A growing portfolio of empirical visualizations on U.S. consumer and small-business bankruptcy. All charts and maps published under CC BY 4.0. Data, methodology, and source code are linked from each piece.
Americans paid an estimated $63 billion in bankruptcy attorney and filing fees over the last 20 years, across 34.9 million cases. Stacked as $100 bills, that's a tower 43 miles tall — higher than any plane will ever fly.
View →Choropleth map of Chapter 13 dismissal rates across all 90 federal bankruptcy districts. Source: BAPCPA Table 6, FY2023 Administrative Office data. Range: ~25% to ~85%.
View →Subchapter V was created by the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019, effective February 2020. Adoption pattern shows pandemic-era debt-ceiling expansion, sunset, and post-sunset stabilization.
View →The Open Bankruptcy Project publishes visualizations to make federal bankruptcy data accessible to journalists, researchers, advocates, and borrowers. Every chart is sourced from public data: the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the Federal Judicial Center, BAPCPA Table 6, the National Bankruptcy Research Center, CourtListener / RECAP, and direct PACER pulls.
If you want to use a visualization in journalism, academic work, or advocacy: please do. CC BY 4.0 means free use with attribution. If you'd like data behind a chart that isn't already published, contact us at research@openbankruptcyproject.org.