National Bankruptcy Research Center November 2011 Bankruptcy Filings Report
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Bankruptcy filings fell slightly last month – down to 101,000 in November from 106,000 in October. The apparent decrease is slightly misleading, however, when we look at seasonal trends. Because November filings typically are quite low, this month’s filings actually increased 7% from October on a seasonally adjusted basis. Still, filings were down 12% from last November and filings to date this year are down 11% from the same time last year.
Nationwide, 2011 filings to date amount to about 5400 filings per million adults, or one in every 200. As always, national disparities show that this really is an average – reflecting starkly higher and lower filing rates across the country. Despite a fall of almost 20% from last year’s filing rate, Nevada still stands alone at the top with more than twice the national average (about 11,250 filings per million adults). After Nevada, the highest rates are in Georgia, Tennessee, and Utah, all with about 9000 filings per million adults; California is next in line, with 7800 filings per million adults. At the other end of the spectrum, six (mostly small) jurisdictions this year have filings less than half the national average. In ascending order, they are Washington, D.C., Alaska, South Carolina, Vermont, North Dakota, and Texas. Texas’s place on that list (with 2570 filings/million adults) is noteworthy, since its population far exceeds that of all the other low--‐filing states combined. Also of note among large states is New York’s remarkably low rate (2880/million adults), only slightly more than half the national rate.
Filing rates at the county level show even larger disparities. As reflected in Tennessee’s second--‐place status in state--‐level filings this year, a surge in Memphis filings this fall has put Shelby County, Tennessee at the top of the county list, with more than three times the national rate (about 17,500 filings/million adults this year). At the other end of the spectrum, there are still almost fifty counties without a single bankruptcy filing this year: all of them small rural counties; the largest by population is Sioux County, North Dakota (with an adult population of less than 3000). Mirroring the state data, the counties with the highest filing rates are concentrated in the Southeast, as they have been throughout the downturn. As the table below shows, all of the top ten counties were in the south and six of the top ten were in Georgia, reflecting the high rate of filings in Georgia overall – second highest in the nation to date this year.
HIGHEST FILING RATES (JAN-NOV 2011)
| COUNTY | 2011 FILINGS/M (2011 FILINGS) |
| Shelby (Tennessee) | 17631 (11809) |
| Henry (Georgia) | 17199 (2330) |
| Newton (Georgia) | 16136 (1141) |
| Rockdale (Georgia) | 15972 (967) |
| Douglas (Georgia) | 15867 (1448) |
| Walton (Georgia) | 14752 (943) |
| Petersburg City (Virginia) | 14490 (362) |
| Butler (Alabama) | 13319 (200) |
| Clayton (Georgia) | 13097 (2531) |
| Haywood (Tennessee) | 12758 (178) |
Calculations based on year-to-date 2011 filings. National average is 5400 filings per million adult inhabitants.
Except for Shelby County (Memphis, TN), the counties listed above are rural. To get a sense for filing patterns in urban areas, the table below considers only counties with an adult population of 250,000 or more and shows the urban counties with the five highest and five lowest filing rates so far this year. After Memphis atop the list (with more than three times the national average), the highest filing rates are mostly in the southwest: Las Vegas in Nevada and Riverside and San Bernardino in California. Milwaukee is noteworthy as a newcomer to this list – bankruptcy filings there last year were not nearly so noteworthy. At the other end of the spectrum, none of the urban areas with the lowest filing rates are in the Western half of the country. The top five, all with less than one third the national filing rate, are New York City, McAllen, Texas, Charleston, South Carolina, Austin, Texas and the District of Columbia, in that order. Again, the presence of New York, McAllen, and Austin underscores the markedly low filings this year in Texas and New York, while Las Vegas, San Bernardino, and Riverside underscore the continuing high filing rates in California and Nevada.
Another interesting point is the relatively urban focus of California and Nevada filings, as compared to Georgia: the highest filing rates in Georgia are in a large set of small rural counties, while the highest rates in California and Nevada appear in concentrated urban metropolitan areas. Tennessee crosses that divide: with notably high rates in both urban counties (Memphis) and thinly populated rural counties (like Haywood).
HIGHEST AND LOWEST URBAN FILING RATES (JAN-NOV 2011)
| COUNTY (LARGEST CITY) | 2011 FILINGS/M (2011 FILINGS) |
| Shelby (Memphis, TN) | 17631 (11809) |
| Riverside (Riverside, CA) | 12691 (19161) |
| Clark (Las Vegas, NV) | 12683 (17777) |
| San Bernardino (San Bernardino, CA) | 11975 (16964) |
| Milwaukee (Milwaukee, WI) | 11651 (8368) |
| District of Columbia | 1810 (879) |
| Travis (Austin, TX) | 1744 (1360) |
| Charleston (Charleston, SC) | 1705 (477) |
| Hidalgo (McAllen, TX) | 1668 (785) |
| New York (New York, NY) | 1637 (2242) |
Calculations based on year to date filings. Table shows total filings in parentheses. Excludes counties with less than 250,000 adult inhabitants. National average is 5400 filings per million adult inhabitants.
Except for Shelby County (Memphis, TN), the counties listed above are rural. To get a sense for filing patterns in urban areas, the table below considers only counties with an adult population of 250,000 or more and shows the urban counties with the five highest and five lowest filing rates so far this year. After Memphis atop the list (with more than three times the national average), the highest filing rates are mostly in the southwest: Las Vegas in Nevada and Riverside and San Bernardino in California. Milwaukee is noteworthy as a newcomer to this list – bankruptcy filings there last year were not nearly so noteworthy. At the other end of the spectrum, none of the urban areas with the lowest filing rates are in the Western half of the country. The top five, all with less than one third the national filing rate, are New York City, McAllen, Texas, Charleston, South Carolina, Austin, Texas and the District of Columbia, in that order. Again, the presence of New York, McAllen, and Austin underscores the markedly low filings this year in Texas and New York, while Las Vegas, San Bernardino, and Riverside underscore the continuing high filing rates in California and Nevada.
Another interesting point is the relatively urban focus of California and Nevada filings, as compared to Georgia: the highest filing rates in Georgia are in a large set of small rural counties, while the highest rates in California and Nevada appear in concentrated urban metropolitan areas. Tennessee crosses that divide: with notably high rates in both urban counties (Memphis) and thinly populated rural counties (like Haywood).
This analysis was performed on data collected by the National Bankruptcy Research Center (NBKRC) by NBKRC contributor Professor Ronald Mann of the Columbia Law School.
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