More consumers resorted to bankruptcy last month than in the first month of the year, though a year-over-year decline was reported.
Including consumers and businesses,
56,694 new bankruptcy filings were made during February, increasing from 54,619 the prior month.
But the number of new cases that were filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Courts were down from February 2017, when the total was an upwardly revised 58,392.
Those statistics were reported Friday by the 12,000-member American Bankruptcy Institute.
ABI said that the per-capita filing rate was 2.15 total filings per thousand in U.S. population, rising from 2.03 the prior month.
At 5.17, Alabama had the highest per-capita rate in the nation. Tennessee followed with a 5.10 rate, then Georgia’s 4.18, Mississippi’s 3.88 and Arkansas’ 3.46.
Looking at just consumer filings, there were 53,899 non-commercial filings last month, climbing from 51,759 in January and bringing the year-to-date total to 105,658.
In February 2017, the total was a downwardly revised 55,526.
