After climbing to the highest level in four months, the number of American consumers who resorted to bankruptcy was down last month.
Consumers and businesses collectively filed 64,592 new bankruptcy cases during September 2016, fewer than 68,495 the prior month.
U.S. bankruptcy filings also moved down from the same month a year previous, when an upwardly revised 67,171 new cases were filed.
The details were released Wednesday by the American Bankruptcy Institute, an 11,000-member organization.
Nationally, the average per-capita bankruptcy rate was 2.54 total filings per thousand in population during the first-nine months of 2016.
Tennessee maintained its tight grip on the worst per-capita rate of any state: 5.67. After that was Alabama’s 5.52, then Georgia’s 4.75, Illinois’ 4.19 and Utah’s 4.17.
Consumer filings accounted for 61,520 of last month’s total bankruptcy filings.
Consumer activity declined from 65,296 bankruptcies previously reported for August — the highest level since April. Filings also retreated from 64,952 in September 2015.
From Jan. 1, 2016, through Sept. 30,
consumer bankruptcy filings amounted to 564,245.
