*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 35 Bankruptcy Filing Statistics by Chapter (Updated August 31st, 2026)

Week 35 reversed recent trends, with consumer bankruptcies down about 10% to 13,392 filings, while business filings remained essentially flat at 137 cases compared with the same week last year.

Chapter 7 filings, a lifeline for many struggling households, were down 9.27% year-over-year (9,640 in 2025 to 8,746 in 2026). Chapter 13 filings, allowing individuals to restructure their debt, were down 11.00% year-over-year (5,220 in 2025 to 4,646 in 2026). Chapter 11 filings, often used by businesses facing insolvency, were down 2.96% year-over-year (135 in 2025 to 131 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 35 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 35 Bankruptcy Filings

1. Overview of this week's National filings. For the week of August 31, the country recorded 13,529 total bankruptcy filings, a notable pullback from the same week in 2025 but still the second-highest week-35 figure in the five-year dataset. Chapter 7 liquidations made up 8,746 filings during week 35, or roughly 64.6% of the national total, while Chapter 13 wage-earner reorganizations contributed 4,646 filings, about 34.3%. Chapter 11 business reorganizations added 131 filings and Chapter 12 farm filings totaled 6, together accounting for about 1.0% of week 35 activity. Week-over-week, total filings surged 15.6% from week 34's 11,708, well above the 2026 year-to-date weekly average of 11,988. Year-over-year, week 35 of 2026 is actually down 9.8% compared with the same week in 2025, which posted an unusually high 14,998 filings — marking the first meaningful year-over-year decline of 2026.
2. An interesting fact about this week's filings. The most striking detail about the week of August 31 is that it broke a long unbroken streak of year-over-year growth: for the first time in 2026, weekly national filings came in below the prior year's comparable week, dropping 1,469 filings (-9.8%) from 2025. Both consumer chapters drove that decline — Chapter 7 fell 9.3% (from 9,640 to 8,746) and Chapter 13 slipped 11.0% (from 5,220 to 4,646) — suggesting the 2025 comparison was inflated by an unusually strong pre-Labor-Day surge rather than any real cooling in current activity. Chapter 12 farm filings bucked the trend, doubling year-over-year from 3 to 6 (spread across six different districts with one filing each in Colorado, Northern Florida, Minnesota, North Dakota, Northern New York, and Oregon). Business restructuring stayed subdued at 131 Chapter 11 filings, with Delaware leading at 14 and the Northern District of California at 12 but no district-level cluster in play. Together, these patterns suggest a strong absolute week that only looks softer because 2025 set an especially high benchmark.
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 31, the Central District of California led the country with 763 filings, followed by the Middle District of Florida at 703, the Northern District of Illinois at 547, and the Northern District of Georgia at 518. The Southern District of Florida recorded 400 total filings during week 35, the Eastern District of Michigan 375, the Northern District of Ohio 370, the Northern District of Texas 350, the Southern District of Texas 327, and the Eastern District of California 321. Looking at Chapter 7 alone, the Central District of California posted 643, the Middle District of Florida 558, the Northern District of Illinois 339, the Northern District of Ohio 303, the Northern District of Georgia 300, the Eastern District of California 277, Arizona 239, the Eastern District of Michigan 237, the Southern District of Florida 229, and the Northern District of Texas 211. On the Chapter 13 side, the Northern District of Georgia led with 212, followed by the Northern District of Illinois at 207, the Southern District of Florida at 164, the Middle District of Florida at 140, the Eastern District of Michigan at 138, the Northern District of Texas at 133, both the Southern District of Texas and Western District of Tennessee tied at 129 each, the Middle District of Alabama at 128, and the Middle District of Georgia at 116. The top ten districts during week 35 together produced about 4,674 filings, accounting for roughly 34.5% of the 13,529-filing national total.
4. Geographic (district) disparities in filings. The disparity between busy and quiet districts during week 35 remained enormous: while the Central District of California posted 763 total filings, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the Virgin Islands each recorded zero. Other very low-volume districts during the week of August 31 included the District of Columbia at 5, Alaska and Vermont at 12 each, the Southern District of West Virginia at 14, both Montana and the Northern District of West Virginia at 15 each, and Maine at 17. The Central District of California alone (763 filings) produced more activity during week 35 than the bottom 30 districts combined. The southeastern Sun Belt and major metro districts of California, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas dominated the leaderboard for week 35, with all three Texas districts appearing in the top ten. 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 35 weeks of 2026, the country has logged 419,570 total filings, an average of 11,988 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, 15,891 in week 31, and 13,529 in the week of August 31. Chapter 7 climbed to 8,746 during week 35 (up from 7,371 the prior week), while Chapter 13 rose to 4,646 (up from 4,181). Chapter 11 slipped to 131 in week 35 from 152 the prior week, and Chapter 12 nudged up to 6 from 4. The overall pattern for 2026 is a clearly higher baseline than any earlier year covered by the dataset, though the first year-over-year decline of the year signals that 2025's strong second half will make continued double-digit YoY comparisons increasingly difficult.
6. Comparative analysis with previous years. Looking at the same week 35 across years yields a mostly rising path with one exception this year: 9,494 in 2022, 11,461 in 2023, 13,325 in 2024, 14,998 in 2025, and 13,529 in 2026 — a cumulative increase of about 42.5% over the four-year span despite the current year's step down. Annual growth rates for week 35 specifically were 20.7% (2023), 16.3% (2024), 12.6% (2025), and -9.8% (2026), marking the first negative annual change of the year. The same upward trend still appears in year-to-date totals through week 35: 254,474 in 2022, 296,673 in 2023, 340,585 in 2024, 378,409 in 2025, and 419,570 in 2026. That means 2026 is running about 10.9% ahead of 2025's pace at the same point on the calendar and roughly 64.9% ahead of where 2022 stood after 35 weeks. The combination of a single-week YoY decline against a still-strong year-to-date lead suggests the underlying pace has moderated rather than collapsed.
7. Analyzing the filings per capita. Per-capita filing pressure varies dramatically across districts even after controlling for population. During week 35, the Central District of California, with roughly 20 million residents, produced 763 total filings — about 38 per million residents. The Northern District of Georgia, with around 6.5 million residents, produced 518 filings during the week of August 31, which works out to roughly 80 per million, more than double Southern California's per-capita rate. The Middle District of Alabama (128 Chapter 13 filings) and the Western District of Tennessee (129 Chapter 13 filings) sit even higher on a per-resident basis, while the Middle District of Florida's 703 combined filings translate to roughly 66 per million given its 10.6-million population. Adjusted for population, the heaviest filing pressure during week 35 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 (-10)–21% annually since 2022 at this point on the calendar, the per-capita filing rate has climbed sharply over the past four years despite this week's pullback. Nationally, week 35 of 2026's 13,529 filings translate to about 39 per million residents, up from roughly 28 per million in week 35 of 2022 — an increase of about 43% in four years. Districts that were already filing-heavy have seen the steepest per-capita rises, especially the Central District of California, whose 763 combined filings during the week of August 31 represent a substantial step-up from typical week-35 totals in the mid-400s back in 2022. In contrast, the lowest-filing jurisdictions during week 35 (District of Columbia at 5, Alaska and Vermont at 12 each, Southern District of West Virginia at 14, Montana and Northern District of West Virginia at 15 each) remain essentially flat in per-capita terms and very low in absolute terms. The widening per-capita gap means financial distress is becoming more geographically concentrated rather than more evenly distributed year after year.
9. Forecast the expected filing numbers for the rest of the year. With 419,570 filings already logged through week 35, if the rest of 2026 follows 2025's seasonal pattern, the remaining 17 weeks (weeks 36 through 52) should produce roughly 205,000 additional filings, putting the full year near 625,000 total filings compared with 562,649 in 2025. Using the year-to-date 2026 weekly average of 11,988 applied to the remaining 17 weeks yields a projection of about 204,000 more filings and a year-end total around 623,000. 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 623,000. 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, 445,206 in 2023, 503,787 in 2024, 562,649 in 2025, and a projected ~623,000 in 2026) implies a compound annual growth rate of about 14% from 2022 through 2025, easing to roughly 11% in 2026. If the pullback observed in the week of August 31's year-over-year figure (-9.8%) spreads to additional weeks rather than being a one-off base effect, annual increases could moderate to about 4–6% in 2027 and 2–4% in 2028, putting filings into the 640,000–670,000 range by 2027 and the 655,000–695,000 range by 2028. The chapter mix is also likely to keep shifting: Chapter 12 doubled year-over-year during week 35 (from 3 to 6), while Chapter 11 slipped 3.0% (from 135 to 131), Chapter 7 fell 9.3% (from 9,640 to 8,746), and Chapter 13 dropped 11.0% (from 5,220 to 4,646). Chapter 13, propelled by southeastern Sun Belt and Texas districts that produced 212, 207, 164, 140, 138, 133, 129, 129, 128, and 116 filings during the week of August 31 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 35 Filing Trends

1. For week 35, beginning Monday, August 31, 2026, national filings totaled 13,529. Chapter 7 accounted for 8,746 filings, Chapter 13 accounted for 4,646, Chapter 11 accounted for 131, and Chapter 12 accounted for 6. The national total was 1,821 filings higher than week 34’s 11,708, a 15.6% increase. Compared with week 35 of 2025, when there were 14,998 filings, this week was lower by 1,469 filings, or 9.8%. Through week 35 of 2026, national filings reached 419,570.
2. One notable feature of week 35 was that Chapter 7 drove most of the increase from the prior week. Chapter 7 rose by 1,369 filings, moving from 7,377 in week 34 to 8,746 in week 35. Chapter 13 also increased, rising by 471 filings from 4,175 to 4,646. Chapter 11 declined from 152 to 131, while Chapter 12 increased from 4 to 6. Together, Chapters 7 and 13 accounted for 13,392 filings, or 99.0% of the national total of 13,529.
3. At the district level, week 35 was led by Central California with 763 filings. Middle Florida followed with 703 filings, Northern Illinois had 547, Northern Georgia had 518, and Southern Florida had 400. Eastern Michigan reported 375 filings, Northern Ohio had 370, Northern Texas had 350, Southern Texas had 327, and Eastern California had 321. The top 5 districts together produced 2,931 filings. Those 2,931 filings represented 21.7% of the national total of 13,529.
4. Geographic differences remained substantial during week 35, beginning Monday, August 31, 2026. The average district had 143.9 filings, while the median district had 104.5. Central California’s 763 filings were 7.3 times the median district total. There were 21 districts with at least 200 filings, including Middle Florida at 703, Northern Illinois at 547, and Northern Georgia at 518. There were also 12 districts with 20 or fewer filings, including Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands at 0, District of Columbia at 5, Alaska at 12, Vermont at 12, Southern West Virginia at 14, and Montana and Northern West Virginia at 15 each.
5. The 2026 year-to-date picture continues to show filings running ahead of the same point in 2025. Through week 35, national filings totaled 419,570 in 2026. At the same point in 2025, national filings totaled 378,409. That means 2026 was ahead by 41,161 filings, or 10.9%, through week 35. Year-to-date Chapter 7 filings reached 266,355, Chapter 13 reached 146,398, Chapter 11 reached 6,564, and Chapter 12 reached 253.
6. Week 35 of 2026 was higher than the same week in 2022, 2023, and 2024, but lower than the same week in 2025. The comparable weekly totals were 9,494 in 2022, 11,461 in 2023, 13,325 in 2024, 14,998 in 2025, and 13,529 in 2026. This year’s week 35 total was 42.5% higher than 2022 and 18.0% higher than 2023. It was also 1.5% higher than 2024, but 9.8% lower than 2025. On a year-to-date basis, 2026’s 419,570 filings were 78,985 higher than 2024’s 340,585 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 35, the national total of 13,529 filings across 94 districts equals 143.9 filings per district. The median district had 104.5 filings, which was 39.4 below the district average. Central California’s 763 filings were 5.3 times the district average, while Middle Florida’s 703 filings were 4.9 times the district average.
8. The filing-rate proxy shows that week 35 filing activity has increased meaningfully over time, even though it was below the same week in 2025. Weekly filings rose from 9,494 in 2022 to 13,529 in 2026. That is a gain of 4,035 filings over the period. Across 94 districts, the proxy increased from 101.0 filings per district in week 35 of 2022 to 143.9 filings per district in week 35 of 2026. Compared with week 35 of 2025, the proxy fell from 159.6 to 143.9 filings per district, a decrease of 15.6 filings per district.
9. A simple forecast based on the 2026 year-to-date average of 11,987.7 filings per week points to about 635,349 filings for the full 53-week 2026 reporting year. Since 419,570 filings had already occurred through week 35, that pace would add about 215,779 filings over the remaining 18 weeks. A second approach uses the 2025 remaining-year total of 184,240 filings as a baseline. Increasing that remaining-year baseline by the current 10.9% year-to-date growth rate implies about 204,280 additional filings. Together, these approaches suggest the rest of 2026 could add roughly 204,280 to 215,779 filings.
10. The longer-term trend after 2025 remains upward on a year-to-date basis, even though week 35 itself was lower than the same week last year. Week 35 of 2026 had 13,529 filings, compared with 14,998 in the same week of 2025. Through week 35, 2026 had 419,570 filings, compared with 378,409 in 2025. The full-year weekly average rose from 7,275.7 in 2022 to 8,561.7 in 2023, 9,688.2 in 2024, and 10,820.2 in 2025. If the 2026 year-to-date pace of 11,987.7 filings per week continues, it would be 1,167.5 filings per week above the 2025 average.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 Analysis of Week 35 Bankruptcy Statistics

1. Overview of This Week's National Filings The week of August 31, 2026 — Week 35 of the year and the final full week before the Labor Day holiday — closed with a national bankruptcy total of 13,529 filings, making it the third-highest week of the entire 2026 calendar behind only the February spike of 16,095 in Week 18 and the August 3 surge of 15,891 in Week 31. Of those filings, 8,746 were Chapter 7 liquidation cases, accounting for 64.6% of all activity and confirming the typical pattern of a pre-holiday surge compressing several days of would-be future filings into the last full working week before the long weekend. Chapter 13 reorganization filings contributed 4,646 cases, representing 34.3% of the national total — the fifth-highest Chapter 13 weekly count of 2026, exceeded only by the spike weeks of Weeks 31, 9, 18, and 5 — reflecting strong consumer reorganization demand ahead of the holiday closure. Chapter 11 business restructuring filings came in at a quiet 131 for the week, while Chapter 12 agricultural filings registered 6 cases, the latter doubling year-over-year from the same week of 2025. Together, all four chapters account for the 13,529 total filings recorded nationally during the week of August 31.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings The most consequential and surprising feature of Week 35 is that it marks the first year-over-year decline of any non-holiday week in the entire 2026 calendar: at 13,529 total filings, Week 35 of 2026 fell -9.8% below the same week of 2025 (14,998) — the first negative year-over-year comparison at any non-distorted week in the dataset this year and a statistical event that stands in stark contrast to the year-to-date cumulative gain of +10.9%. The explanation lies almost entirely in the unusually high 2025 baseline: Week 35 of 2025 was itself the second-highest pre-Labor Day week in the dataset's history at 14,998, the product of an exceptionally compressed pre-holiday filing surge that year, and 2026's own pre-holiday surge of +15.6% from Week 34 — while still meaningful — is by far the smallest pre-Labor Day acceleration in the dataset, compared to surges of +23.3% in 2022, +25.7% in 2023, +35.9% in 2024, and +37.5% in 2025. All three major consumer chapters show year-over-year declines for this specific week: Chapter 7 fell -9.3% from 9,640 to 8,746, Chapter 13 dropped -11.0% from 5,220 to 4,646, and Chapter 11 dipped -3.0% from 135 to 131 — an unusual synchronization of year-over-year declines that is entirely explained by the elevated 2025 baseline and is not indicative of any weakening in the underlying 2026 filing trend. The year-to-date cumulative total of 419,570 through Week 35 continues to run 10.9% ahead of 2025's comparable 378,409, a gap of 41,161 additional filings — confirming that the single-week negative comparison is a statistical anomaly rather than a structural inflection. The historical Labor Day pattern also predicts a significant decline in Week 36: prior years have seen drops of -35.7% in 2022, -43.1% in 2023, -44.8% in 2024, and -47.2% in 2025 as the holiday week suppresses court activity.
3. Overview of This Week's District-Level Filings The week of August 31 produced some of the strongest district-level totals since the early-August spike, with the Central District of California leading all courts at 763 total filings — 643 Chapter 7 and 112 Chapter 13 — its highest weekly total in several weeks and a figure that reflects the pre-Labor Day acceleration of consumer liquidation filings across the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Middle District of Florida followed with 703 total filings (558 Chapter 7, 5 Chapter 11, 140 Chapter 13), and the Northern District of Illinois climbed to third with 547 total filings — 339 Chapter 7 and 207 Chapter 13 — as Chicago-area attorneys and filers compressed activity ahead of the holiday weekend. The Northern District of Georgia placed fourth with 518 total filings (300 Chapter 7, 212 Chapter 13), producing its strongest week in a month and placing Chapter 13 at 41% of its total — consistent with Atlanta's deep-rooted consumer reorganization culture — while the Southern District of Florida contributed 400 total filings (229 Chapter 7, 164 Chapter 13, 7 Chapter 11). The Eastern District of Michigan (375), Northern District of Ohio (370, with 303 Chapter 7 at an 82% liquidation rate), Northern District of Texas (350, including 6 Chapter 11 cases), Southern District of Texas (327, also with 6 Chapter 11 cases), and Eastern District of California (321, with an exceptional 277 Chapter 7 cases at 86% of its total) completed the top ten — with both Texas districts appearing simultaneously and the Eastern District of California making its strongest showing in several weeks.
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 31, the District of Columbia logged just 5, and Alaska contributed 12 — marking the quietest end of the filing spectrum against a backdrop where the two leading California and Florida districts each cleared 700 cases for the week. California's combined pre-holiday output was exceptional: the Central District's 763 filings and the Eastern District's 321 together produced 1,084 California filings — nearly 8% of the national total from a single state — with both courts operating at exceptionally high Chapter 7 rates of 84% and 86% respectively, reflecting the concentrated consumer liquidation culture of West Coast filing markets. The chapter-composition contrast this week is sharp and geographically illustrative: the Eastern District of California's 86% Chapter 7 rate (277 of 321) sits at one extreme, while the Northern District of Georgia's 41% Chapter 13 rate (212 of 518) and the Southern District of Florida's 41% rate (164 of 400) sit at the other — three large, high-volume districts operating in fundamentally different ways within the same federal court system. The dual appearance of both the Northern (350) and Southern (327) Districts of Texas in the top ten — combining for 677 filings with each posting 6 Chapter 11 cases — signals a persistence of business and consumer financial stress across Texas's major metropolitan corridors that has now been a consistent feature of the 2026 summer filing period for several consecutive weeks. The Northern District of Ohio's 303 Chapter 7 cases out of 370 total (82%) continues to exemplify the acute consumer debt crisis in the Cleveland-Akron region, where the combination of high revolving debt, elevated mortgage resets, and a manufacturing-dependent employment base creates a filing environment overwhelmingly dominated by the need for outright discharge rather than structured reorganization.
5. Current Year Focus Through August 31, 2026 — thirty-five completed weeks representing 67.3% of the full calendar — the national year-to-date total stands at 419,570 filings, a figure that already represents 74.6% of 2025's entire full-year total of 562,649 and leads the comparable 2025 figure of 378,409 by over 41,000 filings through the same number of weeks. The 2026 weekly average through Week 35 stands at 11,988 filings per week — hovering just below the 12,000 threshold — and running approximately 10.8% above the full-year 2025 average of 10,820, with 17 weeks still remaining in the year and the full-year record outcome now essentially assured. The year-to-date Chapter 7 total of 266,355 through Week 35 has grown to nearly 74% above 2022's comparable 154,654 at the same point, and is running 11.5% above 2025's 238,835 — a gap that has narrowed slightly in the summer period but remains firmly double-digit. The year-to-date Chapter 12 agricultural total of 253 through Week 35 is particularly noteworthy: running 23.4% above 2025's 205 and 134.3% above 2022's 108, it is the fastest-growing chapter on a percentage basis at this stage of the year, and the autumn harvest-and-debt-reckoning season now arriving may push this figure considerably higher before year-end. The year-to-date Chapter 13 total of 146,398 — 9.4% above 2025's 133,866 and 50.7% above 2022's 97,151 — confirms that consumer reorganization has undergone a structural shift upward that is now deeply embedded in the filing landscape.
6. Comparative Analysis with Previous Years Week 35's -9.8% year-over-year decline is the first negative same-week comparison of any non-holiday week in all of 2026, and it is entirely attributable to the comparison against 2025's extraordinary 14,998 pre-Labor Day total — itself the highest Week 35 reading in the dataset's history and a figure that reflected an unusually compressed filing surge in the last week of August 2025. Looking at the full Week 35 trajectory — 9,494 in 2022, 11,461 in 2023 (+20.7%), 13,325 in 2024 (+16.3%), 14,998 in 2025 (+12.6%), and now 13,529 in 2026 (-9.8%) — the consistent acceleration of the prior three years gives way to a significant reversal in 2026, driven not by weakening filing demand but by the extreme nature of the 2025 pre-holiday surge that created a uniquely demanding year-over-year baseline. The four-year cumulative gain for Week 35 from 2022 to 2026 still represents a meaningful +42.5% increase in total filings, and the individual chapter comparisons confirm that all three major consumer chapters are running below their 2025 readings for this specific week while remaining well above 2022 and 2023 levels. The year-to-date cumulative picture tells the more accurate story: from 254,474 in 2022 to 296,673 in 2023 (+16.6%), 340,585 in 2024 (+14.8%), 378,409 in 2025 (+11.1%), and now 419,570 in 2026 (+10.9%) — with 2026's year-to-date growth rate falling below 11% for the first time but still producing the largest absolute year-to-date lead of any year in the series at over 41,000 additional filings compared to 2025. The first sub-11% year-to-date growth rate is itself a significant structural signal: it confirms that 2026's annual filing gain over 2025 will likely land in the 55,000–65,000 range rather than the 70,000–84,000 range seen in prior years, representing a genuine moderation in the annual escalation pace.
7. Analyzing the Filings Per Capita The week of August 31, 2026 produced approximately 39.67 bankruptcy filings per one million Americans — one of the higher per-capita weekly rates of the year, exceeded only by the major spike weeks and reflecting the pre-Labor Day compression effect that concentrates filings into the final days before the holiday shutdown. The annual per-capita benchmarks provide the longer context: 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 35-week running average of 35.15 per million per week the highest for any comparable stretch on record. The cumulative 35-week total of 419,570 filings translates to approximately 1,230.0 bankruptcy cases per million Americans through August 31, 2026 — a per-capita accumulation that is already tracking toward approximately 1,827 filings per million for the full year, compared to roughly 1,659 per million in all of 2025. The Central District of California's 763 filings this week, against a district population of approximately 18–20 million across the greater Los Angeles region, represent a per-capita rate of roughly 40–42 bankruptcy cases per million district residents for a single week — one of the highest sustained per-capita readings of any court district this year and a figure that reflects the acute financial stress of California's high-cost-of-living consumer economy. Despite the week's year-over-year headline decline of -9.8%, the 2026 per-capita running average of 35.15 per million sits approximately 60.4% above the 2022 full-year average — confirming that the structural transformation in American bankruptcy filings per capita has been sustained, consistent, and far larger in scale than any individual week's comparison can capture.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita The per-capita annual increment for Week 35 has recovered to +3.23 per million per week — a meaningful re-acceleration from the +3.10 reading of prior weeks — reflecting the fact that while this specific week shows a year-over-year decline in raw filings, the overall annual trajectory through 35 weeks continues to add meaningful new per-capita burden even as the rate of escalation gradually moderates. The apparent paradox — a per-capita increment that shows positive growth for 2026 even as the specific week declined versus 2025 — is resolved by understanding that the per-capita increment is calculated against the 35-week running average comparison, which includes the many weeks where 2026 ran well ahead of 2025, and those cumulative gains far outweigh the single-week deficit created by 2025's exceptional Week 35 baseline. The four-year progression — +3.71 (2022→2023), +3.19 (2023→2024), +3.17 (2024→2025), and now +3.23 (2025→2026 through August 31) — now shows a slight non-linearity, with 2026's 35-week tracking rate sitting fractionally above the prior two years' annual increments, though the range of weekly readings across 2026 (+2.96 to +3.35) spans a wider band than any prior year due to the spike-and-pullback pattern of the summer months. The consumer chapter per-capita comparisons for this specific week are, uniquely, negative: Chapter 7's per-capita rate fell -9.3% year over year and Chapter 13's fell -11.0% — making Week 35 the only week in 2026 where both major consumer chapters simultaneously declined on a same-week comparison, driven entirely by the elevated 2025 baseline. The most important takeaway from the per-capita picture at the 35-week mark is that 2026's annual increment appears to be settling in the +3.1–3.2 range — below the +3.17–3.71 of prior years but above the sub-+3.0 readings briefly seen in June, suggesting a new equilibrium of gradually escalating but decelerating per-capita financial distress that will likely characterize 2027 and 2028.
9. Forecast for the Expected Filing Numbers for the Rest of the Year With 35 weeks completed and a year-to-date total of 419,570 through August 31, the full-year forecast has further crystallized, with 17 weeks remaining and all projection methods pointing to a new annual record in the 617,000–630,000 range. Using the average of the four most recent weeks (Weeks 32 through 35) — which averaged approximately 11,626 per week, moderating from the spike-influenced earlier estimates — the remaining 17 weeks would contribute roughly 197,642 additional filings, yielding a projection of approximately 617,212; this is likely the most realistic low-end estimate given the expected Labor Day suppression in Week 36 and the typical late-year moderation. The full 35-week running average of 11,988 per week applied to the remaining 17 weeks produces a central estimate of approximately 623,361, representing a 60,712-filing increase over 2025's 562,649 — and the historically grounded second-half premium approach yields approximately 629,501, reflecting the consistent pattern of second-half acceleration. An important refinement for the autumn forecast is the expected Week 36 Labor Day suppression: based on the prior four years' -35.7% to -47.2% Week 35→36 declines, Week 36 of 2026 is likely to produce roughly 7,000–9,000 total filings, temporarily depressing the weekly average and pulling the rolling estimate slightly lower before the September recovery. With 419,570 already locked in and just 17 weeks remaining, the year needs to average only 8,418 filings per week from here to surpass 2025's record of 562,649 — a threshold that even a heavily holiday-suppressed autumn would not threaten.
10. Forecast of the Trends of Increasing Filings After 2025 The data through August 31, 2026 — 67.3% of the year complete with 419,570 confirmed filings — introduces a genuinely new nuance into the post-2025 forecast: the first year-over-year weekly filing decline at a non-holiday week in 2026, and a year-to-date growth rate that has for the first time dipped below 11%, together suggest that the pace of annual escalation in American bankruptcy filings may be entering a more moderate phase than the data from the first two quarters implied. The annual filing progression from 378,337 in 2022 to 445,206 in 2023, 503,787 in 2024, and 562,649 in 2025, now projected to reach approximately 620,000–630,000 in 2026, describes a curve that has added roughly 57,000–84,000 additional annual filings per year — and the 2026 increment of approximately 57,000–67,000 would sit at the lower end of that historical range, consistent with the gradual deceleration in both year-over-year weekly comparisons and per-capita increments seen throughout the summer. If this deceleration continues into 2027, the annual filing gain would likely settle in the 48,000–60,000 range, producing a 2027 national total in the 668,000–690,000 range — still a new annual record, but at a meaningfully slower pace than the 2022–2025 acceleration phase. The week-specific dynamics are also revealing about the post-2025 landscape: the fact that 2025's pre-Labor Day surge (+37.5%) was so much larger than 2026's (+15.6%) suggests that some of the behavioral intensity that characterized 2025's filing calendar — the urgency of filing before holiday closures — may be moderating as filers and attorneys adapt to the elevated filing environment and spread activity more evenly across the calendar. In summary, 2026 remains on course to set a new annual record in the 620,000–630,000 range, the post-2026 trajectory points toward continued annual records in the 668,000–690,000 range for 2027 at a decelerating growth rate, and the structural forces underlying this elevated filing environment — household debt, high borrowing costs, corporate restructuring pipelines, and agricultural sector stress — will keep American bankruptcy volumes at historically unprecedented levels through at least the end of the decade.

ChatGPT 5.6 Sol Analysis of Week 35 District-Level Filing Data

1. In week 35, beginning Monday, August 31, 2026, United States bankruptcy courts recorded 13,529 filings nationwide. Chapter 7 accounted for 8,746 cases, Chapter 13 for 4,646, Chapter 11 for 131, and Chapter 12 for 6. Compared with week 34’s 11,708 filings, the national total increased by 1,821, or 15.6%. Week 35 was also 1,903 filings above the recent four-week average of 11,626. With 13,529 cases, week 35 was the eighth-highest filing week of the first 35 weeks of 2026.
2. One of the most notable figures in week 35 was the 4,646 Chapter 13 filings, the fifth-highest weekly Chapter 13 total so far in 2026. Chapter 13 represented 34.3% of the national total, while Chapter 7 represented 64.6%. Together, those two consumer chapters accounted for 13,392 of the 13,529 filings, or about 99.0% of all cases. Chapter 11 moved in the opposite direction, falling from 152 cases in week 34 to 131, its third-lowest weekly total through week 35. The numbers show that the week’s strong increase was overwhelmingly driven by consumer bankruptcies rather than business reorganizations.
3. District activity in week 35 was led by the Central District of California with 763 filings and the Middle District of Florida with 703. The Northern District of Illinois followed with 547 cases, while the Northern District of Georgia recorded 518 and the Southern District of Florida recorded 400. Together, those five districts generated 2,931 filings, representing about 21.7% of the national total. All five increased from week 34, including gains of 136 cases in Northern Illinois, 118 in Central California, and 109 in Northern Georgia. These increases show that the national rise of 1,821 filings was supported by several of the country’s busiest districts rather than a single unusually active court.
4. Geographic differences remained substantial during week 35. Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands each recorded 0 filings, while the District of Columbia recorded 5, and both Alaska and Vermont recorded 12. By comparison, the Central District of California handled 763 cases, more than 152 times the District of Columbia’s total. The five busiest districts produced 2,931 filings, while Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands, the District of Columbia, and Alaska combined for only 17. With 13,529 cases nationwide, the week again showed how heavily bankruptcy activity is concentrated in a relatively small number of high-volume districts.
5. Through week 35, bankruptcy courts have recorded 419,570 filings in 2026, compared with 378,409 through the same point in 2025. That difference of 41,161 filings represents a year-to-date increase of approximately 10.9%. The average through week 35 is now about 11,988 filings per week, compared with 10,812 during the same period last year. Chapter 7 has reached 266,355 cases, up 27,520 from 2025, while Chapter 13 has reached 146,398, an increase of 12,532. Chapter 11 is also ahead at 6,564 filings versus 5,503, while Chapter 12 has risen from 205 to 253.
6. Week 35’s 13,529 filings were actually below the 14,998 cases recorded during the same week of 2025. That represents a decline of 1,469 filings, or approximately 9.8%, from the unusually strong comparable week last year. Compared with week 35 of 2024, however, the current total was 204 cases higher than the 13,325 filings recorded then. Chapter 7 fell from 9,640 cases in 2025 to 8,746 in 2026, while Chapter 13 declined from 5,220 to 4,646. Despite that weaker single-week comparison, the 419,570 filings accumulated through week 35 remain well above both 378,409 in 2025 and 340,585 in 2024.
7. Using a rounded national population benchmark of about 342 million, week 35’s 13,529 filings equal approximately 39.6 filings per million residents. Chapter 7 accounted for about 25.6 filings per million, while Chapter 13 contributed roughly 13.6 per million. Chapter 11 added about 0.4 filings per million, and the 6 Chapter 12 cases represented less than 0.1 per million. Week 34’s 11,708 filings worked out to roughly 34.2 per million, meaning the national rate increased by about 5.3 filings per million in one week. The population-adjusted numbers therefore show the same sharp 15.6% rebound visible in the overall filing count.
8. Looking across years, week 35 of 2025 produced about 43.9 filings per million, compared with 39.6 per million in 2026 using the same population benchmark. Week 35 of 2024 was closer to the current level at approximately 39.0 filings per million, based on its 13,325 cases. The current week was therefore about 4.3 filings per million below 2025, but approximately 0.6 per million above 2024. On a year-to-date basis, however, 2026 is averaging about 35.1 filings per million per week, compared with 31.6 in 2025 and 28.5 in 2024. The progression from 28.5 to 31.6 to 35.1 shows that the broader per-capita trend remains upward despite week-to-week volatility.
9. Through week 35, the 419,570 filings recorded in 2026 translate to an average of approximately 11,988 cases per week. If that pace continues for the remaining 17 weeks, the year would finish with roughly 623,361 filings. Using the more recent four-week average of 11,626 produces a slightly lower projection of approximately 617,212 cases. If filings instead remained at week 35’s stronger level of 13,529 per week, the year-end total would approach 649,563. Those scenarios would place 2026 roughly 9.7% to 15.4% above the 562,649 filings recorded during all of 2025.
10. The longer-term trend shows annual filings rising from 378,337 in 2022 to 445,206 in 2023, 503,787 in 2024, and 562,649 in 2025. Those increases represent annual growth of roughly 17.7%, 13.2%, and 11.7%, showing that filings have continued rising even as the growth rate has gradually slowed. The central 2026 projection of about 623,361 filings would represent another increase of approximately 10.8% over 2025. If growth then moderated to around 7% annually, total filings would reach approximately 666,996 in 2027 and 713,686 in 2028. The weekly and annual data therefore support continued growth after 2025, although the decline from 14,998 filings in week 35 of 2025 to 13,529 this year shows that the upward trend will not occur evenly every week.