According to a new survey by the legal information website FindLaw, almost one in eight Americans, or 13%, have either filed or considered filing a bankruptcy.
The survey found that people between the ages of 35 and 54 are 50% more likely to have considered filing for bankruptcy than people ages 18-34 or 55 and older. People of retirement age (65 plus) are the least likely to have considered filing for bankruptcy.
Last year saw the highest rate of personal bankruptcies since the 2005 BAPCPA laws were enacted with over 1.5 million Americans having filed. With the population of the United States at about 307 million, that means 4% of those who considered bankruptcy filed within the last year.
The FindLaw survey was conducted using a telephone survey of a demographically balanced group of 1,000 American adults and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3%.
