*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 38 Bankruptcy Filing Statistics by Chapter (Updated September 21st, 2026)

Week 38 showed modest year-over-year growth, with consumer bankruptcies rising about 4% to 11,454 filings and business filings increasing roughly 4% to 163 cases compared with the same week last year.

Chapter 7 filings, a lifeline for many struggling households, were up 2.55% year-over-year (7,021 in 2025 to 7,200 in 2026). Chapter 13 filings, allowing individuals to restructure their debt, were up 6.03% year-over-year (4,012 in 2025 to 4,254 in 2026). Chapter 11 filings, often used by businesses facing insolvency, were down 1.95% year-over-year (154 in 2025 to 151 in 2026).

Bankruptcy and Consumer Debt News We're Reading This Week

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• Leading Companies Filing for Bankruptcy 2026

AI Analysis of 2026 Week 38 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 38 Bankruptcy Filings

1. Overview of this week's National filings. For the week of September 21, the country recorded 11,617 total bankruptcy filings, the highest week-38 figure in the entire five-year span of the dataset. Chapter 7 liquidations made up 7,200 filings during week 38, or roughly 62.0% of the national total, while Chapter 13 wage-earner reorganizations contributed 4,254 filings, about 36.6%. Chapter 11 business reorganizations added 151 filings and Chapter 12 farm filings totaled 12, together accounting for about 1.4% of week 38 activity. Week-over-week, total filings rebounded strongly by 25.1% from week 37's 9,284, recovering from the Labor-Day-affected pullback and settling just below the 2026 year-to-date weekly average of 11,947. Year-over-year, week 38 of 2026 is up a modest 3.8% compared with the same week in 2025, which posted 11,190 filings.
2. An interesting fact about this week's filings. The most striking detail about the week of September 21 is the extraordinary surge in Chapter 12 farm filings to 12 nationwide, tying the highest weekly Chapter 12 reading of the entire year and up 300% from just 3 in the same week of 2025. The Northern District of Alabama and South Carolina each produced 4 farm filings during week 38 — an unusual concentration for a chapter that typically sees only 1–2 filings per district — with additional single filings in Middle Georgia, Idaho, New Mexico, and South Dakota. On the business side, the Western District of Michigan led Chapter 11 with an unusual 15 filings, its first time topping the national Chapter 11 rankings in 2026, followed by the Middle District of Florida at 12. Chapter 7 grew a modest 2.5% year-over-year to 7,200, while Chapter 13 rose 6.0% to 4,254 and Chapter 11 slipped 1.9% to 151. Together, these patterns reflect a broadly normalized filing week with an unusually loud signal from the farm chapter.
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 September 21, the Central District of California narrowly led the country with 605 filings, followed by the Middle District of Florida at 604, the Northern District of Illinois at 479, the Northern District of Georgia at 466, and the Southern District of Florida at 350. The Eastern District of Michigan recorded 330 total filings during week 38, the Northern District of Ohio 283, Arizona 279, New Jersey 274, and the Eastern District of Virginia 248. Looking at Chapter 7 alone, the Central District of California posted 497, the Middle District of Florida 459, the Northern District of Georgia 284, the Northern District of Illinois 259, Arizona 237, the Eastern District of Michigan 229, the Northern District of Ohio 221, the Southern District of Florida 220, the Eastern District of California 194, and the Southern District of Ohio 180. On the Chapter 13 side, the Northern District of Illinois led with 214, followed by the Northern District of Georgia at 180, the Western District of Tennessee at 152, the Middle District of Florida at 133, the Southern District of Florida at 123, the Middle District of Alabama at 120, the Northern District of Alabama at 112, the Eastern District of Virginia at 106, the Southern District of Indiana at 105, and the Central District of California at 103. The top ten districts during week 38 together produced about 3,918 filings, accounting for roughly 33.7% of the 11,617-filing national total.
4. Geographic (district) disparities in filings. The disparity between busy and quiet districts during week 38 remained enormous: while the Central District of California posted 605 total filings, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the Virgin Islands each recorded zero. Other very low-volume districts during the week of September 21 included Alaska at 5, Montana at 8, Vermont at 9, the District of Columbia at 11, and Maine, the Northern District of West Virginia, and South Dakota tied at 12 each. The Western District of Michigan climbed unusually high in the Chapter 11 rankings with 15 filings during week 38, illustrating how a single restructuring cluster can briefly reshape district-level chapter tables. The southeastern Sun Belt and major metro districts of California, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Arizona dominated the overall leaderboard for week 38. 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 38 weeks of 2026, the country has logged 453,992 total filings, an average of 11,947 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, 13,529 in week 35, and 13,510 in week 36, with the week of September 21 rebounding to 11,617. Chapter 7 rose to 7,200 during week 38 (up from 5,680 the prior week), while Chapter 13 climbed to 4,254 (up from 3,406). Chapter 11 slipped to 151 in week 38 from 190 the prior week after the New Jersey cluster dissipated, and Chapter 12 climbed sharply to 12 on the back of the Alabama and South Carolina clusters. The overall pattern for 2026 is a clearly higher baseline than any earlier year covered by the dataset, with year-to-date volume tracking to end the year around the 625,000-filing level.
6. Comparative analysis with previous years. Looking at the same week 38 across years yields a steady climb: 7,452 in 2022, 8,940 in 2023, 10,143 in 2024, 11,190 in 2025, and 11,617 in 2026 — a cumulative increase of about 55.9% over the four-year span. Annual growth rates for week 38 specifically were 20.0% (2023), 13.5% (2024), 10.3% (2025), and 3.8% (2026), showing clear and consistent deceleration in year-over-year growth even as absolute volumes continue climbing. The same upward trend appears in year-to-date totals through week 38: 275,357 in 2022, 320,558 in 2023, 367,708 in 2024, 408,123 in 2025, and 453,992 in 2026. That means 2026 is running about 11.2% ahead of 2025's pace at the same point on the calendar and roughly 64.9% ahead of where 2022 stood after 38 weeks. The combination of slower week-of-September-21 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 38, the Central District of California, with roughly 20 million residents, produced 605 total filings — about 30 per million residents. The Northern District of Georgia, with around 6.5 million residents, produced 466 filings during the week of September 21, which works out to roughly 72 per million, more than double Southern California's per-capita rate. The Western District of Tennessee (152 Chapter 13 filings) and the Middle District of Alabama (120 Chapter 13 filings) sit even higher on a per-resident basis, while the Middle District of Florida's 604 combined filings translate to roughly 57 per million given its 10.6-million population. Adjusted for population, the heaviest filing pressure during week 38 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 4–20% annually since 2022 at this point on the calendar, the per-capita filing rate has climbed sharply over the past four years. Nationally, week 38 of 2026's 11,617 filings translate to about 34 per million residents, up from roughly 22 per million in week 38 of 2022 — an increase of about 56% in four years. Districts that were already filing-heavy have seen the steepest per-capita rises, especially the Northern District of Georgia, whose 466 combined filings during the week of September 21 represent a substantial step-up from typical week-38 totals in the mid-300s back in 2022. In contrast, the lowest-filing jurisdictions during week 38 (Alaska at 5, Montana at 8, Vermont at 9, District of Columbia at 11, Maine, Northern District of West Virginia, and South Dakota at 12 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 453,992 filings already logged through week 38, if the rest of 2026 follows 2025's seasonal pattern, the remaining 14 weeks (weeks 39 through 52) should produce roughly 172,000 additional filings, putting the full year near 626,000 total filings compared with 562,653 in 2025. Using the year-to-date 2026 weekly average of 11,947 applied to the remaining 14 weeks yields a projection of about 167,000 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 615,000–630,000. 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 562,653.
10. Forecast the trends of increasing filings after 2025. The four-year trajectory of full-year totals (378,337 in 2022, 445,208 in 2023, 503,788 in 2024, 562,653 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 September 21's year-over-year figure (3.8%) 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 surged 300% year-over-year during week 38 (from 3 to 12) driven by the Alabama and South Carolina clusters, while Chapter 13 rose 6.0% (from 4,012 to 4,254), Chapter 7 climbed 2.5% (from 7,021 to 7,200), and Chapter 11 slipped 1.9% (from 154 to 151). Chapter 13, propelled by southeastern Sun Belt districts that produced 214, 180, 152, 133, 123, 120, 112, 106, 105, and 103 filings during the week of September 21 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 38 Filing Trends

1. For week 38, beginning Monday, September 21, 2026, national filings totaled 11,617. Chapter 7 accounted for 7,200 filings, Chapter 13 accounted for 4,254, Chapter 11 accounted for 151, and Chapter 12 accounted for 12. The national total was 2,333 filings higher than week 37’s 9,284, a 25.1% increase. Compared with week 38 of 2025, when there were 11,190 filings, this week was higher by 427 filings, or 3.8%. Through week 38 of 2026, national filings reached 453,992.
2. One notable feature of week 38 was that the rebound from week 37 came almost entirely from Chapters 7 and 13. Chapter 7 rose by 1,520 filings, moving from 5,680 in week 37 to 7,200 in week 38. Chapter 13 rose by 848 filings, moving from 3,406 to 4,254. Chapter 11 declined from 190 to 151, while Chapter 12 increased from 8 to 12. Together, Chapters 7 and 13 accounted for 11,454 filings, or 98.6% of the national total of 11,617.
3. At the district level, week 38 was led by Central California with 605 filings. Middle Florida followed very closely with 604 filings, while Northern Illinois had 479, Northern Georgia had 466, and Southern Florida had 350. Eastern Michigan reported 330 filings, Northern Ohio had 283, Arizona had 279, New Jersey had 274, and Eastern Virginia had 248. The top 5 districts together produced 2,504 filings. Those 2,504 filings represented 21.6% of the national total of 11,617.
4. Geographic differences remained substantial during week 38, beginning Monday, September 21, 2026. The average district had 123.6 filings, while the median district had 102. Central California’s 605 filings were 5.9 times the median district total. There were 17 districts with at least 200 filings, including Middle Florida at 604, Northern Illinois at 479, and Northern Georgia at 466. There were also 13 districts with 20 or fewer filings, including Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands at 0, Alaska at 5, Montana at 8, Vermont at 9, and District of Columbia at 11.
5. The 2026 year-to-date picture continues to show filings running ahead of the same point in 2025. Through week 38, national filings totaled 453,992 in 2026. At the same point in 2025, national filings totaled 408,123. That means 2026 was ahead by 45,869 filings, or 11.2%, through week 38. Year-to-date Chapter 7 filings reached 287,662, Chapter 13 reached 158,964, Chapter 11 reached 7,088, and Chapter 12 reached 278.
6. Week 38 of 2026 was higher than the same week in every prior year shown in the file. The comparable weekly totals were 7,452 in 2022, 8,940 in 2023, 10,143 in 2024, 11,190 in 2025, and 11,617 in 2026. This year’s week 38 total was 55.9% higher than 2022 and 29.9% higher than 2023. It was also 14.5% higher than 2024 and 3.8% higher than 2025. On a year-to-date basis, 2026’s 453,992 filings were 86,284 higher than 2024’s 367,708 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 38, the national total of 11,617 filings across 94 districts equals 123.6 filings per district. The median district had 102 filings, which was 21.6 below the district average. Central California’s 605 filings were 4.9 times the district average, while Middle Florida’s 604 filings were also 4.9 times the district average.
8. The filing-rate proxy shows that week 38 filing activity has increased meaningfully over time. Weekly filings rose from 7,452 in 2022 to 11,617 in 2026. That is a gain of 4,165 filings over the period. Across 94 districts, the proxy increased from 79.3 filings per district in week 38 of 2022 to 123.6 filings per district in week 38 of 2026. Compared with week 38 of 2025, the proxy rose from 119.0 to 123.6 filings per district, an increase of 4.5 filings per district.
9. A simple forecast based on the 2026 year-to-date average of 11,947.2 filings per week points to about 633,199 filings for a full 53-week 2026 year. Since 453,992 filings had already occurred through week 38, that pace would add about 179,207 filings over the remaining 15 weeks. A second approach uses the 2025 weeks 39 through 52 total of 154,530 filings as a baseline. Increasing that remaining-year baseline by the current 11.2% year-to-date growth rate implies about 171,898 additional filings. Together, these approaches suggest the rest of 2026 could add roughly 171,898 to 179,207 filings.
10. The longer-term trend after 2025 remains upward because 2026 is ahead of 2025 on both the week 38 and year-to-date measures. Week 38 of 2026 had 11,617 filings, compared with 11,190 in week 38 of 2025. Through week 38, 2026 had 453,992 filings, compared with 408,123 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 10,820.3 in 2025. If the 2026 year-to-date pace of 11,947.2 filings per week continues, it would be 1,126.9 filings per week above the 2025 average.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 Analysis of Week 38 Bankruptcy Statistics

1. Weekly Overview The week ending September 21, 2026 brought 11,617 federal bankruptcy filings across the United States, a figure that lands comfortably within the year's established range and signals a return to normalcy after the holiday-distorted stretch of the past three weeks. Chapter 7 liquidations led the count with 7,200 cases, Chapter 13 wage-earner reorganizations contributed 4,254, Chapter 11 commercial restructurings added 151, and twelve Chapter 12 agricultural cases completed the weekly total. The 11,617 reading sits between the year's low of 10,463 (Week 32) and its high of 15,891 (Week 31), placing it in a band that reflects neither unusual stress nor unusual restraint. Nothing about Week 38's composition or volume suggests any abrupt shift in the underlying trajectory that has characterized 2026 as a whole. It is, in the best sense, a normative week — one that confirms the trend rather than dramatically altering it.
2. Week-over-Week Change and Post-Labor Day Recovery The move from Week 37's 9,284 filings to Week 38's 11,617 represents a 25.1% week-over-week increase — the largest single-week percentage gain of 2026, and a figure that requires the Labor Day calendar context to interpret properly. In prior years, the Wk37-to-Wk38 bounce was measured and modest: +1.8% in 2022, +6.1% in 2023, +5.3% in 2024, and +5.6% in 2025 — all single-digit recoveries from a post-holiday trough. The outsized 2026 rebound is the direct arithmetic consequence of Week 37 absorbing an unusually compressed post-holiday suppression this year, effectively borrowing volume from Week 38 in a way that prior years did not. The most apples-to-apples comparison is the combined Wk37+Wk38 two-week window: 2026 produced 20,901, which falls modestly below 2025's 21,788 but is entirely consistent with the multi-year trend arc of 14,775 (2022), 17,364 (2023), 19,771 (2024), and 21,788 (2025). No filing volume was destroyed during the Labor Day period — it was redistributed across the weeks surrounding the holiday, and Week 38's rebound closes that accounting.
3. Year-over-Year and Multi-Year Historical Comparison Week 38's 11,617 filings represent a 3.8% year-over-year increase over the 11,190 recorded in the comparable week of 2025 — the mildest annual gain in several weeks, though still positive and consistent with the broader 2026 trend. The multi-year arc for Week 38 tells a story of relentless upward drift: 7,452 in 2022, 8,940 in 2023, 10,143 in 2024, 11,190 in 2025, and now 11,617 in 2026 — a cumulative gain of 4,165 cases, or 55.9%, over four years. The moderating YoY percentage is partly a maturation effect: the earlier years of the post-pandemic filing normalization produced steeper percentage gains because the starting base was artificially depressed, and as the 2025 baseline has climbed to elevated levels of its own, the arithmetic of comparison naturally compresses the percentages. Week 38's 2025 reading of 11,190 was itself a high point for that season, making a 3.8% gain against it a sign of sustained momentum rather than a softening signal. The underlying demand for bankruptcy relief in the United States is growing; Week 38 simply demonstrates that the growth is continuing at a measured and steady pace.
4. Chapter Composition Chapter 7 liquidations dominated Week 38 with 7,200 filings representing 62.0% of all activity — roughly one percentage point below the year-to-date average of 63.4%, but within the range that has characterized 2026 consistently. Chapter 13 wage-earner repayment plans contributed 4,254 cases at 36.6%, a share slightly above recent weekly averages and reflecting ongoing consumer demand from households seeking to protect assets like homes while restructuring debt obligations over multi-year plans. The 151 Chapter 11 commercial filings at 1.3% of the week's total are below the pace implied by the 7,088 YTD figure, indicating that Week 38 was a quieter-than-average week specifically for business reorganizations, though not dramatically so. The twelve Chapter 12 agricultural cases are consistent with the late-summer seasonal pattern, when crop-year financing decisions and pending harvest revenues create a modest, predictable pulse of farm-sector filings. Taken together, the Week 38 chapter mix closely mirrors the year's established profile, with no meaningful rotation among filing types that would suggest a shift in the nature of economic distress.
5. Year-to-Date Cumulative Position Through Week 38, cumulative 2026 bankruptcy filings stand at 453,992 — a figure that already surpasses what was once projected as a plausible full-year total for a "modestly elevated" cycle year. The comparable 2025 YTD through Week 38 was 408,123, meaning 2026 is running 11.2% ahead of the prior year at the same calendar milestone. The 453,992 total represents 80.7% of 2025's full-year figure of 562,653, and with 14 weeks remaining in 2026, the year's final destination is no longer a matter of serious uncertainty — it is a matter of how far above the 2025 baseline 2026 will ultimately land. The weekly running average through Week 38 has settled at 11,947 filings per week, a rate that has been remarkably stable for the past several weeks and reflects the smoothing effect of a full 38-week accumulation. A year that would have needed to average 10,820 per week to merely match 2025's total now needs only to sustain something near the current pace to exceed it by a wide margin.
6. Per-Capita Filing Rate and Annual Increment Adjusted for a 2026 U.S. population estimate of 341 million, the running weekly average through Week 38 translates to 35.04 filings per million Americans per week — a rate that represents one of the highest sustained levels recorded in the post-pandemic normalization era. That figure marks a year-over-year improvement of +3.35 per million relative to 2025's comparable per-capita reading of 31.68 at the same point in the year. The annual per-capita increments across the four-year series have been strikingly consistent: +3.42 from 2022 to 2023, +3.53 from 2023 to 2024, +2.97 from 2024 to 2025, and +3.35 from 2025 to 2026 — all clustering tightly in the 3.0–3.5 range. That consistency across four consecutive years argues strongly that the expansion of filing demand is tracking structural and demographic fundamentals rather than reacting to year-specific macro shocks. On the current trajectory, the full-year 2026 per-capita rate is on pace to settle just above 35.5 per million, which would represent the highest sustained level of the modern normalization cycle and reflect a U.S. economy where the financial safety valve of bankruptcy relief is being accessed at a genuinely elevated frequency.
7. Geographic Distribution — Top and Bottom Districts California Central (605 filings) and Florida Middle (604 filings) together accounted for more than 10% of all national activity from just two of the country's 94 federal bankruptcy courts, topping the Week 38 leaderboard in what has become a recurring pattern throughout 2026. Illinois Northern (479), Georgia Northern (466), and Florida Southern (350) rounded out the top five, with three of the five most active courts drawn from the Florida-Southeast corridor. That geographic concentration reflects structural realities — high-population states with elevated consumer debt burdens, active real estate markets, and dense concentrations of small businesses consistently dominate weekly rankings regardless of where the national trend is heading. The top ten districts combined for approximately 4,031 filings — roughly 34.7% of the national total — confirming that bankruptcy activity in the United States remains highly concentrated rather than uniformly distributed across the country. At the opposite end, Vermont (9 filings), Montana (8), and Alaska (5) logged the lowest non-zero counts, while Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands recorded no activity in Week 38, as is typical for the U.S. territories in any given week.
8. Chapter 11 Commercial Restructuring Activity The 151 Chapter 11 filings in Week 38 bring the year-to-date commercial restructuring count to 7,088 — a figure that already equals 85.2% of 2025's entire full-year Chapter 11 total of 8,318, with 14 weeks still remaining in 2026. The year-over-year pace for Chapter 11 is running faster than any other filing category: through Week 38 of 2025 only 5,878 Chapter 11 cases had been filed, meaning the 2026 YTD is running 20.6% ahead of the comparable prior-year period. Chapter 11 carries particular economic weight because these cases involve ongoing businesses — with employees, supply chains, lease obligations, and creditor negotiations — making their volume a leading indicator of corporate financial stress in ways that consumer Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filings are not. The 7,088 YTD figure implies a full-year 2026 Chapter 11 projection well above 9,700, which would exceed 2025's full-year count by roughly 17% and establish a new high-water mark for post-pandemic commercial restructuring. Week 38's single-week reading of 151 is softer than recent weeks but falls within the normal week-to-week volatility for this category, and does nothing to interrupt what is clearly an accelerating longer-term trend in business bankruptcy demand.
9. Full-Year Forecast Projections Three independent forecasting methods converge with unusual consistency on the likely destination for 2026's full-year filing total, lending greater confidence to the range than any single methodology could provide on its own. The first method — projecting the last four weeks' average of 11,985 filings per week across the 14 remaining weeks — yields a full-year estimate of 621,782. The second approach extends the year's full 38-week running average of 11,947 per week through year-end, producing 621,252 — just 530 cases different from the first estimate. The third method applies the historically observed 3.5% second-half seasonal premium to the H1 weekly average of 11,932, generating a seasonally adjusted H2 rate of 12,349 per week and a full-year projection of 626,882. All three approaches imply a year-over-year increase of approximately 10.4%–11.4% over 2025's 562,653 full-year total, a range so tightly clustered that the year's final figure is unlikely to land far outside it barring an unforeseen macro disruption in either direction. The convergence of distinct methodologies around the 621,000–627,000 band provides the strongest signal yet that 2026 is on a clear and determined path to the highest annual filing total of the post-pandemic era.
10. Forward Outlook Historical data for the Week 38-to-Week 39 transition carries a wide range but a clear directional signal: filings jumped 29.6% in 2022, 31.8% in 2023, 10.5% in 2024, and 5.3% in 2025 — a progression showing the typical autumn acceleration effect gradually flattening as the filing baseline has risen to higher absolute levels. Given that the 2026 calendar has now fully resolved the Labor Day redistribution dynamics and is entering a period of normalized activity, a Week 39 reading somewhere in the 11,500–13,500 range would be consistent with both the historical pattern and the current trend environment. Sustained readings above 12,000 in the coming weeks would push the YTD figure toward 470,000 by the end of September, which would place 2026 firmly on pace for a full-year total near the 625,000 mark. The broader picture entering the final stretch of the year is one of a filing cycle that has exceeded expectations at virtually every quarterly checkpoint, driven by the convergence of post-pandemic normalization, rising consumer debt loads, and elevated business stress in rate-sensitive sectors. With 80.7% of 2025's annual total already booked through the first 38 weeks, the question is no longer whether 2026 will set a post-pandemic record, but by how much.

ChatGPT 5.6 Sol Analysis of Week 38 District-Level Filing Data

1. In week 38, beginning Monday, September 21, 2026, United States bankruptcy courts recorded 11,617 filings nationwide. Chapter 7 accounted for 7,200 cases, Chapter 13 for 4,254, Chapter 11 for 151, and Chapter 12 for 12. Total filings increased by 2,333 cases, or 25.1%, from the 9,284 filings recorded in week 37. Week 38 was also slightly below the recent four-week average of 11,985 filings, a difference of 368 cases. The rebound therefore recovered a large portion of the previous week’s decline, although filings remained below the 13,510 recorded in week 36.
2. One interesting feature of week 38 is that the rebound was driven almost entirely by the two largest consumer chapters. Chapter 7 increased by 1,520 cases, from 5,680 in week 37 to 7,200, while Chapter 13 rose by 848, from 3,406 to 4,254. Chapter 11 moved in the opposite direction, declining from 190 to 151 filings, a decrease of 20.5%. Chapter 12 increased from 8 to 12 cases, while Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 together represented 98.6% of the week’s 11,617 filings. The chapter mix shows that the 25.1% national increase was primarily a rebound in consumer bankruptcy activity.
3. District activity in week 38 was led by the Central District of California with 605 filings and the Middle District of Florida with 604. The Northern District of Illinois followed with 479 cases, while the Northern District of Georgia recorded 466 and the Southern District of Florida recorded 350. Together, those five districts generated 2,504 filings, representing about 21.6% of the national total. All five increased from week 37, including gains of 159 cases in Central California, 142 in Northern Illinois, and 121 in Southern Florida. Those five districts alone added 600 filings from the prior week, helping drive the nationwide rebound to 11,617 cases.
4. Geographic differences remained substantial during week 38. Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands each recorded 0 filings, while Alaska recorded 5, Montana 8, and Vermont 9. By comparison, the Central District of California handled 605 cases, which was 121 times Alaska’s total. The five busiest districts produced 2,504 filings, while Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands, Alaska, and Montana combined for only 13. With 11,617 filings nationwide, the data continue to show that bankruptcy activity is concentrated heavily in a relatively small group of high-volume districts.
5. Through week 38, United States courts have recorded 453,992 bankruptcy filings in 2026, compared with 408,123 through the same point in 2025. That difference of 45,869 filings represents a year-to-date increase of approximately 11.2%. The average so far this year stands at about 11,947 filings per week, compared with approximately 10,740 during the first 38 weeks of 2025. Chapter 7 has reached 287,662 cases, Chapter 13 158,964, Chapter 11 7,088, and Chapter 12 278. Compared with 2025, those totals are higher by 30,466 Chapter 7 cases, 14,132 Chapter 13 cases, 1,210 Chapter 11 cases, and 61 Chapter 12 cases.
6. Week 38’s 11,617 filings were 427 higher than the 11,190 cases recorded during the same week of 2025, an increase of 3.8%. Compared with week 38 of 2024, when courts recorded 10,143 filings, the current total was 1,474 cases higher, or about 14.5%. Chapter 7 increased from 7,021 cases in 2025 to 7,200 in 2026, while Chapter 13 rose from 4,012 to 4,254. Chapter 11 slipped slightly from 154 to 151 filings, while Chapter 12 increased from 3 to 12. More broadly, the 453,992 filings recorded through week 38 are 11.2% above 2025 and 23.5% above 2024 at the same point of the year.
7. Using a rounded United States population benchmark of about 342 million, week 38’s 11,617 filings equal approximately 34.0 filings per million residents. Chapter 7 contributed about 21.1 filings per million, while Chapter 13 accounted for roughly 12.4 per million. Chapter 11 contributed about 0.4 per million, and the 12 Chapter 12 cases represented roughly 0.04 per million. The two main consumer chapters together produced 11,454 filings, equal to about 33.5 cases per million residents. Week 37’s 9,284 filings equated to roughly 27.1 per million, so the national rate increased by about 6.8 filings per million in one week.
8. The longer-term per-capita comparison also continues to point upward. Using the same population benchmark for consistency, week 38 of 2025’s 11,190 filings equal about 32.7 filings per million, compared with 34.0 per million this year. Week 38 of 2024 was lower at approximately 29.7 filings per million, based on 10,143 cases. On a year-to-date basis, 2026 is averaging about 34.9 filings per million per week, compared with 31.4 in 2025 and 28.3 in 2024. The progression from 28.3 to 31.4 to 34.9 filings per million shows that bankruptcy activity has continued to increase even after adjusting for population.
9. Through week 38, the 453,992 filings recorded in 2026 translate to an average of approximately 11,947 cases per week. If that pace continues for the remaining 14 weeks, the year would finish with roughly 621,252 filings. Using the recent four-week average of 11,985 instead would produce a very similar projection of approximately 621,782 cases. A more conservative scenario in which filings remain at week 38’s 11,617 level would produce about 616,630 filings for the year. Those scenarios would place 2026 roughly 9.6% to 10.5% above the 562,653 filings recorded during all of 2025.
10. The longer-term trend shows annual bankruptcy filings rising from 378,337 in 2022 to 445,208 in 2023, 503,788 in 2024, and 562,653 in 2025. Those increases represent annual growth of approximately 17.7%, 13.2%, and 11.7%, showing continued expansion even as the growth rate gradually moderated. A central 2026 projection of about 621,252 filings would represent another increase of roughly 10.4% over 2025. If annual growth then moderated to around 7%, filings would reach approximately 664,740 in 2027 and 711,272 in 2028. The data therefore support continued growth after 2025, although the jump from 9,284 filings in week 37 to 11,617 in week 38 shows that the longer-term increase can still include substantial week-to-week volatility.