Personal Bankruptcies in the USA rose by 30% in the 12 months ended December 31, 2005.
2,039,214 personal bankruptcies were filed, up from the 1,563,145 petitions filed in the 12-month period ended December 31, 2004. This is the largest number of bankruptcy petitions ever filed in any 12-month period in the history of the federal courts and is attributed to the rush to beat the new tougher bankruptcy laws that went into effect on October 17, 2005.
The statistics include joint filings, for example for husband and wife. In accordance with a study reported in September, 2001, Young, Old, and in Between: Who Files for Bankruptcy? By Dr. Teresa Sullivan, Dr. Deborah Thorne and Professor Elizabeth Warren 31.9 % of the filings for the year ended June 30, 2001 were joint filings of husband and wife.
To approximate the number of people filing bankruptcy we must increase the filings by 31.9% to get 2,690,000 people who filed bankruptcy in the year ended December 31, 2005.
A comparison of the number of personal bankruptcies per thousand people for Canada and the US for the year ended December 31, 2005 is as follows:
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Atlantic 3.7 per thousand;
Quebec 3.1 per thousand;
Ontario 2.5 per thousand;
Prairies (including Alberta) 2.5 per thousand;
Alberta 2.7 per thousand;
BC 2.0 per thousand;
Canada 2.6 per thousand;
USA 9.1 per thousand.
For more US bankruptcy statistics please refer to:
BankruptcyAction.com.
For more Canadian bankruptcy statistics please refer to:
BankruptcyCanada.com.
US Statistics are from the Administrative Office of the Courts, released on March 24, 2006.
