Bankruptcy in Utah

Claims

"Bankruptcy is running at twice the national average in Utah."
- Derick S. Hartshorn, Bearing the Testimony of Truth

"Utah has a bankruptcy rate 3 times higher than the national average."
- Frederick C. Kubicek, Unlimited Glory Ministries

"July 5, 2001 - Utah had a 17% increase over bankruptcies over last year. Nationally, one in 92 file for bankruptcy. In Utah, the rate is one in 48!
- Wayne and Dianne Simister, Things About Utah That the Travel Bureau Prefers You Don't Know

"Utah ranks as one of the five highest states for bankruptcy...."
- Waana, Reasons Why The Mormon Church Is Not True, posted on Recovery from Mormonism, 5/18/02

Is Utah's rate two or three times the national average?

Figure 1 shows the bankruptcy rates for Utah and the United States. Rates are the number of non-business bankruptcy filings per 1,000 households. In some years, Utah's rate is about twice the national average.

Figure 1. Bankruptcy rates, 1980-2003.

How does Utah's rate compare to the rest of the country?

Table 1 compares the number of bankruptcies per household in Utah to the rest of the states. A rank of 1 indicates the highest rate.

Table 1. State bankruptcy to household ratios for the United States and Utah, and Utah's rank, 1994-2003.
Year High Average Low Utah Rank
1994 1 in 57 TN 1 in 123 1 in 247 ME 1 in 97 6
1995 1 in 53 TN 1 in 111 1 in 267 AK 1 in 90 7
1996 1 in 43 TN 1 in 88 1 in 204 AK 1 in 72 7
1997 1 in 40 TN 1 in 74 1 in 174 AK 1 in 57 6
1998 1 in 42 TN 1 in 72 1 in 159 AK 1 in 50 4
19991 1 in 46 TN 1 in 79 1 in 264 MN 1 in 50 3
2000 1 in 46 TN 1 in 87 1 in 170 AK 1 in 48 2
20012 1 in 37 UT 1 in 73 1 in 162 AK 1 in 37 1
20022 1 in 33 UT 1 in 69 1 in 163 AK 1 in 33 1
20032 1 in 33 UT 1 in 65 1 in 160 AK 1 in 33 1
1Using household estimates from 1998.
2Using household estimates from 2000.

The following map shows how bankruptcy rates vary across the country.

Figure 2. State bankruptcy rates, 2003

Sources

Bankruptcy data is from the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Household estimates are from the U.S. Census Bureau.

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