Have you ever wondered, “Did A Lot of People File Bankruptcy Last Year?” You’re not the only one. Unfortunately, there isn’t necessarily one compounded list of names of those who filed bankruptcy last year. We can, however, look at the statistics!
2020 was a year never to be forgotten. A lot of people experienced a serious level of financial distress. Businesses were shut down, jobs were lost. It was a tough year for all of us. Reason dictates that 2020 would be a year full of filed bankruptcy cases. The reality of the situation, however, was quite different.
In the year 2020, 544,463 people filed bankruptcy in the United States. That number may seem enormous, but in reality, Bankruptcy filings in 2020 were the lowest they have been in thirty-five years. This may seem counterintuitive for the type of year 2020 was, but it makes sense when you think more about the government assistance that a lot of people received last year.
This is a large drop in cases filed, because in 2019, there were 774,940 people who filed bankruptcy. That is a drop of 29.7 percent.
Understanding 2020 is an anomaly, we can look to other resources to learn more about who exactly has filed bankruptcy in the last year, or two, or even what group of people file bankruptcy the most on average.
So rather than focusing on the number, we can tune in to the demographics of those that file bankruptcy usually. That will help us better answer the question; who filed bankruptcy last year?
It looks like bankruptcy is most common among those whose incomes are less than $30,000 a year. Also, interestingly enough, Southern states have higher bankruptcy filing rates on average compared to the rest of the country. Evidence shows that the average filer is older and married, and has a high school education.
Did A Lot of People File Bankruptcy Cases Last Year? Not so much.
At the end of the day, the decision to file bankruptcy is personal and varies from person to person. If you have questions about if you should file, give our office a call at 801-221-9911.