Unless you live way out in the hinterlands, chances are very good you know someone who has filed for Bankruptcy.  You may not know it because, unlike something like divorce, it is not as evident to others and it is not often discussed.  How many people actually file personal Bankruptcy cases?  Here is a very brief description of recent statistics.  In the one year period that ended on March 31, 2013, the total number of personal Bankruptcy cases filed nationwide was 1,132,772.  This includes 779,306 Chapter 7 cases, 352,063 Chapter 13 cases, and 1,398 individual Chapter 11 cases.   The Northern District of Georgia, which includes metro Atlanta, is among the highest in the country, with a total of 42,118 cases filed in the same period (23,626 Chapter 7’s, 18,480 Chapter 13’s and 12 Chapter 11’s).  In contrast, the Southern District of Georgia only had a total of 8,569 individual cases.   You can see all the statistics for this one year period on the U.S. Courts website.

In addition to raw numbers of filings, we also keep up with the rate of filings, or number of individual cases filed per 1,000 people.  In January-October, 2013, a total of 801,783 personal cases were filed nationwide, which is down about 12% for the same time period in 2012.   43,510 personal cases were filed in Georgia in the nine months, which is 5.9 filings per 1,000 people (incl. children), which is second highest in the nation behind Tennessee (6.74 per 1,000).  You can see the rate of filings in each state at this website.

If you are interested in seeing more Bankruptcy statistics – and there are statistics for everything – you go go to the U.S. Courts website and the American Bankruptcy Institute website.  The Clerk’s office for the Northern District of Georgia also maintains statistics for the District at its website.