These Four Southern States Have the Highest Bankruptcy Rates in the US

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 5:02AM EST · Published Aug 12, 11:29AM EDT

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These Four Southern States Have the Highest Bankruptcy Rates in the US — © urbazon / Getty Images

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Bankruptcies rose last month nationwide, hitting a total of 64,283. That was up 3% from July of last year. Bankruptcies are on a pace to reach nearly 800,000 in 2019. The highest rates by state were in four states in the South.

The American Bankruptcy Institute posted the figures, based on data from the managed technology company Epiq Systems. The organizations separate consumer bankruptcies from commercial ones. Consumer bankruptcies rose 3% to 61,025, while commercial bankruptcies rose 4% to 3,258.

The nationwide average bankruptcy rate per capita in July was 2.5 per 10,000. Rates were higher by far in five states, four of which are in the South: Alabama (5.61), Tennessee (5.39), Georgia (4.31), Mississippi (4.25) and Nevada (3.79).

While bankruptcies generally peak in recessions, there is evidence that is not always true. According to 24/7 Wall St., bankruptcies have soared this year: “In the first seven months of 2019, nearly 43,000 workers lost their jobs when the companies they worked for filed for bankruptcy. That’s higher than the full-year total for any year since 2009.”

Some industries are more prone to job losses than others. Announced job cuts in the industrial goods manufacturing sector, for example, are up more than 500% so far this year. These are the fields with the best and worst job security.

Baby boomers are among the most likely portions of the population to go bankrupt. In a new research paper titled “Graying of U.S. Bankruptcy: Fallout from Life in a Risk Society,” the authors pointed out “Using data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, we find more than a two-fold increase in the rate at which older Americans (age 65 and over) file for bankruptcy and an almost five-fold increase in the percentage of older persons in the U.S. bankruptcy system.”

Chapter 11 normally starts in one of two ways. The first is that the person or business files a petition that shows current financial information, which includes income, expenses and debt. In other cases, unpaid debtors can force the filing.

Large companies go through a process similar to individuals when they file for Chapter 11. Toys “R” Us, which initially filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2017, is an example of one of the largest ever retail bankruptcies, but it isn’t even in the running for a top 10 or even top 50 listing. These are the largest bankruptcies of all time.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.