US National Bankruptcy Filing Trends by Chapter
US bankruptcy filings by Chapter 7, 11, 12, and 13 over time, from AOUSC caseload statistics.
Research period:
Research question
Across the most recent reporting years, how has the national volume of US bankruptcy filings evolved across the four primary chapters (7 liquidation, 11 reorganization, 12 family-farm, 13 wage-earner repayment), and which chapter accounts for the largest share of business versus nonbusiness filings?
Methodology
This ranking reflects the data currently in our database, sourced from the agency referenced in the citation below and updated automatically as new filings are processed.
Coverage and exclusions: the source agency occasionally suppresses values for confidentiality, small sample size, or quality control, and suppressed rows are excluded from this ranking rather than shown as zero. If the agency later revises a figure, the revised value replaces the old one automatically the next time our data is refreshed.
Data provenance: we pull each release as it becomes available and normalize it into our database; a later release simply supersedes the one before it, so readers never see a mix of old and new figures on the same page.
Comparability across years: when the source agency revises its release schedule, definitions, or coverage, we note the affected years on the methodology page so readers can compare like-with-like rather than across a changed measurement.
Editorial governance: a named editor reviews every ranking page before publication (see the byline above). If an entity disputes a figure attributed to it, corrections are checked against the official source record before any change is made.
Every number on this page can be traced back to its source by following the entity links and the citation below, so independent verification never requires anything beyond the original public source.
See the methodology page for the complete ETL pipeline, source vintage, and column lineage.
National bankruptcy filings by fiscal year
national_trends.total_filings · latest 10 fiscal years · year order kept
The ranked top 10
Every row below reflects the current 10-record dataset. Reload the page after new data is processed to see the latest values.
| # | Fiscal year | Total filings | Chapter 7 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 13 | Business filings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,024 | 498,492 | 296,845 | 8,923 | 192,249 | 22,610 |
| 2 | 2,023 | 429,432 | 247,327 | 6,397 | 175,423 | 16,932 |
| 3 | 2,022 | 379,825 | 228,259 | 4,701 | 146,607 | 13,022 |
| 4 | 2,021 | 430,196 | 308,746 | 5,569 | 115,352 | 16,027 |
| 5 | 2,020 | 606,428 | 406,571 | 8,119 | 190,922 | 22,248 |
| 6 | 2,019 | 768,740 | 475,710 | 7,205 | 285,130 | 22,696 |
| 7 | 2,018 | 766,195 | 474,037 | 6,902 | 284,703 | 21,907 |
| 8 | 2,017 | 781,643 | 482,659 | 6,892 | 291,473 | 22,782 |
| 9 | 2,016 | 794,424 | 493,597 | 7,161 | 293,076 | 23,983 |
| 10 | 2,015 | 849,490 | 545,569 | 6,881 | 296,593 | 24,653 |
Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Federal Judicial Caseload Statistics, Bankruptcy Filings. Values reflect the current dataset, refreshed as new filings are processed.
Findings
Top entity in the ranking
The top-ranked record in this dataset is 2024, with a value of 498,492 on the Total filings column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. Every value comes directly from the current dataset; no number is hardcoded into this page. When the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts publishes a revision, the ranking and the prose around it update automatically.
Distribution shape
The gap between the top-ranked record (498,492) and the 10th-ranked record (849,490) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.
Aggregate context
Across the full population behind this ranking, here are the summary statistics: how many records exist in total, the sum of the ranking metric across all qualifying records, and the mean per-record value. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking metric are excluded). This aggregate row is computed from the same dataset that powers the ranking above.
Source provenance
The records in this ranking originate from Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, specifically the Federal Judicial Caseload Statistics, Bankruptcy Filings. PlainBankruptcy ingests the source vintage published by the agency and keeps this page current, there is no static export carrying stale numbers, and a newly published dataset is reflected here within hours. The methodology page documents the source URL, the vintage date, and the steps applied to prepare the data.
Why this ranking matters
Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.
What this analysis cannot tell us
Filing counts come from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts Federal Judicial Caseload Statistics, which report bankruptcy cases commenced during each 12-month period. The fiscal year for federal bankruptcy statistics typically runs October 1 through September 30 of the labeled year. Chapter 7 filings include both business and consumer liquidation cases; Chapter 13 filings are restricted to individuals with regular income. Chapter 11 includes both standard business reorganization and Subchapter V small-business reorganization. Filing counts measure cases commenced, not cases concluded, dismissed, or discharged. A single legal entity can have multiple related filings (parent and subsidiary corporate cases, spousal joint filings); the count is of cases, not of underlying debtors. Year-over-year changes can reflect economic conditions, legislative changes (the 2005 BAPCPA amendment, 2020 SBRA), and procedural variations across districts.
National nonbusiness filings by fiscal year
national_trends.nonbusiness_filings · latest 10 fiscal years · year order kept
Frequently asked questions
Which bankruptcy chapter has the most filings?
In fiscal year 2024, Chapter 7 accounts for the most filings at 296,845, out of 498,492 total bankruptcy cases commenced, according to AOUSC caseload statistics.
How many years of national filing data does this cover?
This page covers 10 fiscal years of national filing trends, totaling 6,304,865 bankruptcy cases commenced over that period.
How often is this filing data updated?
This page queries the current AOUSC dataset live on every load, not a fixed figure typed in once. When the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts publishes a new release, the next data refresh picks it up automatically.
Sources
- Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Federal Judicial Caseload Statistics, Bankruptcy Tables - https://www.uscourts.gov/statistics-reports/caseload-statistics-data-tables
- Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Bankruptcy Filings Tables (F-Series) - https://www.uscourts.gov/statistics/table/f/bankruptcy-filings/
Every figure on PlainBankruptcy is rendered directly from federal court source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal court source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.