American Bankruptcy Institute 10/9/25 e-newsletter reports Personal Bankruptcy Filings Soar Amid ‘Mounting Financial Pressure’
The number of individuals filing for bankruptcy has soared thus far in 2025, reflecting growing financial pressures and pessimism among Americans about their economic security, Newsweek reported. According to a report from the ABI, based on figures from data and analytics platform Epiq AACER, there were 249,152 individual chapter 7 bankruptcy filings — the most common type of personal bankruptcy — during the first nine months of 2025. This represents a 15 percent increase over the 216,773 filed in the same period last year. Epiq AACER linked the rise to the “mounting financial pressure” faced by Americans in 2025, reflected in rising household debt levels as well as surveys that show growing pessimism among consumers about their personal economic security. Americans have this year grappled with elevated inflation, as well as a deterioration of the job market and a broader weakening of the nation’s economic outlook.