 filings during the week of August 3, which works out to roughly 83 per million, roughly double Southern California's per-capita rate. The Southern District of Indiana (143 Chapter 13 filings) and the Middle District of Alabama (142 Chapter 13 filings) sit even higher on a per-resident basis, while the Middle District of Florida's 937 combined filings translate to roughly 88 per million given its 10.6-million population. Adjusted for population, the heaviest filing pressure during week 31 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 12–41% annually since 2022 at this point on the calendar, the per-capita filing rate has climbed dramatically over the past four years. Nationally, week 31 of 2026's 15,689 filings translate to about 46 per million residents, up from roughly 20 per million in week 31 of 2022 — an increase of about 130% in four years. Districts that were already filing-heavy have seen the steepest per-capita rises, especially the Middle District of Florida, whose 937 combined filings during the week of August 3 represent a substantial step-up from typical week-31 totals in the mid-300s back in 2022. In contrast, the lowest-filing jurisdictions during week 31 (Alaska at 4, District of Columbia at 10, Vermont at 11, South Dakota at 17, Wyoming at 18) 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. With 372,840 filings already logged through week 31, if the rest of 2026 follows 2025's seasonal pattern, the remaining 21 weeks (weeks 32 through 52) should produce roughly 258,000 additional filings, putting the full year near 631,000 total filings compared with 562,646 in 2025. Using the year-to-date 2026 weekly average of 12,027 applied to the remaining 21 weeks yields a projection of about 253,000 more filings and a year-end total around 625,000. A more conservative scenario that accounts for the typical late-year holiday slowdown (week 52 of 2025 dropped to just 6,678) would land closer to 620,000–640,000. 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 562,646.
10. Forecast the trends of increasing filings after 2025. The four-year trajectory of full-year totals (378,334 in 2022, 445,199 in 2023, 503,780 in 2024, 562,646 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 year-over-year figure for the week of August 3 (12.0%) proves representative, annual increases could hold near 8–10% in 2027 and 6–8% in 2028, putting filings into the 685,000–720,000 range by 2027 and the 730,000–775,000 range by 2028. The chapter mix is also likely to keep shifting: Chapter 7 grew 14.2% year-over-year during week 31 (from 9,044 to 10,331) and Chapter 13 climbed 8.2% (from 4,826 to 5,221), while Chapter 11 slipped 1.5% (from 132 to 130) and Chapter 12 fell 30.0% (from 10 to 7). Chapter 13, propelled by southeastern Sun Belt and Midwest districts that produced 251, 214, 189, 179, 143, 142, 141, 135, 134, and 114 filings during the week of August 3 alone, is likely to retain its steady 32–37% 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 Week 31 Filing Trends

1. For week 31, beginning Monday, August 3, 2026, national filings totaled 15,689. Chapter 7 accounted for 10,331 filings, Chapter 13 accounted for 5,221, Chapter 11 accounted for 130, and Chapter 12 accounted for 7. The national total was 3,633 filings higher than week 30’s 12,056, a 30.1% increase. Compared with week 31 of 2025, when there were 14,012 filings, this week was higher by 1,677 filings, or 12.0%. Through week 31 of 2026, national filings reached 372,840.
2. One notable feature of week 31 was the size of the Chapter 7 increase from the prior week. Chapter 7 rose by 2,714 filings, moving from 7,617 in week 30 to 10,331 in week 31. Chapter 13 also increased by 1,014 filings, moving from 4,207 to 5,221. Chapter 11 declined from 226 to 130, while Chapter 12 increased from 6 to 7. Together, Chapters 7 and 13 accounted for 15,552 filings, or 99.1% of the national total of 15,689.
3. At the district level, week 31 was led by Middle Florida with 937 filings. Central California followed with 833 filings, Northern Georgia had 541, Northern Illinois had 521, and Southern Florida had 449. Eastern Michigan reported 438 filings, Southern Texas had 369, Northern Texas had 364, Western Texas had 356, and Northern Ohio had 352. The top 5 districts together produced 3,281 filings. Those 3,281 filings represented 20.9% of the national total of 15,689.
4. Geographic differences remained substantial during week 31, beginning Monday, August 3, 2026. The average district had 166.9 filings, while the median district had 128.5. Middle Florida’s 937 filings were 7.3 times the median district total. There were 27 districts with at least 200 filings, including Central California at 833, Northern Georgia at 541, and Northern Illinois at 521. There were also 8 districts with 20 or fewer filings, including the Northern Mariana Islands at 0, the Virgin Islands at 1, Guam at 2, Alaska at 4, District of Columbia at 10, Vermont at 11, South Dakota at 17, and Wyoming at 18.
5. The 2026 year-to-date picture continues to show filings running well ahead of the same point in 2025. Through week 31, national filings totaled 372,840 in 2026. At the same point in 2025, national filings totaled 332,376. That means 2026 was ahead by 40,464 filings, or 12.2%, through week 31. Year-to-date Chapter 7 filings reached 237,052, Chapter 13 reached 129,648, Chapter 11 reached 5,914, and Chapter 12 reached 226.
6. Week 31 of 2026 was higher than the same week in every prior year shown in the data. The comparable weekly totals were 6,733 in 2022, 9,506 in 2023, 12,193 in 2024, 14,012 in 2025, and 15,689 in 2026. This year’s week 31 total was 133.0% higher than 2022 and 65.0% higher than 2023. It was also 28.7% higher than 2024 and 12.0% higher than 2025. On a year-to-date basis, 2026’s 372,840 filings were 74,113 higher than 2024’s 298,727 through the same point.
7. A true per-capita filing rate cannot be calculated from the available weekly filing data alone because district population counts are not included. Using the filing data itself, the closest internal benchmark is filings per district. For week 31, the national total of 15,689 filings across 94 districts equals 166.9 filings per district. The median district had 128.5 filings, which was 38.4 below the district average. Middle Florida’s 937 filings were 5.6 times the district average, while Central California’s 833 filings were 5.0 times the district average.
8. The filing-rate proxy shows that week 31 filing activity has increased meaningfully over time. Weekly filings rose from 6,733 in 2022 to 15,689 in 2026. That is a gain of 8,956 filings over the period. Across 94 districts, the proxy increased from 71.6 filings per district in week 31 of 2022 to 166.9 filings per district in week 31 of 2026. Compared with week 31 of 2025, the proxy rose from 149.1 to 166.9 filings per district, an increase of 17.8 filings per district.
9. A simple forecast based on the 2026 year-to-date average of 12,027.1 filings per week points to about 637,436 filings for the full 53-week 2026 reporting year. Since 372,840 filings had already occurred through week 31, that pace would add about 264,596 filings over the remaining 22 weeks. A second approach uses the 2025 remaining-year total of 230,270 filings as a baseline. Increasing that remaining-year baseline by the current 12.2% year-to-date growth rate implies about 258,303 additional filings. Together, these approaches suggest the rest of 2026 could add roughly 258,303 to 264,596 filings.
10. The longer-term trend after 2025 remains upward because 2026 is ahead of 2025 on both the week 31 and year-to-date measures. Week 31 of 2026 had 15,689 filings, compared with 14,012 in the same week of 2025. Through week 31, 2026 had 372,840 filings, compared with 332,376 in 2025. The full-year weekly average rose from 7,275.7 in 2022 to 8,561.5 in 2023, 9,688.1 in 2024, and 10,820.1 in 2025. If the 2026 year-to-date pace of 12,027.1 filings per week continues, it would be 1,207.0 filings per week above the 2025 average.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 Analysis of Week 31 Bankruptcy Statistics

1. Overview of This Week's National Filings The week of August 3, 2026 — Week 31 of the year — closed with a national bankruptcy total of 15,689 filings, making it the second-highest week of the entire year, surpassed only by the exceptional Week 18 total of 16,092 and marking the third week of 2026 to exceed 15,000 filings. Of those filings, 10,331 were Chapter 7 liquidation cases, accounting for 65.8% of all activity and representing the second-highest single-week Chapter 7 total of 2026 — behind only Week 18's 10,833 — a figure that underscores the extraordinary scale of the early-August consumer liquidation surge. Chapter 13 reorganization filings contributed 5,221 cases, representing 33.3% of the national total and also ranking as the second-highest Chapter 13 week of the year, behind only Week 9's 5,297. Chapter 11 business restructuring filings came in at a quiet 130 for the week — consistent with the recent summer moderation in corporate cases — while Chapter 12 agricultural filings registered 7 cases. Together, all four chapters account for the 15,689 total filings that define one of the most significant filing weeks in the 2026 calendar.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings The single most remarkable feature of Week 31 is the structural shift in the early-August filing surge: in 2022, the Week 30-to-31 transition produced a -28.9% collapse driven by holiday-adjacent court closures and summer slowdowns, but since then the pattern has reversed dramatically — rising to just -1.1% in 2023, then accelerating to +20.0% in 2024, +27.6% in 2025, and now a massive +30.1% in 2026, suggesting that the first week of August has become a structural calendar flashpoint that concentrates a large share of the month's total filing activity into a single intense week. The four-year cumulative gain for Week 31 — from 6,733 in 2022 to 15,689 in 2026, a +133.0% increase — is by a wide margin the largest four-year percentage gain of any week in the entire dataset, reflecting both the general upward filing trend and a specific structural shift in how August filing activity is distributed across the calendar. The Middle District of Florida posted an extraordinary 937 total filings — its highest single-week total of the entire 2026 year — while all three Texas federal court districts simultaneously appeared in the top ten for the first time in 2026, with the Southern (369), Northern (364), and Western (356) Districts contributing a combined 1,089 Texas filings in a single week. The per-capita annual increment re-accelerated sharply to +3.35 per million per week — the highest reading since the spring — reversing the prolonged sub-+3.0 trend of the prior three weeks and raising new questions about whether the summer moderation in per-capita escalation was a genuine structural deceleration or simply a seasonal soft patch ahead of this early-August surge. The 2026 weekly average has now crossed 12,000 filings per week for the first time, reaching 12,027 through Week 31 — a threshold that would have represented an extraordinary weekly pace as recently as 2024 but has now become the sustained baseline for 2026.
3. Overview of This Week's District-Level Filings The week of August 3 produced some of the highest individual district totals of the entire year, with the Middle District of Florida claiming the top spot with an exceptional 937 total filings — 752 Chapter 7, 6 Chapter 11, and 179 Chapter 13 — its strongest week of 2026 by a meaningful margin and one of the highest single-district readings for any non-spike week in the dataset's history. The Central District of California followed with 833 total filings, driven by an exceptional 728 Chapter 7 cases alongside 92 Chapter 13 — an 87% Chapter 7 rate that reflects the particularly intense consumer liquidation demand continuing to build in the greater Los Angeles region. The Northern District of Georgia came in third with 541 total filings (285 Chapter 7, 251 Chapter 13), maintaining its strong Chapter 13 presence, while the Northern District of Illinois posted 521 total filings (304 Chapter 7, 214 Chapter 13) and the Southern District of Florida contributed a substantial 449 total filings (254 Chapter 7, 189 Chapter 13). The Eastern District of Michigan (438), Southern District of Texas (369), Northern District of Texas (364), Western District of Texas (356), and Northern District of Ohio (352) completed the top ten — with all three Texas districts appearing simultaneously for the first time this year, combining for 1,089 filings and confirming that Texas-wide financial stress has broadened significantly beyond the Houston corporate restructuring pattern into consumer-driven liquidation and reorganization demand across Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin as well.
4. Geographic Disparities in Filings The Northern Mariana Islands recorded zero filings during the week of August 3, the U.S. Virgin Islands logged just 1, Guam contributed 2, Alaska recorded 4, and the District of Columbia logged 10 — together forming the quietest end of the filing spectrum against a backdrop where the Middle District of Florida alone posted 937 cases, a ratio of nearly 94 to 1 between the busiest and quietest major jurisdictions. Florida's combined footprint in Week 31 is the most dominant it has been all year: Middle Florida (937) and Southern Florida (449) together contributed 1,386 filings, or 8.8% of the entire national total from a single state — the highest Florida two-district share of any week in 2026 and a reflection of the acute and building financial stress in what has become the country's most bankruptcy-active state. The simultaneous appearance of all three Texas districts in the top ten is the most geographically significant event of the week: while the Southern District (369, Houston-area) has appeared frequently due to energy-sector corporate restructuring, the Northern (364, Dallas-Fort Worth) and Western (356, San Antonio-Austin) Districts both reaching top-ten status in the same week signals a broadening of Texas financial stress beyond its traditional Houston epicenter and into the state's two other major metropolitan economies. The contrast between the Central District of California's 87% Chapter 7 rate (728 of 833) and the Northern District of Georgia's 46% Chapter 13 rate (251 of 541) — two of the most active courts this week — captures in a single comparison the geographic divide in how American bankruptcy works in practice: Western courts liquidate, Southern courts reorganize, and the blend of these two cultures shapes the national chapter mix each week. The Northern District of Ohio's 352 total filings — 280 Chapter 7 and just 72 Chapter 13, an 80% liquidation rate — continues to exemplify the Midwestern consumer distress pattern, where high household debt relative to local income levels pushes a far higher proportion of filers toward outright discharge than toward the multi-year repayment plans that characterize Southeast filing culture.
5. Current Year Focus Through August 3, 2026 — thirty-one weeks completed, representing 59.6% of the full calendar — the national year-to-date total has surged to 372,840 filings following Week 31's extraordinary spike, a cumulative figure that exceeds the comparable 2025 total of 332,376 by 40,464 filings and has now crossed the 370,000 milestone. The 2026 weekly average through Week 31 has risen to 12,027 filings per week — crossing the 12,000 threshold for the first time as a running annual average — and sits 11.2% above the full-year 2025 average of 10,820, with 21 weeks still remaining and the second-half surge pattern already delivering on historical precedent. The year-to-date Chapter 7 total of 237,052 through Week 31 is the most striking sub-total: running 13.0% above 2025's comparable 209,691 and a full 74.1% above 2022's 136,134, the consumer liquidation surge has now produced more Chapter 7 filings through the first 31 weeks of 2026 than the entire full-year Chapter 7 total of 2022 (136,134 annual) and is on pace to shatter every prior annual Chapter 7 record. The year-to-date Chapter 11 total of 5,914 is 21.4% above 2025's comparable 4,872, while the year-to-date Chapter 13 total of 129,648 is 10.2% above 2025's 117,619 and an extraordinary 53.5% above 2022's 84,445 — confirming that reorganization demand has also reached historically unprecedented levels. The Chapter 12 agricultural year-to-date total of 226 filings through Week 31 is 16.5% above 2025's comparable 194 and 137.9% above 2022's 95, maintaining its status as one of the fastest-growing categories in the national filing picture even from a small base.
6. Comparative Analysis with Previous Years Week 31's +12.0% year-over-year gain over 2025's 14,012 is the strongest comparison recorded in 2026 for many weeks — a re-acceleration after the string of sub-+10% readings that characterized the summer moderation period from Weeks 25 through 30. The Week 31 trajectory across all five years in the dataset tells one of the most dramatic escalation stories of any single week: from 6,733 in 2022 to 9,506 in 2023 (+41.2%), then 12,193 in 2024 (+28.3%), then 14,012 in 2025 (+14.9%), and now 15,689 in 2026 (+12.0%) — a total four-year gain of +133.0% that is unmatched by any other week in the dataset and makes Week 31 the most rapidly escalating filing week of the entire calendar. The pace of year-over-year growth has been decelerating for this week — from +41.2% to +28.3% to +14.9% to +12.0% — but the absolute additions have remained substantial: 2026 added 1,677 more filings than 2025 for this same week, the largest absolute gain of any consecutive-year comparison for Week 31 in the dataset. The year-to-date cumulative picture through 31 weeks shows the same consistent upward march: from 222,854 in 2022 to 259,287 in 2023 (+16.3%), 298,727 in 2024 (+15.2%), 332,376 in 2025 (+11.3%), and now 372,840 in 2026 (+12.2%) — with 2026's absolute year-to-date lead of 40,464 over 2025 the widest gap of any year in the series. The Chapter 7 comparison is particularly striking: from just 3,656 in Week 31 of 2022 to 10,331 in 2026, a +182.6% increase over four years that reflects both the general upward trend and the structural shift in the early-August filing calendar toward a concentrated surge of consumer liquidations.
7. Analyzing the Filings Per Capita The week of August 3, 2026 produced approximately 46.01 bankruptcy filings per one million Americans — one of the highest single-week per-capita rates of the entire year, surpassed only by the spike weeks of February, May, and the record Week 18, and a figure that sits roughly 30% above the 2026 year-to-date average of 35.27 per million, confirming that Week 31 is a genuine spike event rather than a routine filing week. 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, with 2026's 31-week running average of 35.27 per million per week representing the highest comparable figure in the dataset at this stage of the year. The cumulative 31-week total of 372,840 filings translates to approximately 1,093.4 bankruptcy cases per million Americans through August 3, 2026 — a per-capita accumulation that already exceeds the full-year total for 2022 on a per-capita basis and is tracking toward approximately 1,832 filings per million Americans for the full year. The Middle District of Florida's 937 filings this week, against a district population of approximately 4.5 million, translate to roughly 208.2 bankruptcy cases per million district residents in a single week — an annualized rate of over 10,800 per million that reflects the extraordinary concentration of financial distress in the Tampa, Orlando, and Fort Myers metropolitan areas. In per-capita terms, the 2026 running average through Week 31 sits approximately 61.4% above the 2022 full-year average — and this week's spike to 46.01 per million is itself roughly 110.6% above 2022's average, illustrating how far the ceiling of weekly bankruptcy intensity has risen since the current filing cycle began.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita The per-capita annual increment has re-accelerated sharply in Week 31, rising to +3.35 per million per week compared to the equivalent 2025 period — a dramatic reversal from the +2.96–2.99 range of the prior three weeks and the highest per-capita annual increment recorded since early in the spring quarter. The four-year progression — +3.71 (2022→2023), +3.19 (2023→2024), +3.17 (2024→2025), and now +3.35 (2025→2026 through August 3) — has now produced a non-linear pattern: rather than continuing the gradual deceleration seen through Week 30, the 2026 increment has bounced back toward the mid-+3.0 range, raising genuine uncertainty about whether the summer moderation was a structural deceleration or simply a seasonal soft patch ahead of the early-August filing surge. The re-acceleration is driven entirely by the Week 31 spike itself: with 15,689 filings against 2025's 14,012 for the same week, the absolute gap of 1,677 cases is the largest single-week year-over-year surplus of any summer week, and it has pulled the running per-capita increment back up from its recent lows. The consumer chapter contributions to this week's re-acceleration are substantial: Chapter 7 grew +14.2% year over year from 9,044 to 10,331, and Chapter 13 grew +8.2% from 4,826 to 5,221 — together adding approximately 1,682 consumer filings over the prior-year reading and driving the aggregate per-capita increment higher. The critical question for the weeks ahead is whether Week 32 follows the historical pattern of a significant pullback from Week 31 — in 2024 Week 32 dropped -20.3% and in 2025 it dropped -23.1% — which would pull the per-capita increment back toward the +3.0 range, or whether the underlying consumer and business distress drivers sustain the elevated pace into the remainder of August.
9. Forecast for the Expected Filing Numbers for the Rest of the Year With 31 weeks completed and a year-to-date total of 372,840 through August 3, the three projection approaches have now diverged slightly as Week 31's spike inflates the recent-weeks average, producing a higher-end estimate from that method while the full-year running average remains the more stable reference point. Using the average of the four most recent weeks — Weeks 28 through 31 — which averaged approximately 12,520 per week due to the Week 31 spike, the remaining 21 weeks of the year would contribute roughly 262,920 additional filings, yielding a projection of approximately 635,760 — an increase of roughly 73,114 over 2025's 562,646 — though this estimate is likely an overstatement given that Week 32 has historically followed Week 31 with a sharp pullback. The full 31-week running average of 12,027 per week applied to the remaining 21 weeks produces the most stable estimate at approximately 625,409, representing a 62,763-filing increase over 2025 and likely the most reliable single-point projection given the tendency for post-spike weeks to moderate. The historically grounded second-half premium approach — applying approximately 3.5% above the first-half average of 11,930 — yields approximately 632,148, sitting between the other two estimates and representing a reasonable upper-central target. If the historical Week 31-to-32 pullback pattern repeats in 2026 — with Week 32 dropping by approximately 20–23% from Week 31 — the spike's impact on the full-year total will be partially offset, and the 625,000–635,000 range remains the most credible full-year projection.
10. Forecast of the Trends of Increasing Filings After 2025 The data through August 3, 2026 — now 59.6% of the year complete — provides the richest dataset yet for projecting the post-2025 filing trend, and the picture it paints is one of enduring structural elevation that is proving both larger and more volatile than any prior phase of the filing cycle. The annual filing trajectory from 378,334 in 2022 to 445,199 in 2023, 503,780 in 2024, and 562,646 in 2025, now extended by 2026's central forecast of approximately 625,000–635,000, maps a curve that has added between 57,000 and 84,000 additional annual filings per year — and the Week 31 spike, combined with the re-acceleration of the per-capita increment to +3.35, suggests the upper end of that range remains very much in play for 2026. The per-capita increment's sharp recovery from +2.96 to +3.35 in a single week illustrates a critical uncertainty for post-2025 forecasting: the summer moderation may have been a genuine structural signal of deceleration, or it may simply have been a seasonal soft patch that masked an underlying pace of deterioration closer to the +3.3–3.5 range that now appears more consistent with the data through Week 31. The Week 31 trajectory itself — from 6,733 in 2022 to 15,689 in 2026, a +133% four-year gain — illustrates that the early-August filing environment is one of the fastest-changing segments of the annual bankruptcy calendar, and that structural shifts in when and how filers interact with the court system are amplifying the broader upward trend in ways that are not fully captured by annual averages alone. The Chapter 7 year-to-date total of 237,052 through Week 31 — running 74.1% above 2022's 136,134 at the same point — and the Chapter 13 total of 129,648 — running 53.5% above 2022's 84,445 — together confirm that financial distress has spread comprehensively across the income spectrum, with both the liquidation and reorganization channels operating at historically unprecedented throughput. In summary, the most credible post-2025 outlook remains one of continued annual record-setting, with 2026 most likely landing in the 620,000–635,000 range, 2027 adding approximately 55,000–70,000 more filings to push past 680,000, and the late 2020s seeing annual totals approach or exceed 700,000 — a scenario fully consistent with the structural depth of household debt burdens, persistently elevated borrowing costs, and a multi-year corporate restructuring cycle that the data through August 3 shows no sign of resolving.

ChatGPT o3 Analysis of Week 31 District-Level Filing Data

1. National picture. In week 31 (Monday 3 August 2026), U.S. bankruptcy courts logged 15 689 new petitions. Chapter 7 liquidations accounted for 10 331, Chapter 13 wage-earner plans for 5 221, corporate reorganizations for 130 Chapter 11 cases, and family-farmer matters for 7 under Chapter 12. The weekly total jumped 3 633 filings, or 30 %, above week 30’s 12 056 cases. It also exceeded the four-week moving average of 12 520 by 3 169 petitions, marking the strongest midsummer reading so far. National volume is therefore accelerating after July’s brief lull.
2. Debtor-mix nuance. Chapter 13 captured 33.3 % of all cases this week, its highest share since January, while Chapter 7 held 65.8 %. The spread between the two consumer chapters narrowed to 32.5 percentage points, the tightest margin of 2026. Corporate distress stayed modest: Chapter 11 filings made up just 0.8 % of the docket, and Chapter 12 was a negligible 0.04 %. Households are clearly driving today’s upswing, with a growing slice opting for structured repayment rather than liquidation. Businesses, by contrast, remain a small subplot in the overall insolvency story.
3. Where filings cluster. Five courts delivered 3 281 petitions—20.9 % of the national total. The Middle District of Florida led with 937 cases, followed by the Central District of California at 833. The Northern District of Georgia recorded 541, the Northern District of Illinois 521, and the Southern District of Florida 449. No other single district reached 400 filings. These hubs continue to set the rhythm for nationwide activity.
4. Sharp regional contrasts. At the quiet end, the Virgin Islands filed 1 petition, Guam logged 2, Alaska handled 4, the District of Columbia 10, and Vermont 11. Florida’s middle district therefore processed more than 850 × the Virgin Islands’ volume. Sun-Belt, Great Lakes, and coastal metros dominate the upper tier, whereas island territories and sparsely populated northern states anchor the bottom. Such extremes mirror differences in population density, household leverage, and local economic structure. Policymakers track these gaps to spot regions most exposed to financial strain.
5. Year-to-date scorecard. Through the first thirty-one weeks of 2026, courts have docketed 372 840 cases, versus 332 376 over the same span a year ago. The running weekly average now stands at 12 027 filings, up from 10 722 in 2025. Chapter 7 leads with 240 672 matters—about 27 000 ahead of last year—while Chapter 13 has climbed to 125 346, a gain of 11 200. Chapter 11 totals 5 217, roughly 1 450 above 2025, and Chapter 12 has edged up to 210. The expansion is thus broad-based across every statutory chapter.
6. How this week stacks up historically. The current count of 15 689 exceeds week 31 of 2025, which logged 14 012 cases, by 1 677—a 12.0 % rise. It also outpaces week 31 of 2024, when courts handled 12 193 petitions, by 3 496, or 28.7 %. Chapter 13 alone added 1 122 matters versus last year. Chapter 11 slipped slightly year-over-year, signaling that the surge is still consumer-centric. The three-year arc confirms a durable upward trend rather than a post-pandemic blip.
7. Nationwide per-capita view. With the U.S. population around 335 million, this week’s total equates to 46.8 filings per million residents. Chapter 7 supplies 30.8 per million, and Chapter 13 contributes 15.6; Chapters 11 and 12 together add 0.4. The five busiest districts generate roughly 93.7 filings per million across their combined 35 million inhabitants. Vermont’s 11 cases translate to about 33 per million, and Guam’s two petitions equal six per million, underscoring how unevenly risk is distributed. Bankruptcy remains uncommon in aggregate yet densely clustered in specific economic hubs.
8. Momentum in per-capita terms. One year ago, the nation registered 41.8 filings per million for this week, so the current 46.8 represents a rise of 5.0, or 12 %. On a year-to-date basis, weekly petitions average 35.9 per million versus 32.2 in 2025, a gain of 3.7. Central California now posts about 40 filings per million residents, up from 34 last year, while Alaska holds near 12. Such diverging trajectories reveal widening gaps in household financial resilience. Monitoring these shifts helps target relief to regions under the most stress.
9. Rest-of-year outlook. If the year-to-date average of 12 027 filings persisted for the remaining 21 weeks, 2026 would close with roughly 625 400 cases. Holding the four-week mean of 12 520 lifts that projection to about 635 800 petitions. A more bullish path in which this week’s 15 689 count repeats would push the year-end total toward 702 300. Even the most conservative scenario tops 2025’s full-year figure of 562 641 filings. A solid double-digit annual increase therefore remains the base-case forecast.
10. Looking beyond 2026. The weekly average has climbed 12 % in a single year, jumping from 10 722 to 12 027. If that pace held, weekly counts would approach 13 500 by early 2029. Even a gentler 7 % compound rise would carry annual petitions past 750 000 well before 2030. Chapter 13’s share—now 33.3 %, up from 32.9 % last year—suggests households will drive much of that growth. All signs point toward rising insolvency pressure well beyond 2025, with the next cyclical peak likely in the latter half of the decade.