Bankruptcy Canada Statistics

How many people file bankruptcy in Canada?

In the year ended October 31,2011, 80,184 Canadians filed personal bankruptcy, and a further 44,702 filed a consumer proposal, for total filings of 124,886.

By way of comparison, in the twelve months ended October 31, 2010 there were 94,328 personal bankruptcies, and 41,634 consumer proposals, for total filings of 135,962.  That’s an 8% drop in total filings.

However, all of the drop is the bankruptcy numbers.  Personal bankruptcy filings dropped by 15%, while consumer proposal filings increased by 7.4%.  Clearly, more Canadians are choosing to file a consumer proposal as an alternative to personal bankruptcy.

In 2010, a total of 92,694 people in Canada filed personal bankruptcy.  That was a decrease of 20.4% from the 116,381 people who filed bankruptcy in 2009.

However, while this appears to be good news, it should be noted that the number of consumer proposals filed in 2010 in Canada was 42,314, and increase of 19.8% from the 35,331 consumer proposals filed in 2009.

So, overall, while bankruptcy filings dropped by 15%, total filings only decreased by 8% in the twelve months ended October 31, 2011, as an increasing number of Canadians chose to file a consumer proposal as an alternative to bankruptcy.