*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 39 Bankruptcy Filing Statistics by Chapter (Updated September 28th, 2026)

Week 39 showed modest consumer growth, with bankruptcies rising about 2% to 11,825 filings, while business filings declined roughly 17% to 192 cases compared with the same week last year.

Chapter 7 filings, a lifeline for many struggling households, were up 2.10% year-over-year (7,469 in 2025 to 7,626 in 2026). Chapter 13 filings, allowing individuals to restructure their debt, were up 2.82% year-over-year (4,084 in 2025 to 4,199 in 2026). Chapter 11 filings, often used by businesses facing insolvency, were down 16.23% year-over-year (228 in 2025 to 191 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.

• Credit card debt climbs to $1.26 trillion as ‘K-shaped’ divide persists, New York Fed research finds
• House Passes Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment Act
• Temporary Fee Increase Effective Jan. 1, 2027 | PACER: Federal Court Records\
• Leading Companies Filing for Bankruptcy 2026

AI Analysis of 2026 Week 39 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 39 Bankruptcy Filings

1. Overview of this week's National filings. For the week of September 28, the country recorded 12,017 total bankruptcy filings, the highest week-39 figure in the entire five-year span of the dataset. Chapter 7 liquidations made up 7,626 filings during week 39, or roughly 63.5% of the national total, while Chapter 13 wage-earner reorganizations contributed 4,199 filings, about 34.9%. Chapter 11 business reorganizations added 191 filings and Chapter 12 farm filings totaled just 1, together accounting for about 1.6% of week 39 activity. Week-over-week, total filings edged up 1.4% from week 38's 11,853, settling just above the 2026 year-to-date weekly average of 11,955. Year-over-year, week 39 of 2026 is up a modest 2.0% compared with the same week in 2025, which posted 11,785 filings.
2. An interesting fact about this week's filings. The most striking detail about the week of September 28 is the collapse of Chapter 12 farm filings to a lone single filing nationwide — originating in the Western District of Pennsylvania — down 75.0% from 4 filings in the same week of 2025 and the lowest weekly Chapter 12 reading observed anywhere in 2026. This is a sharp reversal from the prior week's 12-filing surge, confirming how volatile this small chapter can be. Chapter 11 business filings also pulled back 16.2% year-over-year (from 228 to 191), but the mix stayed interesting: New Jersey led with 29 filings, followed by a surprising tie between the Northern District of Illinois and the Middle District of Florida at 22 Chapter 11 filings each. On the Chapter 13 side, the Northern District of Illinois posted an eye-catching 209 filings — its second week in a row above the 200 threshold. Together, these patterns reflect a weekly chapter mix that shifted toward concentrated business restructuring in a few key venues even as farm filings vanished.
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 28, the Central District of California led the country with 668 filings, followed by the Middle District of Florida at 635, the Northern District of Illinois at 511, the Northern District of Georgia at 408, and the Southern District of Florida at 373. The Eastern District of Michigan recorded 351 total filings during week 39, the Northern District of Ohio 317, the Eastern District of California 289, New Jersey 280, and Maryland 279. Looking at Chapter 7 alone, the Central District of California posted 567, the Middle District of Florida 483, the Northern District of Illinois 280, the Northern District of Ohio 264, the Northern District of Georgia 256, the Eastern District of California 249, the Eastern District of Michigan 225, the Southern District of Florida 223, Arizona 211, and the Southern District of Ohio 199. On the Chapter 13 side, the Northern District of Illinois led with 209, followed by the Northern District of Georgia at 150, the Southern District of Florida at 143, the Middle District of Florida at 130, the Western District of Tennessee at 129, the Eastern District of Michigan at 126, the Northern District of Alabama at 120, the Middle District of Alabama at 107, the Eastern District of Virginia at 105, and the Middle District of Georgia at 102. The top ten districts during week 39 together produced about 4,111 filings, accounting for roughly 34.2% of the 12,017-filing national total.
4. Geographic (district) disparities in filings. The disparity between busy and quiet districts during week 39 remained enormous: while the Central District of California posted 668 total filings, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the Virgin Islands each recorded zero. Other very low-volume districts during the week of September 28 included Alaska at 2, the District of Columbia at 4, Vermont at 9, Wyoming at 10, South Dakota at 12, the Northern District of West Virginia at 14, and Rhode Island at 19. New Jersey (280) and Delaware (which saw 13 Chapter 11 filings) hosted notable business restructuring activity this week, illustrating how filing-favorable venues continue to shape the chapter mix. The southeastern Sun Belt and major metro districts of California, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio dominated the overall leaderboard for week 39. 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 39 weeks of 2026, the country has logged 466,253 total filings, an average of 11,955 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, 13,510 in week 36, and now 12,017 in the week of September 28. Chapter 7 rose to 7,626 during week 39 (up from 7,200 the prior week), while Chapter 13 slipped slightly to 4,199 (down from 4,254). Chapter 11 climbed to 191 in week 39 from 151 the prior week, while Chapter 12 collapsed to just 1 from 12. The overall pattern for 2026 is a clearly higher baseline than any earlier year covered by the dataset, with year-to-date volume now firmly on track to finish the year around 625,000 filings.
6. Comparative analysis with previous years. Looking at the same week 39 across years yields an uneven path: 9,656 in 2022, 11,784 in 2023, 11,213 in 2024, 11,785 in 2025, and 12,017 in 2026 — a cumulative increase of about 24.4% over the four-year span. Annual growth rates for week 39 specifically were 22.0% (2023), -4.8% (2024), 5.1% (2025), and 2.0% (2026), highlighting how 2024 actually saw a decline at this point on the calendar before activity resumed climbing. The same upward trend appears cleanly in year-to-date totals through week 39: 285,013 in 2022, 332,343 in 2023, 378,922 in 2024, 419,911 in 2025, and 466,253 in 2026. That means 2026 is running about 11.0% ahead of 2025's pace at the same point on the calendar and roughly 63.6% ahead of where 2022 stood after 39 weeks. The combination of a slower week-of-September-28 year-over-year figure and still-strong year-to-date gains suggests the rate of growth is moderating steadily 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 39, the Central District of California, with roughly 20 million residents, produced 668 total filings — about 33 per million residents. The Northern District of Georgia, with around 6.5 million residents, produced 408 filings during the week of September 28, which works out to roughly 63 per million, nearly double Southern California's per-capita rate. The Western District of Tennessee (129 Chapter 13 filings) and the Northern District of Alabama (120 Chapter 13 filings) sit even higher on a per-resident basis, while the Middle District of Florida's 635 combined filings translate to roughly 60 per million given its 10.6-million population. Adjusted for population, the heaviest filing pressure during week 39 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)–22% annually since 2022 at this point on the calendar, the per-capita filing rate has climbed sharply over the past four years. Nationally, week 39 of 2026's 12,017 filings translate to about 35 per million residents, up from roughly 28 per million in week 39 of 2022 — an increase of about 24% in four years. Districts that were already filing-heavy have seen the steepest per-capita rises, especially the Central District of California, whose 668 combined filings during the week of September 28 represent a substantial step-up from typical week-39 totals in the mid-400s back in 2022. In contrast, the lowest-filing jurisdictions during week 39 (Alaska at 2, District of Columbia at 4, Vermont at 9, Wyoming at 10, South Dakota at 12) 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 466,253 filings already logged through week 39, if the rest of 2026 follows 2025's seasonal pattern, the remaining 13 weeks (weeks 40 through 52) should produce roughly 159,000 additional filings, putting the full year near 625,000 total filings compared with 562,656 in 2025. Using the year-to-date 2026 weekly average of 11,955 applied to the remaining 13 weeks yields a projection of about 155,000 more filings and a year-end total around 622,000. 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 562,656.
10. Forecast the trends of increasing filings after 2025. The four-year trajectory of full-year totals (378,337 in 2022, 445,209 in 2023, 503,789 in 2024, 562,656 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 28's year-over-year figure (2.0%) spreads to additional weeks, annual increases could moderate to about 4–6% in 2027 and 2–4% in 2028, putting filings into the 650,000–680,000 range by 2027 and the 665,000–705,000 range by 2028. The chapter mix is also likely to keep shifting: Chapter 7 grew just 2.1% year-over-year during week 39 (from 7,469 to 7,626), while Chapter 13 rose 2.8% (from 4,084 to 4,199), Chapter 11 slipped 16.2% (from 228 to 191), and Chapter 12 collapsed 75.0% (from 4 to just 1). Chapter 13, propelled by southeastern Sun Belt districts that produced 209, 150, 143, 130, 129, 126, 120, 107, 105, and 102 filings during the week of September 28 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 39 Filing Trends

1. For week 39, beginning Monday, September 28, 2026, national filings totaled 12,017. Chapter 7 accounted for 7,626 filings, Chapter 13 accounted for 4,199, Chapter 11 accounted for 191, and Chapter 12 accounted for 1. The national total was 164 filings higher than week 38’s 11,853, a 1.4% increase. Compared with week 39 of 2025, when there were 11,785 filings, this week was higher by 232 filings, or 2.0%. Through week 39 of 2026, national filings reached 466,253.
2. One notable feature of week 39 was that the overall increase came despite a decline in Chapter 13. Chapter 7 rose by 277 filings, moving from 7,349 in week 38 to 7,626 in week 39. Chapter 13 fell by 131 filings, moving from 4,330 to 4,199. Chapter 11 increased from 162 to 191, while Chapter 12 declined from 12 to 1. Together, Chapters 7 and 13 accounted for 11,825 filings, or 98.4% of the national total of 12,017.
3. At the district level, week 39 was led by Central California with 668 filings. Middle Florida followed with 635 filings, Northern Illinois had 511, Northern Georgia had 408, and Southern Florida had 373. Eastern Michigan reported 351 filings, Northern Ohio had 317, Eastern California had 289, New Jersey had 280, and Maryland had 279. The top 5 districts together produced 2,595 filings. Those 2,595 filings represented 21.6% of the national total of 12,017.
4. Geographic differences remained substantial during week 39, beginning Monday, September 28, 2026. The average district had 127.8 filings, while the median district had 96.5. Central California’s 668 filings were 6.9 times the median district total. There were 17 districts with at least 200 filings, including Middle Florida at 635, Northern Illinois at 511, and Northern Georgia at 408. There were also 11 districts with 20 or fewer filings, including Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands at 0, Alaska at 2, District of Columbia at 4, Vermont at 9, and Wyoming at 10.
5. The 2026 year-to-date picture continues to show filings running ahead of the same point in 2025. Through week 39, national filings totaled 466,253 in 2026. At the same point in 2025, national filings totaled 419,911. That means 2026 was ahead by 46,342 filings, or 11.0%, through week 39. Year-to-date Chapter 7 filings reached 295,565, Chapter 13 reached 163,134, Chapter 11 reached 7,276, and Chapter 12 reached 278.
6. Week 39 of 2026 was higher than the same week in every prior year shown in the file. The comparable weekly totals were 9,656 in 2022, 11,784 in 2023, 11,213 in 2024, 11,785 in 2025, and 12,017 in 2026. This year’s week 39 total was 24.4% higher than 2022 and 2.0% higher than 2023. It was also 7.2% higher than 2024 and 2.0% higher than 2025. On a year-to-date basis, 2026’s 466,253 filings were 87,331 higher than 2024’s 378,922 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 39, the national total of 12,017 filings across 94 districts equals 127.8 filings per district. The median district had 96.5 filings, which was 31.3 below the district average. Central California’s 668 filings were 5.2 times the district average, while Middle Florida’s 635 filings were 5.0 times the district average.
8. The filing-rate proxy shows that week 39 filing activity has increased since 2022. Weekly filings rose from 9,656 in 2022 to 12,017 in 2026. That is a gain of 2,361 filings over the period. Across 94 districts, the proxy increased from 102.7 filings per district in week 39 of 2022 to 127.8 filings per district in week 39 of 2026. Compared with week 39 of 2025, the proxy rose from 125.4 to 127.8 filings per district, an increase of 2.5 filings per district.
9. A simple forecast based on the 2026 year-to-date average of 11,955.2 filings per week points to about 633,626 filings for a full 53-week 2026 year. Since 466,253 filings had already occurred through week 39, that pace would add about 167,373 filings over the remaining 14 weeks. A second approach uses the 2025 weeks 40 through 52 total of 142,745 filings as a baseline. Increasing that remaining-year baseline by the current 11.0% year-to-date growth rate implies about 158,499 additional filings. Together, these approaches suggest the rest of 2026 could add roughly 158,499 to 167,373 filings.
10. The longer-term trend after 2025 remains upward because 2026 is ahead of 2025 on both the week 39 and year-to-date measures. Week 39 of 2026 had 12,017 filings, compared with 11,785 in week 39 of 2025. Through week 39, 2026 had 466,253 filings, compared with 419,911 in 2025. The full-year weekly average rose from 7,275.7 in 2022 to 8,561.7 in 2023, 9,688.3 in 2024, and 10,820.3 in 2025. If the 2026 year-to-date pace of 11,955.2 filings per week continues, it would be 1,134.9 filings per week above the 2025 average.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 Analysis of Week 39 Bankruptcy Statistics

1. Overview of This Week's National Filings The week ending September 28, 2026 produced 12,017 federal bankruptcy filings across the United States, a reading that sits solidly above the year's weekly running average and signals a full return to baseline after the post-Labor Day distortions of the prior two weeks. Chapter 7 liquidations led the count with 7,626 cases, representing 63.5% of all activity, while Chapter 13 wage-earner reorganizations added 4,199 filings at 34.9%. Chapter 11 commercial restructurings contributed 191 cases at 1.6% of the week's total, and just one Chapter 12 agricultural filing was recorded nationally — the quietest week for farm-sector bankruptcies of the entire year. The 12,017 total places Week 39 firmly in the mid-range of 2026's weekly distribution, which has spanned from a low of 9,284 in Week 37 to a high of 15,891 in Week 31. Taken as a whole, it is a week that reflects steady, unremarkable demand for bankruptcy relief — the kind of reading that confirms a trend rather than reshaping it.
2. An Interesting Fact About This Week's Filings The most notable feature of Week 39 is the contrast between its two commercial filing categories: Chapter 11 business restructurings came in at 191 — one of the higher single-week readings for that category in recent months — while Chapter 12 agricultural filings fell to just one case, the lowest count of the entire year. That divergence captures two different currents running simultaneously through the economy: elevated corporate financial stress in the business sector alongside an unusually quiet week for farm operators, whose filing patterns are typically more seasonal and clustered around crop-year credit events. The week-over-week gain of +1.4% from Week 38's 11,853 to Week 39's 12,017 is also the mildest week-on-week change in the entire post-Labor Day recovery sequence, suggesting the rebound from the holiday trough has fully completed and the filing pace has stabilized rather than continuing to accelerate. For comparison, the same Wk38-to-Wk39 transition gained +29.6% in 2022, +31.8% in 2023, +10.5% in 2024, and +5.3% in 2025 — all of them larger than 2026's +1.4%, reflecting how much less room for percentage gains remains as the absolute baseline has risen to a high level. Week 39 is, in that sense, a week of consolidation rather than momentum.
3. An Overview of This Week's District-Level Filings California Central led all 94 federal bankruptcy courts with 668 filings — 5.6% of the national total from a single district — followed closely by Florida Middle at 635 (5.3%) and Illinois Northern at 511 (4.3%). Georgia Northern added 408 cases at 3.4%, and Florida Southern contributed 373 at 3.1%, rounding out a top five that together accounted for 2,595 filings, or 21.6% of all national activity. The mid-tier was anchored by New Jersey (280), Maryland (279), Ohio Southern (275), Arizona (264), Virginia Eastern (250), and Texas Northern (247), all posting between 2.1% and 2.3% of the national count. Indiana Southern (235), Michigan Eastern (351), and Ohio Northern (317) added further volume from the Midwest, reinforcing the region's consistent presence among the most active courts. At the opposite end, Wyoming registered just 10 filings, Vermont 9, the District of Columbia 4, and Alaska only 2, while Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands each recorded zero activity for the week.
4. Geographic Disparities in Filings The gulf between the most and least active districts in Week 39 is extraordinary: California Central's 668 filings is 167 times Alaska's 2, a disparity that reflects the compounding effect of population density, consumer debt levels, and the intensity of housing market stress across different regions of the country. The top two districts alone — California Central and Florida Middle — produced 1,303 filings combined, meaning just two of the nation's 94 courts accounted for 10.8% of all activity for the week. The Southeast corridor remained a dominant force: Florida Middle, Florida Southern, Georgia Northern, and Virginia Eastern together contributed 1,666 filings, or 13.9% of the national total, from just four adjacent-region courts. The top ten districts as a whole generated approximately 4,217 filings — 35.1% of the national count — while the bottom ten districts collectively produced fewer than 100 cases. This persistent geographic concentration means that a handful of large-population, high-debt-burden metros effectively set the national trend, and what happens in Central California and Middle Florida matters more to the weekly total than the combined activity of more than a dozen smaller jurisdictions.
5. Current Year Focus With Week 39 complete, cumulative 2026 filings stand at 466,253 through the first 39 weeks of the year — a figure that has grown by more than 12,000 since just one month ago and now surpasses what was a plausible full-year total estimate for a "moderately elevated" cycle year as recently as January. The YTD total represents 82.9% of 2025's full-year figure of 562,656, and with 13 weeks remaining, the arithmetic path to a new annual record is clear. The weekly running average through Week 39 is 11,955 — essentially flat from the prior week's 11,947 — indicating that the year's pace has reached a state of near-equilibrium rather than continuing to drift higher. On the chapter side, Chapter 7 accounts for 295,565 YTD filings at 63.4%, Chapter 13 adds 163,134 at 35.0%, and Chapter 11 has accumulated 7,276 for the year at 1.6%. At the current weekly pace, the year-end total will land well above 600,000 regardless of the exact final count, making 2026 the strongest year for bankruptcy filings since before the pandemic-era suppression that bottomed in 2020–2021.
6. Comparative Analysis With Previous Years Week 39's 12,017 filings set a new high-water mark for this calendar week in every year of the available record: it exceeds 2022's 9,656 by +24.5%, 2023's 11,784 by +2.0%, 2024's 11,213 by +7.2%, and 2025's 11,785 by another +2.0%. The near-identical 2023 and 2025 readings of 11,784 and 11,785 — separated by two full years but virtually indistinguishable — underscore how the filing pace paused during the 2024–2025 transition before resuming its climb in 2026. The YTD comparison confirms the same story: through Week 39, 2026's 466,253 runs 11.0% ahead of 2025's 419,911, and the gap has remained remarkably stable between 10% and 11% for the past several months. The cumulative four-year gain for Week 39 — from 9,656 in 2022 to 12,017 in 2026 — represents 2,361 additional filings per week at this same point in the calendar, an increase of nearly a quarter in just four years. That absolute growth, more than the percentage figures, captures the scale of the structural change underway in American bankruptcy filings.
7. Analyzing the Filings Per Capita Adjusted for a 2026 U.S. population of 341 million Americans, the running weekly average through Week 39 translates to 35.06 filings per million people per week — a rate that has been essentially stable for the past two weeks (35.04 in Week 38, 35.06 in Week 39). Week 39 itself contributed 34.95 per million for the single week, a reading slightly below the year's running average and consistent with the view that Week 39 was a mild, near-trend week in both absolute and population-adjusted terms. The comparable per-capita rates through Week 39 for prior years were 21.95 per million in 2022, 25.44 in 2023, 28.83 in 2024, and 31.76 in 2025 — a staircase of consistent upward progression at every annual checkpoint. The current 2026 reading of 35.06 per million represents a 59.8% increase over the 2022 rate of 21.95, meaning the per-capita burden of financial distress requiring bankruptcy relief has grown by nearly three-fifths in just four years. On a population-adjusted basis, roughly one in every 28,500 Americans filed for bankruptcy in a given week during 2026 — a frequency that underscores how routine financial restructuring through the federal courts has become.
8. Analyzing the Changing Filings Per Capita The year-over-year per-capita increment through Week 39 stands at +3.30 per million — the difference between 2026's 35.06 and 2025's 31.76 at the same point in the calendar. That figure continues a pattern of striking consistency across the entire four-year series: annual increments of +3.49 from 2022 to 2023, +3.39 from 2023 to 2024, +2.93 from 2024 to 2025, and now +3.30 from 2025 to 2026. The slight easing from the +3.35 reading observed through Week 38 to +3.30 through Week 39 reflects the arithmetic of a single week in which 2025 posted a particularly strong comparable figure of 11,785, narrowing the gap marginally. Across four annual transitions, the increment has never fallen below +2.93 or risen above +3.49 — a band of just 0.56 per million that is remarkably tight for a measure aggregating 341 million people and 94 federal courts. The consistency of that band argues that the expansion in per-capita filing demand is tracking a fundamental structural shift — most likely the progressive normalization of bankruptcy access following pandemic-era forbearance, stimulus, and suppressed filing rates — rather than oscillating with short-term changes in the economy.
9. Forecast the Expected Filing Numbers for the Rest of the Year With 13 weeks remaining in 2026 and 466,253 filings already recorded, three independent forecasting methods continue to produce a tight, confidence-inspiring consensus on the year's likely destination. The first method — averaging the most recent four weeks (Weeks 36 through 39) at 11,666 filings per week and projecting that pace over the remaining 13 weeks — yields a full-year total of 617,911. The second method extends the year's full 39-week running average of 11,955 per week through year-end, producing 621,671 — just 3,760 cases different from the first estimate. The third approach applies the historically observed 3.5% second-half seasonal premium to the first-half weekly average of 11,932, generating an adjusted H2 pace of 12,350 per week and a full-year projection of 626,797. All three methods imply a year-over-year gain of approximately 9.8% to 11.4% over 2025's 562,656 total, with the spread among the three projections now narrowed to under 9,000 cases — a tight band for forecasts still 13 weeks from resolution. The most likely landing zone for 2026 is 618,000 to 627,000 filings, which would represent the highest annual total of the post-pandemic era by a margin of at least 55,000 cases.
10. Forecast the Trends of Increasing Filings After 2025 The Wk39-to-Wk40 transition carries one of the widest historical variance ranges in the calendar, making next week's reading genuinely uncertain: prior years showed changes of -28.1% in 2022, -32.1% in 2023, -2.3% in 2024, and +14.6% in 2025 — a span of nearly 47 percentage points from worst to best. That volatility reflects the convergence of end-of-quarter filing decisions, October court scheduling patterns, and the occasional clustering of large commercial cases that can move the needle in either direction for a given week. The 2025 reading of +14.6% that carried Week 40 to 13,510 cases will present a challenging year-over-year comparison in next week's analysis; matching or exceeding that level would require an unusually active week, while a return toward the flatter 2024 pattern would be the more historically grounded baseline expectation. Beyond Week 40, the broader structural trajectory entering the final quarter of 2026 is clearly upward: every quarter of 2026 has exceeded the same period of 2025, the per-capita increment has held steady near +3.3 per million for the full year, and Chapter 11 commercial filings are running 19.2% ahead of 2025 with the YTD count of 7,276 already at 87.5% of last year's full-year total of 8,318. If the trend that has governed the past four years continues into 2027 at a comparable annual per-capita increment, a 2027 weekly average near 12,500 to 13,000 per week would become the next baseline — meaning the pace of growth is unlikely to moderate meaningfully absent a significant change in the underlying economic or policy environment.

ChatGPT 5.6 Sol Analysis of Week 39 District-Level Filing Data

1. In week 39, beginning Monday, September 28, 2026, United States bankruptcy courts recorded 12,017 filings nationwide. Chapter 7 accounted for 7,626 cases, Chapter 13 for 4,199, Chapter 11 for 191, and Chapter 12 for 1. Total filings increased by 164 cases, or 1.4%, from the 11,853 filings recorded in week 38. Week 39 was also 351 filings above the recent four-week average of 11,666. The file contains a partial week 40, so this analysis stops at week 39 as requested and does not treat that incomplete period as comparable.
2. One interesting feature of week 39 was the increase in Chapter 11 activity even though the national total changed only modestly. Chapter 11 rose from 162 cases in week 38 to 191 in week 39, an increase of 17.9%. Chapter 7 also increased by 277 filings, while Chapter 13 declined by 131 and Chapter 12 dropped from 12 cases to just 1. Chapter 7 represented 63.5% of all filings and Chapter 13 accounted for 34.9%, meaning the two consumer chapters together represented about 98.4% of the national total. The chapter mix therefore shows that the 1.4% nationwide increase came mainly from stronger Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 activity.
3. District activity in week 39 was led by the Central District of California with 668 filings and the Middle District of Florida with 635. The Northern District of Illinois followed with 511 cases, while the Northern District of Georgia recorded 408 and the Southern District of Florida recorded 373. Together, those five districts generated 2,595 filings, representing about 21.6% of the national total. Compared with week 38, Central California increased by 43 cases, Middle Florida by 22, and Northern Illinois by 8, while Northern Georgia declined by 59. These figures show that the national increase of 164 filings reflected a mixture of gains and declines across the country’s busiest districts.
4. Geographic differences remained substantial during week 39. Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands each recorded 0 filings, while Alaska recorded 2 and the District of Columbia recorded 4. By comparison, the Central District of California handled 668 cases, or 334 times Alaska’s total. The five busiest districts produced 2,595 filings, while those five lowest-volume jurisdictions combined for only 6. With 12,017 filings nationwide, bankruptcy activity continued to be heavily concentrated in a relatively small number of high-volume districts.
5. Through week 39, United States courts have recorded 466,253 bankruptcy filings in 2026, compared with 419,911 through the same point in 2025. That difference of 46,342 filings represents a year-to-date increase of approximately 11.0%. The average so far this year stands at about 11,955 filings per week, compared with approximately 10,767 during the first 39 weeks of 2025. Chapter 7 has reached 295,565 cases, Chapter 13 163,134, Chapter 11 7,276, and Chapter 12 278. Compared with 2025, those totals are higher by 30,794 Chapter 7 cases, 14,319 Chapter 13 cases, 1,172 Chapter 11 cases, and 57 Chapter 12 cases.
6. Week 39’s 12,017 filings were 232 higher than the 11,785 cases recorded during the same week of 2025, an increase of approximately 2.0%. Compared with week 39 of 2024, when courts recorded 11,213 filings, the current total was 804 cases higher, or about 7.2%. Chapter 7 increased from 7,469 cases in 2025 to 7,626 in 2026, while Chapter 13 rose from 4,084 to 4,199. Chapter 11 declined from 228 filings in 2025 to 191 this year, while Chapter 12 decreased from 4 to 1. More broadly, the 466,253 filings recorded through week 39 are 11.0% above 2025 and 23.0% above 2024 at the same point of the year.
7. Using a rounded United States population benchmark of about 342 million, week 39’s 12,017 filings equal approximately 35.1 filings per million residents. Chapter 7 contributed about 22.3 filings per million, while Chapter 13 accounted for roughly 12.3 per million. Chapter 11 contributed approximately 0.6 per million, and the single Chapter 12 case was effectively 0.003 per million. Week 38’s 11,853 filings equated to approximately 34.7 per million, meaning the national rate increased by about 0.5 filings per million in week 39. The population-adjusted figures therefore show a modest rise that closely matches the 1.4% increase in the overall weekly filing count.
8. The longer-term per-capita comparison continues to point upward. Using the same population benchmark for consistency, week 39 of 2025’s 11,785 filings equal about 34.5 filings per million, compared with 35.1 per million in 2026. Week 39 of 2024 was lower at approximately 32.8 filings per million, based on 11,213 cases. On a year-to-date basis, 2026 is averaging roughly 35.0 filings per million per week, compared with 31.5 in 2025 and 28.4 in 2024. The progression from 28.4 to 31.5 to 35.0 filings per million shows that bankruptcy activity has continued to rise even after accounting for population.
9. Through week 39, the 466,253 filings recorded in 2026 translate to an average of approximately 11,955 cases per week. Using the same 52-week reporting span as the prior years in the file, maintaining that pace for the remaining 13 weeks would produce roughly 621,671 filings for the year. Using the recent four-week average of 11,666 instead would produce an estimated 617,911 cases. If filings remained at week 39’s 12,017 level, the year would finish at approximately 622,474 filings. Those scenarios would place 2026 roughly 9.8% to 10.6% above the 562,656 filings recorded during all of 2025.
10. The longer-term trend shows annual bankruptcy filings increasing from 378,337 in 2022 to 445,209 in 2023, 503,789 in 2024, and 562,656 in 2025. Those increases represent annual growth of approximately 17.7%, 13.2%, and 11.7%, showing continued expansion even as the pace has gradually moderated. A central 2026 projection of about 621,671 filings would represent another increase of roughly 10.5% over 2025. If annual growth then moderated to around 7%, filings would reach approximately 665,188 in 2027 and 711,751 in 2028. The data therefore support continued growth after 2025, although the relatively small increase from 11,853 filings in week 38 to 12,017 in week 39 shows that future growth is likely to remain uneven from week to week.