Most people who file for bankruptcy are not reckless spenders. They are ordinary earners, usually taking home under $45,000 a year, undone by a medical bill or a lost paycheck they never had room to absorb.
And after more than a decade of falling numbers, more of these households are reaching that point every year. U.S. filings have reversed course and climbed for three straight years.
This page tracks the verified national data: how many cases were filed, who is filing, which chapters they choose, and why.
Every figure below is sourced to the federal judiciary, the American Bankruptcy Institute, or peer-reviewed research, with the reporting period named so you can see exactly how current it is.
Key Takeaways
- 574,314 total filings in 2025, up 11% year over year and rising for a third consecutive year.[1]
- The long post-2010 decline ended in 2023. Filings have jumped 16.8%, then 14.2%, then 11% across 2023–2025.[1][2]
- Chapter 7 remains the most common path, about 60% of cases, ahead of Chapter 13.[3]
- Medical problems contribute to 66.5% of personal bankruptcies, the single largest cause.[4]
- Most filers earn under $45,000 a year, confirming bankruptcy is largely a lower-income household event.[5]
How Many People File Bankruptcy in the U.S. Each Year?
Americans filed 574,314 bankruptcy cases in the 12 months ending December 31, 2025, an 11% rise over the 517,308 cases filed a year earlier, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.[1]
That pushed the national total above half a million cases for the second year in a row.
The number matters because of the direction it points. For most of the 2010s, filings fell every year as households deleveraged and pandemic relief propped up balance sheets. The bottom came in 2022, the last year of a decade-plus decline, before filings turned sharply back up.[2]
Why Did Bankruptcy Filings Start Rising Again?
Three forces lined up after 2022. Pandemic stimulus and forbearance programs expired, so households that had been holding on lost their cushion.
Borrowing costs then climbed as interest rates rose, making variable debt and new credit more expensive. At the same time, credit card and auto loan balances reached record highs.
None of this is a one-year blip. The increase has now compounded across 2023, 2024, and 2025, even as the pace of growth eases from 16.8% to 11%. In our experience, that slowing growth rate signals a market settling into a higher normal, not one about to snap back down.
“A rising filing count is not a sign that more people are being reckless. It tells me the financial shock absorbers that carried families through 2020 and 2021 are gone, and the math has caught up.”
What Do the Latest Year-Over-Year Filing Numbers Show?
Total filings climbed in every recent year, but the chapters and filer types moved at different speeds. The table below pulls the official 12-month totals so you can see the full reversal in one place, from the 2022 trough through the 2025 figure.[1][3][2]
| Year | Total filings | Year-over-year change |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 387,721 | −6.3% |
| 2023 | 452,990 | +16.8% |
| 2024 | 517,308 | +14.2% |
| 2025 | 574,314 | +11.0% |
2022 was the last down year and the historic low point. 2023 broke the pattern with the first full-year increase in more than a decade, and growth has continued since.
Filings remain below pre-pandemic levels, though. In 2019 the country logged roughly 758,000 cases, so the current total is a recovery toward normal rather than a record-breaking surge.[6]
Consumer vs. Business Bankruptcies: Who Is Actually Filing?
Consumers drive the numbers. Of the 517,308 cases filed in 2024, individuals accounted for 494,201 non-business filings, with business filings making up just 23,107, per the U.S. Courts.[3]
Business cases grew faster in percentage terms, up 22.1%, but they remain a small slice of the total.
On the commercial side, the most closely watched figure is Chapter 11 reorganization.
Commercial Chapter 11 filings rose 20% in 2024 to 7,879 cases, with small-business Subchapter V elections up 32%, according to Epiq AACER and the American Bankruptcy Institute.[7] That commercial surge cooled in 2025 while consumer filings kept climbing.[6]
Chapter 7 vs. Chapter 13: Which Do Most People File?
Chapter 7 is the clear majority choice. In 2024 there were 310,631 Chapter 7 filings against 197,244 Chapter 13 filings nationwide, so roughly 6 in 10 cases took the Chapter 7 route.[3] Chapter 11 and the remaining chapters together made up under 2% of the total.
The split reflects what each chapter does. Chapter 7 wipes out qualifying unsecured debt in a few months and suits filers with limited income and few non-exempt assets.
Chapter 13 sets up a three-to-five-year repayment plan and is chosen by people who need to catch up on a mortgage or car loan while keeping the property.
“The chapter that is right for you depends on your income, your assets, and what you are trying to protect. The 60/40 national split is a starting point, not a prescription. I have steered plenty of clients toward Chapter 13 precisely to save a home a Chapter 7 could not.”
Which States Have the Most Bankruptcies?
By raw count, the biggest states lead, as you would expect. California recorded 47,621 filings in 2024, the most in the nation, followed by Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Illinois, per the federal judiciary’s Table F-2.[8] Population size explains most of that ranking.
Per capita, the map looks different. When you adjust for population, Southern states file most heavily.
Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee consistently top the per-resident rate, a pattern tied to lower median incomes and, in some states, local court practices that favor Chapter 13.[9] A big-population state can lead the raw count while a smaller state carries the heavier real burden.
What Is the Number One Cause of Bankruptcy?
Medical hardship is the leading driver.
The most rigorous study on the question, published in the American Journal of Public Health, found that 66.5% of filers named illness or medical bills as a contributor to their bankruptcy, and 58.5% pointed to medical bills specifically.[4]
Lost income from illness was named by 44.3% of filers.
Those two threads, the bill and the missed paycheck, usually arrive together. A serious diagnosis can stop a person from working at the exact moment their out-of-pocket costs spike.
Even insured households get caught when deductibles, co-pays, and out-of-network charges stack up faster than savings can absorb.
| Contributing factor | Share of filers |
|---|---|
| Illness or medical bills (any) | 66.5% |
| Medical bills specifically | 58.5% |
| Income loss due to illness | 44.3% |
This research surveyed a random sample of personal filers, so it captures stated causes rather than a single trigger.
The figures predate the current filing surge, but no newer study of comparable rigor has replaced them, and the underlying pressures, medical costs and lost wages, have not eased.
Curious how medical debt interacts with your credit? See how medical debt affects your credit score.
How Much Do Bankruptcy Filers Earn?
Bankruptcy is overwhelmingly a lower-income event. The federal BAPCPA report shows the median average monthly income for 2024 debtors was $3,734, roughly $44,800 a year, well under the U.S. household median.[5] Median monthly expenses ran $3,522, leaving almost no margin.
That thin gap, about $212 a month between income and expenses before any debt payments, explains why a single setback can tip a household over.
It also pushes back on the stereotype of the overspending filer. The typical person who files is not wealthy and reckless. They are an ordinary earner whose budget had no room left when something went wrong.
“When people tell me they are embarrassed to be in my office, I show them this number. The median filer earns under $45,000 and spends nearly all of it just to live. Bankruptcy law exists for exactly this household, not for anyone who failed.”
What Do These Statistics Mean If You Live in Ohio?
The national trend reaches Ohio too. As filings rose across the country through 2025, Ohio households felt the same expired-relief and higher-cost pressures that drove the national numbers up.[1]
Ohio sits in the Sixth Circuit and runs busy bankruptcy courts in both the Northern and Southern Districts.
Two practical points follow from the data. First, with Chapter 7 making up about 60% of cases nationally, most Ohio consumers who qualify under the state means test will look there first.
Second, Ohio has its own exemption rules that decide what property you keep, so the national chapter split is only a guide, not your answer.
The question of who files and why is not abstract here. If you are weighing your options, start with who files bankruptcy and why, then compare the two consumer paths directly: Chapter 7 for a fresh start in months, or Chapter 13 to reorganize and protect a home or vehicle over time.
See where you stand before you decide anything.
If the numbers on this page describe your situation, you do not have to sort out the options alone. A short conversation can tell you which chapter fits your income, your assets, and what you are trying to protect.
Frequently Asked Questions About U.S. Bankruptcy Statistics
How many people file bankruptcy in the U.S. each year?
Are bankruptcy filings going up or down?
What is the most common type of bankruptcy?
What is the number one cause of bankruptcy?
Which state has the most bankruptcies?
How much money do most bankruptcy filers make?
Sources
- Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. (2026). Bankruptcy Filings Rise 11 Percent. uscourts.gov. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. (2024). Bankruptcy Filings Rise 16.8 Percent. uscourts.gov. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. (2025). Bankruptcy Filings Rise 14.2 Percent. uscourts.gov. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- Himmelstein, D. U., Lawless, R. M., Thorne, D., Foohey, P., & Woolhandler, S. (2019). Medical Bankruptcy: Still Common Despite the Affordable Care Act. American Journal of Public Health, 109(3). PMC / National Library of Medicine. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. (2025). Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) Report, 2024. uscourts.gov. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- Epiq AACER & American Bankruptcy Institute. (2026). Total Bankruptcy Filings Increase 11 Percent in Calendar Year 2025. epiqglobal.com. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- Epiq AACER & American Bankruptcy Institute. (2025). Commercial Chapter 11 Filings Increase 20 Percent in Calendar Year 2024. epiqglobal.com. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
- Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. (2025). Table F-2: Bankruptcy Filings, by Chapter, 12-Month Period Ending December 31, 2024. uscourts.gov. Retrieved June 10, 2026. State totals are the sum of each state’s federal judicial districts as reported in Table F-2.
- Self Financial. (2025). Bankruptcy Statistics by State (per-capita rates derived from U.S. Census Bureau population and federal court filings). self.inc. Retrieved June 10, 2026.
