The year-end bankruptcy data from Epiq Systems just became available. Total bankruptcy filings in 2013 were 1,032,326, a 13% decline from the previous year. (Note the precise total will be subject to minor final adjustments.)

On a monthly basis, the daily filing rate in December was down 16.3% on a year-over-year basis. The monthly decline continues a long-term trend of falling bankruptcy filing rates. Filings are currently running around 3.3 per 1,000 persons. Last year at this time, it was 3.8 per 1,000 persons as compared to a post-2005 high of 5.0 bankruptcy filings per 1,000 persons, which occurred in September 2010.

Once December consumer credit statistics and recent economic indicators become available, I will try to make a forecast of where bankruptcy filings might be heading. This year, I predicted between 1,019,000 and 1,100,000, although that was in a May posting with four months of data available so I was cheating a little. Still, I take it as a predication.