*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 33 Bankruptcy Filing Statistics by Chapter (Updated August 17th, 2026)

Week 33 showed moderate consumer growth, with bankruptcies rising about 5% to 10,652 filings while business filings declined roughly 16% to 152 cases compared with the same week last year.

Chapter 7 filings, a lifeline for many struggling households, were up 6.30% year-over-year (6,472 in 2025 to 6,880 in 2026). Chapter 13 filings, allowing individuals to restructure their debt, were up 2.58% year-over-year (3,677 in 2025 to 3,772 in 2026). Chapter 11 filings, often used by businesses facing insolvency, were down 20.45% year-over-year (176 in 2025 to 140 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 33 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 Extra Analysis of Week 33 Bankruptcy Filings

1. Overview of this week's National filings. For the week of August 17, the country recorded 10,804 total bankruptcy filings, the highest week-33 figure in the entire five-year span of the dataset. Chapter 7 liquidations made up 6,880 filings during week 33, or roughly 63.7% of the national total, while Chapter 13 wage-earner reorganizations contributed 3,772 filings, about 34.9%. Chapter 11 business reorganizations added 140 filings and Chapter 12 farm filings totaled 12, together accounting for about 1.4% of week 33 activity. Week-over-week, total filings rose modestly by 3.3% from week 32's 10,463, settling below the 2026 year-to-date weekly average of 11,949. Year-over-year, week 33 of 2026 is up just 4.6% compared with the same week in 2025, which posted 10,331 filings — one of the softer year-over-year gains seen in 2026.
2. An interesting fact about this week's filings. The most striking detail about the week of August 17 is the surge in Chapter 12 farm filings to 12 nationwide — the highest weekly Chapter 12 reading of the entire year — up 100% from 6 in the same week of 2025. The Eastern District of Arkansas alone produced 6 of those Chapter 12 filings, an extraordinary concentration for a single week in a chapter that typically sees only 1–2 filings per district. Chapter 11 business filings, by contrast, slipped 20.5% year-over-year (from 176 to 140) with no unusual restructuring cluster driving activity — the Middle District of Florida led with just 19, followed by the Eastern District of New York at 13 and New Jersey at 11. Chapter 7 grew a moderate 6.3% year-over-year to 6,880, while Chapter 13 essentially plateaued at just 2.6% growth (3,677 to 3,772). Together, these patterns reflect a week where consumer filings drifted sideways while farm distress made a rare showing in absolute terms.
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 17, the Central District of California led the country with 638 filings, followed by the Middle District of Florida at 602, the Northern District of Georgia at 443, and the Northern District of Illinois at 430. The Southern District of Florida recorded 304 total filings during week 33, the Eastern District of Michigan 294, the Northern District of Ohio 278, Arizona 262, the Eastern District of Virginia 252, and Maryland 249. Looking at Chapter 7 alone, the Central District of California posted 557, the Middle District of Florida 473, the Northern District of Georgia 277, the Northern District of Illinois 236, the Northern District of Ohio 223, Arizona 214, the Eastern District of Michigan 198, the Southern District of Florida 192, the Southern District of Ohio 170, and Maryland 165. On the Chapter 13 side, the Northern District of Illinois led with 186, followed by the Northern District of Georgia at 166, the Northern District of Alabama at 140, the Western District of Tennessee at 131, both the Western District of Louisiana and the Middle District of Florida tied at 110 each, the Southern District of Florida at 102, the Middle District of Alabama at 101, the Middle District of Georgia at 99, and the Eastern District of Michigan at 94. The top ten districts during week 33 together produced about 3,752 filings, accounting for roughly 34.7% of the 10,804-filing national total.
4. Geographic (district) disparities in filings. The disparity between busy and quiet districts during week 33 remained enormous: while the Central District of California posted 638 total filings, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the Virgin Islands each recorded zero. Other very low-volume districts during the week of August 17 included Alaska at 7, Vermont and Maine at 8 each, the Northern District of West Virginia at 10, Rhode Island at 11, and both the District of Columbia and Wyoming at 13 each. The Eastern District of Arkansas made an unusual appearance among notable districts thanks to its 6-filing Chapter 12 farm cluster, illustrating how a small district can briefly shine in a specialized chapter. The southeastern Sun Belt and major metro districts of California, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio dominated the overall leaderboard for week 33. 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 33 weeks of 2026, the country has logged 394,325 total filings, an average of 11,949 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 15,891 in week 31, with the week of August 17 settling at 10,804. Chapter 7 rose modestly to 6,880 during week 33 (up from 5,918 the prior week), while Chapter 13 slipped to 3,772 (down from 4,286). Chapter 11 dropped to 140 in week 33 after the elevated 251 in week 32, and Chapter 12 climbed to 12 on the back of the Arkansas cluster. The overall pattern for 2026 is a clearly higher baseline than any earlier year covered by the dataset, though year-over-year growth has clearly moderated as mid-August comparisons narrow.
6. Comparative analysis with previous years. Looking at the same week 33 across years yields a steady climb: 7,509 in 2022, 8,614 in 2023, 9,694 in 2024, 10,331 in 2025, and 10,804 in 2026 — a cumulative increase of about 43.9% over the four-year span. Annual growth rates for week 33 specifically were 14.7% (2023), 12.5% (2024), 6.6% (2025), and 4.6% (2026), showing steady deceleration in year-over-year growth as the years progress. The same upward trend appears in year-to-date totals through week 33: 237,279 in 2022, 276,088 in 2023, 317,454 in 2024, 352,502 in 2025, and 394,325 in 2026. That means 2026 is running about 11.9% ahead of 2025's pace at the same point on the calendar and roughly 66.2% ahead of where 2022 stood after 33 weeks. The combination of slower week-of-August-17 year-over-year growth but still-strong year-to-date gains suggests the rate of growth is gradually moderating as 2025's comparison base becomes higher.
7. Analyzing the filings per capita. Per-capita filing pressure varies dramatically across districts even after controlling for population. During week 33, the Central District of California, with roughly 20 million residents, produced 638 total filings — about 32 per million residents. The Northern District of Georgia, with around 6.5 million residents, produced 443 filings during the week of August 17, which works out to roughly 68 per million, more than double Southern California's per-capita rate. The Northern District of Alabama (140 Chapter 13 filings) and the Western District of Tennessee (131 Chapter 13 filings) sit even higher on a per-resident basis, while the Middle District of Florida's 602 combined filings translate to roughly 57 per million given its 10.6-million population. Adjusted for population, the heaviest filing pressure during week 33 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 5–15% annually since 2022 at this point on the calendar, the per-capita filing rate has climbed sharply over the past four years. Nationally, week 33 of 2026's 10,804 filings translate to about 31 per million residents, up from roughly 22 per million in week 33 of 2022 — an increase of about 44% in four years. Districts that were already filing-heavy have seen the steepest per-capita rises, especially the Central District of California, whose 638 combined filings during the week of August 17 represent a substantial step-up from typical week-33 totals in the low 400s back in 2022. In contrast, the lowest-filing jurisdictions during week 33 (Alaska at 7, Vermont and Maine at 8 each, Northern District of West Virginia at 10, Rhode Island at 11) 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 394,325 filings already logged through week 33, if the rest of 2026 follows 2025's seasonal pattern, the remaining 19 weeks (weeks 34 through 52) should produce roughly 235,000 additional filings, putting the full year near 629,000 total filings compared with 562,649 in 2025. Using the year-to-date 2026 weekly average of 11,949 applied to the remaining 19 weeks yields a projection of about 227,000 more filings and a year-end total around 621,000. 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 615,000–635,000. Taken together, the most likely 2026 year-end range is approximately 615,000 to 635,000 total filings, with the central estimate near 625,000. That would represent roughly 9–13% growth over 2025's full-year total of 562,649.
10. Forecast the trends of increasing filings after 2025. The four-year trajectory of full-year totals (378,337 in 2022, 445,203 in 2023, 503,786 in 2024, 562,649 in 2025, and a projected ~625,000 in 2026) implies a compound annual growth rate of about 14% from 2022 through 2025, easing to roughly 11% in 2026. If the deceleration observed in the week of August 17's year-over-year figure (4.6%) continues, annual increases could moderate to about 5–7% in 2027 and 3–5% in 2028, putting filings into the 655,000–685,000 range by 2027 and the 685,000–715,000 range by 2028. The chapter mix is also likely to keep shifting: Chapter 12 farm filings surged 100.0% year-over-year during week 33 (from 6 to 12) driven by the Eastern Arkansas cluster, while Chapter 7 grew 6.3% and Chapter 13 rose just 2.6%, even as Chapter 11 slipped 20.5%. Chapter 13, propelled by southeastern Sun Belt districts that produced 186, 166, 140, 131, 110, 110, 102, 101, 99, and 94 filings during the week of August 17 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 33 Filing Trends

1. For week 33, beginning Monday, August 17, 2026, national filings totaled 10,804. Chapter 7 accounted for 6,880 filings, Chapter 13 accounted for 3,772, Chapter 11 accounted for 140, and Chapter 12 accounted for 12. The national total was 341 filings higher than week 32’s 10,463, a 3.3% increase. Compared with week 33 of 2025, when there were 10,331 filings, this week was higher by 473 filings, or 4.6%. Through week 33 of 2026, national filings reached 394,325.
2. One notable feature of week 33 was that Chapter 7 drove most of the week-over-week increase. Chapter 7 rose by 962 filings, moving from 5,918 in week 32 to 6,880 in week 33. Chapter 13 moved lower by 514 filings, falling from 4,286 to 3,772. Chapter 11 also declined from 251 to 140, while Chapter 12 increased from 8 to 12. Together, Chapters 7 and 13 accounted for 10,652 filings, or 98.6% of the national total of 10,804.
3. At the district level, week 33 was led by Central California with 638 filings. Middle Florida followed with 602 filings, Northern Georgia had 443, Northern Illinois had 430, and Southern Florida had 304. Eastern Michigan reported 294 filings, Northern Ohio had 278, Arizona had 262, Eastern Virginia had 252, and Maryland and New Jersey each had 249. The top 5 districts together produced 2,417 filings. Those 2,417 filings represented 22.4% of the national total of 10,804.
4. Geographic differences remained substantial during week 33, beginning Monday, August 17, 2026. The average district had 114.9 filings, while the median district had 85. Central California’s 638 filings were 7.5 times the median district total. There were 15 districts with at least 200 filings, including Middle Florida at 602, Northern Georgia at 443, and Northern Illinois at 430. There were also 15 districts with 20 or fewer filings, including New Hampshire at 20, Iowa Northern at 18, North Dakota at 18, South Dakota at 17, and Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands at 0.
5. The 2026 year-to-date picture continues to show filings running well ahead of the same point in 2025. Through week 33, national filings totaled 394,325 in 2026. At the same point in 2025, national filings totaled 352,502. That means 2026 was ahead by 41,823 filings, or 11.9%, through week 33. Year-to-date Chapter 7 filings reached 250,158, Chapter 13 reached 137,638, Chapter 11 reached 6,285, and Chapter 12 reached 244.
6. Week 33 of 2026 was higher than the same week in every prior year shown in the data. The comparable weekly totals were 7,509 in 2022, 8,614 in 2023, 9,694 in 2024, 10,331 in 2025, and 10,804 in 2026. This year’s week 33 total was 43.9% higher than 2022 and 25.4% higher than 2023. It was also 11.5% higher than 2024 and 4.6% higher than 2025. On a year-to-date basis, 2026’s 394,325 filings were 76,871 higher than 2024’s 317,454 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 33, the national total of 10,804 filings across 94 districts equals 114.9 filings per district. The median district had 85 filings, which was 29.9 below the district average. Central California’s 638 filings were 5.6 times the district average, while Middle Florida’s 602 filings were 5.2 times the district average.
8. The filing-rate proxy shows that week 33 filing activity has increased meaningfully over time. Weekly filings rose from 7,509 in 2022 to 10,804 in 2026. That is a gain of 3,295 filings over the period. Across 94 districts, the proxy increased from 79.9 filings per district in week 33 of 2022 to 114.9 filings per district in week 33 of 2026. Compared with week 33 of 2025, the proxy rose from 109.9 to 114.9 filings per district, an increase of 5.0 filings per district.
9. A simple forecast based on the 2026 year-to-date average of 11,949.2 filings per week points to about 633,310 filings for the full 53-week 2026 reporting year. Since 394,325 filings had already occurred through week 33, that pace would add about 238,985 filings over the remaining 20 weeks. A second approach uses the 2025 remaining-year total of 210,147 filings as a baseline. Increasing that remaining-year baseline by the current 11.9% year-to-date growth rate implies about 235,080 additional filings. Together, these approaches suggest the rest of 2026 could add roughly 235,080 to 238,985 filings.
10. The longer-term trend after 2025 remains upward because 2026 is ahead of 2025 on both the week 33 and year-to-date measures. Week 33 of 2026 had 10,804 filings, compared with 10,331 in the same week of 2025. Through week 33, 2026 had 394,325 filings, compared with 352,502 in 2025. The full-year weekly average rose from 7,275.7 in 2022 to 8,561.6 in 2023, 9,688.2 in 2024, and 10,820.2 in 2025. If the 2026 year-to-date pace of 11,949.2 filings per week continues, it would be 1,129.1 filings per week above the 2025 average.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 Analysis of Week 33 Bankruptcy Statistics

1. Overview of This Week's National Filings The week of August 17, 2026 — Week 33 of the year — closed with a national bankruptcy total of 10,804 filings, a modest +3.3% recovery from the prior week's 10,463 and a continuation of the post-spike stabilization following Week 31's exceptional 15,891 surge. Of those filings, 6,880 were Chapter 7 liquidation cases, accounting for 63.7% of all activity — a return to the year's more typical Chapter 7 share after the unusually low 56.6% reading of the prior week. Chapter 13 reorganization filings contributed 3,772 cases, representing 34.9% of the national total and the lowest weekly Chapter 13 count since early June, reflecting a natural easing of reorganization demand following the compressed post-spike filing pattern. Chapter 11 business restructuring filings came in at a quiet 140 for the week, while Chapter 12 agricultural filings registered a notable 12 cases — the fourth-highest Chapter 12 weekly count of the entire year and a meaningful signal about deepening farm-sector financial stress. Together, all four chapters account for the 10,804 total filings recorded nationally during the week of August 17.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings The most statistically striking feature of Week 33 is the Chapter 12 agricultural filing count of 12 — a figure that represents a +100.0% year-over-year doubling from the 6 cases recorded in the same week of 2025, and an extraordinary +1,100% increase over the 1 Chapter 12 filing recorded in the same week of 2022, confirming that farm-sector financial distress is accelerating at a rate that far outpaces every other filing chapter in proportional terms. The year-to-date Chapter 12 total of 244 through Week 33 is itself a record for any comparable point in the calendar year, running 20.8% above 2025's 202 and 146.5% above 2022's 99, and the fourth-quarter agricultural calendar — when harvest revenues are typically received but debt obligations fall due — could produce a further acceleration in this category through the autumn months. The Central District of California's 638 total filings this week — with an extraordinary 557 Chapter 7 cases representing 87.3% of its total — is the highest Chapter 7 concentration rate recorded by Central California in any week of 2026 and illustrates how completely the Los Angeles-area consumer bankruptcy docket is dominated by liquidation demand, with virtually no appetite for multi-year reorganization plans among its distressed filers. The Northern District of Georgia recorded zero Chapter 11 filings this week out of 443 total — a relatively rare occurrence for a court that has posted elevated business restructuring counts throughout much of the year — suggesting the district is experiencing a lull in corporate filing activity that may be temporary given Georgia's growing commercial real estate and business debt pressures. The year-to-date total has now reached 394,325 through Week 33, placing 2026 within approximately 5,675 filings of the 400,000 cumulative milestone — a threshold that has never been crossed before the end of August in any prior year in the dataset.
3. Overview of This Week's District-Level Filings The week of August 17 was dominated by California and Florida at the top of the district rankings, with the Central District of California posting 638 total filings and the Middle District of Florida following with 602 — both courts delivering some of their stronger mid-August performances on record, driven primarily by consumer liquidation activity in the Los Angeles and Tampa-Orlando metropolitan areas respectively. The Northern District of Georgia came in third with 443 total filings (277 Chapter 7, 166 Chapter 13), well below its recent summer peak of 548 but consistent with the district's typical August baseline, while the Northern District of Illinois followed with 430 total filings — notable for its 186 Chapter 13 cases (43% of its total) — and the Southern District of Florida contributed 304 total filings, including 10 Chapter 11 cases reflecting continued business restructuring pressure in the Miami corridor. The Eastern District of Michigan (294), Northern District of Ohio (278, with 223 Chapter 7 at an 80% liquidation rate), District of Arizona (262, with 214 Chapter 7 at an 82% rate), Eastern District of Virginia (252, with 89 Chapter 13 cases), and District of Maryland (249) completed the top ten — with Arizona's re-entry into the rankings and the Eastern District of Virginia's continued presence confirming that the filing surge has maintained geographic breadth across Midwestern, Southeastern, and Western courts even as total volumes enter the more moderate late-summer phase. The District of Maryland's 249 total filings — including 82 Chapter 13 cases at 33% of its total — represents its eighth consecutive top-ten appearance, establishing the Washington metropolitan corridor as one of the most persistently active bankruptcy jurisdictions of the entire 2026 calendar.
4. Geographic Disparities in Filings Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands all recorded zero filings in the week of August 17, Alaska logged just 7, and Maine contributed only 8 — the five quietest jurisdictions combining for just 15 total filings against the Central District of California's 638. The California filing picture this week is particularly striking in its concentration: Central California's 557 Chapter 7 cases constitute 8.1% of the entire national Chapter 7 total for the week, even as the district accounts for well under 1% of the country's court districts, reflecting the extraordinary depth of consumer financial distress in the Los Angeles basin and surrounding communities. The chapter-mix contrast between the two highest-volume districts tells a familiar story: the Central District of California's 87% Chapter 7 rate stands in sharp contrast to the Northern District of Illinois's 45% Chapter 13 rate (186 of 430 total) — two busy urban courts, one dominated by the Western liquidation preference, the other reflecting the Midwestern and Northeastern tendency toward structured repayment plans. The Northern District of Ohio's 80% Chapter 7 rate (223 of 278) and the District of Arizona's 82% rate (214 of 262) both sit in the same high-liquidation tier as Central California, while the Eastern District of Virginia's 35% Chapter 13 share (89 of 252) and the Northern District of Georgia's 37% (166 of 443) sit at the other end of the spectrum — a geographic gradient in chapter preference that has remained remarkably stable throughout 2026. The Northern District of Georgia's zero Chapter 11 filings this week — against a total of 443 — is geographically significant because it marks the third time this summer the district has posted no corporate restructuring activity, suggesting that the elevated Chapter 11 readings seen earlier in 2026 were driven by specific large-case clusters rather than a persistent structural wave of Atlanta-area business distress.
5. Current Year Focus Through August 17, 2026 — thirty-three completed weeks representing 63.5% of the full calendar — the national year-to-date total stands at 394,325 filings, approaching the unprecedented 400,000 milestone with approximately five to six weeks of filings still needed to reach it and more than 41,000 additional cases ahead of 2025's comparable cumulative total of 352,502. The 2026 weekly average through Week 33 has eased slightly to 11,949 filings per week — still firmly above the 11,900 level and 10.4% above the full-year 2025 average of 10,820 — while 15 of 33 completed weeks of the year have exceeded 12,000 filings, confirming that the elevated filing baseline is not the product of one or two spike weeks but a structural feature of the entire year. The year-to-date Chapter 7 total of 250,158 through Week 33 is the most consequential sub-milestone: having crossed the 250,000 threshold, this figure now exceeds the entire full-year Chapter 7 total for 2022 (144,532 annual) by more than 105,000 cases and is running 12.6% above 2025's comparable 222,220. The year-to-date Chapter 12 agricultural total of 244 is a particular focus this week: 20.8% above 2025's 202 and 146.5% above 2022's 99, this figure — while numerically small — is the fastest-growing chapter in the dataset on a percentage basis and signals structural deterioration in agricultural credit markets that has been building throughout 2026. The year-to-date Chapter 13 total of 137,638 through Week 33 continues to set records at this stage of the calendar year, running 10.2% above 2025's 124,889 and 52.5% above 2022's 90,246, confirming that consumer reorganization demand has undergone a permanent structural shift upward regardless of near-term weekly fluctuations.
6. Comparative Analysis with Previous Years Week 33's year-over-year growth of +4.6% over 2025's 10,331 is one of the lower comparisons in 2026, but it follows from a progressively decelerating trend for this specific week — +14.7% in 2023, +12.5% in 2024, +6.6% in 2025, and +4.6% in 2026 — a smooth deceleration arc that reflects both the high baseline accumulated over four years of persistent filing growth and the gradual moderation in the annual per-capita increment discussed throughout 2026. Looking at the absolute figures, however, the four-year journey for Week 33 — from 7,509 in 2022 to 10,804 in 2026, a +43.9% cumulative increase — represents a meaningful structural shift even if the annual pace of gain is slowing. The Chapter 7 four-year comparison is particularly illuminating: from 4,426 in 2022 to 6,880 in 2026, a +55.4% increase, while Chapter 13 grew more modestly from 2,947 to 3,772, a +28.0% rise — both chapters showing positive multi-year growth that confirms the underlying trend is real and persistent rather than a temporary artifact of any single year. The year-to-date cumulative picture provides the cleanest view of 2026's overall trajectory: from 237,279 in 2022 to 276,088 in 2023 (+16.4%), 317,454 in 2024 (+15.0%), 352,502 in 2025 (+11.0%), and now 394,325 in 2026 (+11.9%) — with 2026 maintaining a year-to-date lead of 41,823 additional filings over 2025 through the same number of weeks. The most notable chapter comparison for Week 33 specifically is Chapter 11: with just 140 filings versus 2025's 176 for the same week (a -20.5% year-over-year decline), this chapter temporarily pulls against the annual trend — but the year-to-date Chapter 11 total of 6,285 running 21.1% above 2025's 5,191 confirms that the corporate distress picture through Week 33 remains firmly elevated even when individual weeks show moderation.
7. Analyzing the Filings Per Capita The week of August 17, 2026 produced approximately 31.68 bankruptcy filings per one million Americans — a per-capita rate that sits roughly 9.6% below the 2026 year-to-date average of 35.04 per million, reflecting the continued post-spike moderation that has characterized the two weeks following the August 3 surge, yet still exceeding the full-year per-capita weekly averages of every year before 2026. The annual per-capita benchmarks continue to define the scale of the transformation: from 21.85 per million per week in 2022 to 25.56 in 2023, 28.75 in 2024, and 31.92 in 2025, with 2026's 33-week running average of 35.04 per million the highest for any comparable stretch on record. The cumulative 33-week total of 394,325 filings translates to approximately 1,156.4 bankruptcy cases per million Americans through August 17, 2026 — a figure that already exceeds the full annualized per-capita rate of several prior years in the dataset and is tracking toward approximately 1,820 filings per million for 2026 as a whole. The Chapter 12 per-capita story this week is proportionally the most striking: with 12 agricultural bankruptcy filings against a farming community of roughly 2–3 million active farm operators nationally, the per-farm-operator rate of Chapter 12 filings in 2026 has roughly doubled since 2022, reflecting compounding pressures from elevated input costs, rising agricultural loan rates, and increasingly volatile commodity markets that are squeezing farm-sector balance sheets more severely than in any period captured by this dataset. In broader per-capita terms, 2026's 33-week running average of 35.04 per million sits approximately 60.3% above the 2022 full-year average, a transformation that has unfolded at a remarkably consistent pace of +3.0–3.7 additional filings per million per year across each of the four annual transitions in the dataset.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita The per-capita annual increment for Week 33 has settled at +3.12 per million per week — a moderate reading that sits comfortably within the +3.0–3.2 range that appears to be 2026's late-summer equilibrium, recovered from the sub-+3.0 lows of June but below the +3.35 spike-inflated reading of early August. The four-year progression — +3.71 (2022→2023), +3.19 (2023→2024), +3.17 (2024→2025), and now +3.12 (2025→2026 through August 17) — continues to describe a gradually decelerating downward trend in the annual rate of per-capita escalation, with the range of 2026 readings (+2.96 to +3.35) spanning a wider band than any prior year, reflecting the spike-and-pullback volatility of the summer filing calendar. The consumer chapter sub-trends tell a nuanced story at Week 33: Chapter 7's +6.3% year-over-year per-capita growth is back within the year's typical range after last week's anomalous +0.7% flat reading, while Chapter 13's +2.6% year-over-year gain is the weakest consumer reorganization comparison of any non-holiday week in the entire 2026 dataset, suggesting that the August period is one where Chapter 13 activity naturally runs below its structural trend as attorney offices and court calendars begin the late-summer slowdown. The Chapter 12 per-capita acceleration is the one metric showing clear intensification at this stage of the year: the +100.0% year-over-year gain for this specific week and the +20.8% year-to-date per-capita increase both confirm that agricultural financial distress is worsening at a rate substantially above any other sector, and the approaching autumn harvest-and-debt-settlement season may push this metric higher still. The stabilization of the aggregate per-capita increment near +3.12 — neither accelerating toward the +3.5+ range nor declining toward the +2.8 level — suggests that the true underlying annual rate of financial deterioration in 2026 is settling into a zone modestly below the +3.17 pace of 2024–2025, pointing toward a 2027 annual increment in the +2.9–3.2 range.
9. Forecast for the Expected Filing Numbers for the Rest of the Year With 33 weeks completed and a confirmed year-to-date total of 394,325 through August 17, three projection approaches continue to bracket the full-year outcome in a tight range of approximately 621,000–629,000, all representing new annual records by a substantial margin. Using the average of the four most recent completed weeks (Weeks 30 through 33), which averaged approximately 12,304 per week due to the lingering influence of Week 31's spike, the remaining 19 weeks would contribute roughly 233,776 additional filings, yielding a projection of approximately 628,101 — the high-end estimate and one that assumes continued above-baseline activity through the autumn. The full 33-week running average of 11,949 per week applied to the remaining 19 weeks produces a central estimate of approximately 621,031, representing a 58,382-filing increase over 2025's 562,649 — the most stable single-point estimate given the balanced representation of both spike and moderate weeks in the year-to-date average. The historically grounded second-half premium approach yields approximately 628,948, closely matching the four-week average method and suggesting the upper end of the credible range is approximately 629,000. With 394,325 filings already locked in and just 19 weeks remaining, any average above 8,857 per week through year-end produces a new annual record — a threshold 2026 has not fallen below since Week 2 of January, making the record outcome essentially certain.
10. Forecast of the Trends of Increasing Filings After 2025 The data through August 17, 2026 — 63.5% complete with 394,325 confirmed filings, a year-to-date total that is already the second-highest full-year figure ever recorded behind only the 2025 annual total of 562,649 — solidifies the case for a sustained multi-year upward trajectory in national bankruptcy filings that will continue well into the second half of the decade. The annual filing progression from 378,337 in 2022 to 445,203 in 2023, 503,786 in 2024, and 562,649 in 2025, now extended by 2026's converged central forecast of approximately 621,000–629,000, describes a trajectory that has added between 57,000 and 84,000 additional annual filings per year across four consecutive years — and even the most conservative 2026 outcome would represent the fifth consecutive annual record, a streak without precedent in the modern history of American bankruptcy filing data. The gradually decelerating per-capita annual increment — from +3.71 in 2022–2023 to a current 2026 tracking rate of +3.12 — is the most important structural signal for calibrating 2027 and 2028 projections: if this deceleration continues at its current pace, it would imply a 2027 annual increment of approximately +2.9–3.0 per million per week, translating to roughly 50,000–60,000 additional annual filings and a 2027 national total in the 671,000–689,000 range. The Chapter 12 agricultural trajectory adds a dimension to the post-2025 outlook that is easy to overlook in a dataset dominated by much larger chapter totals: with the year-to-date agricultural bankruptcy pace running +20.8% above 2025 and +146.5% above 2022, the farm-sector distress cycle is accelerating and, if autumn harvest revenues disappoint or agricultural credit conditions tighten further, could produce a meaningful late-2026 and 2027 escalation in Chapter 12 filings that adds incremental pressure to an already-elevated national total. The Chapter 7 cumulative total of 250,158 through Week 33 — already exceeding the entire full-year Chapter 7 total of 2022 by 105,626 cases — encapsulates perhaps better than any other single figure the structural magnitude of the transformation that has occurred in American consumer financial distress over just four years, and the structural forces enabling this transformation — elevated household debt, high borrowing costs, and exhausted pandemic-era savings — show no signs of resolving within the current economic environment, setting the stage for continued annual records through at least 2028.

ChatGPT 5.6 Sol Analysis of Week 33 District-Level Filing Data

1. In week 33, beginning Monday, August 17, 2026, U.S. bankruptcy courts recorded 10,804 filings nationwide. Chapter 7 accounted for 6,880 cases, Chapter 13 for 3,772, Chapter 11 for 140, and Chapter 12 for 12. Total filings rose by 341, or 3.3%, from the 10,463 recorded in week 32. Week 33 was still about 1,500 filings below the recent four-week average of 12,304. The file also contains a partial week 34 with only 2,031 filings, so this analysis stops at week 33 as requested.
2. One of the most interesting changes in week 33 was the shift back toward Chapter 7 filings. Chapter 7 increased by 962 cases, from 5,918 in week 32 to 6,880 in week 33, a rise of 16.3%. Chapter 13 moved in the opposite direction, falling by 514 cases from 4,286 to 3,772, a decline of 12.0%. As a result, Chapter 7's share of national filings increased from 56.6% to 63.7%, while Chapter 13's share dropped from 41.0% to 34.9%. The modest 3.3% increase in overall filings therefore masks a much larger shift in the types of consumer bankruptcies filed during the week.
3. District activity in week 33 was led by the Central District of California with 638 filings and the Middle District of Florida with 602. The Northern District of Georgia followed with 443, while the Northern District of Illinois recorded 430 and the Southern District of Florida recorded 304. Together, those five districts generated 2,417 filings, representing about 22.4% of the national total. Compared with week 32, Central California increased by 90 cases and Middle Florida by 169, while Northern Georgia declined by 105. These differences show that the national increase of 341 filings was not evenly distributed among the country's busiest districts.
4. Geographic differences remained substantial during week 33. Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands each recorded 0 filings, while Alaska had 7, Maine had 8, Vermont had 8, and the Northern District of West Virginia had 10. By comparison, Central California's 638 filings were nearly 80 times Vermont's total of 8. The four low-volume state districts listed above combined for only 33 filings, compared with 2,417 across the five busiest districts. With 10,804 cases nationwide, the numbers show that bankruptcy activity remains heavily concentrated in a relatively small number of jurisdictions.
5. Through week 33, U.S. courts have recorded 394,325 bankruptcy filings in 2026. That is 41,823 more filings than the 352,502 recorded through the same point in 2025, an increase of 11.9%. The average so far this year is approximately 11,949 filings per week, compared with about 10,682 during the first 33 weeks of 2025. Chapter 7 leads the 2026 total with 250,158 cases, while Chapter 13 has contributed 137,638. Chapter 11 has reached 6,285 filings, up from 5,191 at this point last year, while Chapter 12 has increased from 202 to 244.
6. Week 33's 10,804 filings were 473 higher than the 10,331 recorded during the same week of 2025, representing an increase of 4.6%. Compared with week 33 of 2024, when courts recorded 9,694 filings, the increase was 1,110 cases, or 11.5%. Chapter 7 rose from 6,472 cases in 2025 to 6,880 in 2026, an increase of 408. Chapter 13 also increased from 3,677 to 3,772, while Chapter 11 declined from 176 to 140. Overall, the comparison shows that the year-over-year growth in week 33 was primarily driven by consumer filings rather than business reorganizations.
7. Using a rounded U.S. population benchmark of about 342 million, week 33's 10,804 filings equal approximately 31.6 filings per million residents. Chapter 7 accounts for roughly 20.1 filings per million, while Chapter 13 contributes about 11.0 per million. Chapter 11 adds approximately 0.4 per million, and the 12 Chapter 12 cases represent less than 0.1 per million. These rates show that the two main consumer chapters account for almost all of the nation's bankruptcy activity on a population-adjusted basis. Week 32's 10,463 filings equated to about 30.6 per million, meaning the national rate increased by roughly 1 filing per million in week 33.
8. The per-capita trend also remains higher than in previous years. Week 33 of 2025 produced about 30.2 filings per million using the same population benchmark, compared with 31.6 per million in 2026. Week 33 of 2024 was lower still at roughly 28.3 per million, based on its 9,694 filings. On a year-to-date basis, 2026 is averaging about 34.9 filings per million per week, compared with approximately 31.2 through week 33 of 2025. Even though week 33 remained below the recent four-week average of 12,304 filings, the longer-term per-capita trend continues to point upward.
9. Through week 33, the 394,325 filings recorded in 2026 translate to an average of approximately 11,949 cases per week. Using 52 weeks for consistency with the prior years in the file leaves 19 weeks after week 33, and maintaining the year-to-date average would produce approximately 621,361 filings for 2026. Using the recent four-week average of about 12,304 instead would raise the year-end projection to roughly 628,092 cases. A more conservative scenario in which filings remain at week 33's 10,804 level would produce approximately 599,601 filings. Those scenarios would all exceed the 562,649 filings recorded in 2025, with projected increases ranging from roughly 6.6% to 11.6%.
10. The 394,325 filings recorded through week 33 of 2026 are already 11.9% higher than the comparable 2025 total of 352,502. A central 2026 forecast of about 621,361 filings would place the year roughly 10.4% above 2025's full-year total of 562,649. If annual growth moderated to about 7% after that, filings would reach roughly 664,900 in 2027 and 711,400 in 2028. If the current 11.9% year-to-date growth rate instead carried into another year, 2027 filings could approach 695,000. The numbers therefore support continued growth after 2025, although weekly movement from 10,463 cases in week 32 to 10,804 in week 33 shows why longer-term forecasts should allow for substantial short-term variation.