Bankruptcy Filings by State
FY2024 bankruptcy filings across all 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia. According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC), 475,882 nonbusiness (consumer) bankruptcy cases were filed in U.S. federal courts during fiscal year 2024. The registry reports where cases were filed; it does not identify the reasons state totals differ. Source: AOUSC Judicial Caseload Statistics; see our methodology for refresh cadence.
On absolute volume, California leads with 45,781 filings; on per-capita rate, Alabama leads at 374.4 per 100,000 residents. Both rankings use the same AOUSC FY2024 extract.
Top 8 states by bankruptcy filings
U.S. national chapter composition FY2024
State profiles with search visibility
These jurisdictions appear most often in Google Search Console query reports for state filing pages (28-day window). Links open the FY2024 AOUSC profile for each state.
Top 5 States by Per-Capita Filing Rate (per 100,000 population)
Frequently Asked Questions
Which state had the most bankruptcy filings in FY2024?
California led on absolute volume with 45,781 filings in FY2024. Absolute counts scale with population, pair them with the per-capita rate column, never alone.
Which state has the highest per-capita bankruptcy filing rate?
Alabama posts the highest rate in this AOUSC extract at 374.4 filings per 100,000 residents in FY2024. Alaska sits at the low end (29.4 per 100k).
What do Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 mean in these state totals?
Chapter 7 is liquidation; Chapter 13 is wage-earner reorganization. This hub reports AOUSC Judicial Caseload Statistics by chapter where published. National chapter mix for FY2024 is charted above the state table from the national_trends series (not a SUM of district rows, which can over-count).
Where does PlainBankruptcy source state filing data?
Filings come from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC) Judicial Caseload Statistics. This page covers FY2024 across 51 jurisdictions (498,492 filings in the state rollup). See methodology for refresh cadence, PlainBankruptcy does not provide legal advice.
Download the AOUSC state-filings extract cited on this page: aousc-state-filings.csv (same CSV as /statistics/, CC0).