Bankruptcy filings in the United States rose 12.2% in the 12-month period ending June 30, according to data released this week by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, marking the fourth consecutive year of growth and pushing total filings past the 600,000 mark for the first time since the current upswing began.
Total filings reached 608,511 cases, up from 542,529 in the year ending June 30, 2025. Non-business filings, the category most relevant to consumer debt portfolios, rose 12% to 581,570. Business filings climbed even faster, up 16.9% to 26,941.
The trajectory is worth putting in context. Filings declined steadily for more than a decade, falling from a peak of nearly 1.6 million in September 2010 to a low of 380,634 in June 2022. Every quarter since then has brought an increase. Even so, current volume sits at less than 40% of that 2010 high.
The chapter-level breakdown tells its own story. Chapter 7 liquidations, which typically discharge unsecured consumer debt, jumped to 382,161 from 333,321 a year earlier, an increase of roughly 14.7%. That outpaced growth in Chapter 13 repayment plans, which rose about 7.6% to 215,490. Chapter 11 filings climbed to 10,320 from 8,408, consistent with the acceleration on the business side.
For the ARM industry, the numbers carry familiar implications. Rising Chapter 7 volume means more accounts subject to the automatic stay and eventual discharge, raising the stakes on bankruptcy scrubbing and cease-communication compliance. The faster growth in liquidations relative to Chapter 13 repayment plans may also signal that more filers are entering bankruptcy with little capacity to fund a repayment plan, a dynamic that affects recovery expectations across portfolios.
Cumulatively, non-business filings have risen 58% since the June 2022 trough. The Administrative Office reports 12-month totals four times per year, so the next read on the trend arrives this fall.
