2007 Annual Consumer Bankruptcy Demographics Report

Abstract

The deteriorating American economic situation in 2007 was first felt by individual consumers and families throughout the country experiencing personal financial crisis and an increase in home foreclosures. This personal level economic crisis was followed by failures and retractions in the financial services sector, which in turn was followed by retractions throughout the wider economy and in the stock market. Finally, the impact of these wider economic retractions caused financial aftershocks for individual consumers and families in the form of job loss, reduced income and reduced net worth driven by the plummeting values of their remaining real estate and retirement holdings. From this cycle one can draw a hypothesis that reducing the incidence of personal financial crisis should have a positive and stabilizing impact on the wider economy. One commonly proposed method for reducing the incidence of personal financial crisis is to modify consumer behavior through financial literacy education. The development of data identifying those Americans in personal financial crisis is necessary to create effective financial literacy education programs. In 2006 the Institute for Financial Literacy established a comprehensive, neutral research program designed to collect demographic information from individuals contemplating and eventually filing for bankruptcy protection, a population that is by definition in personal financial crisis. Utilizing the Institute's capacity for large scale data collection, information was collected for the period January 1, 2007 through December 31, 2007 in the following categories: gender, age, ethnicity, educational attainment, personal income level, employment status, marital status and cause(s) of financial distress. This data was then analyzed by the Institute's Center for Consumer Financial Research (CCFR) and indicates that the average American who is in financial distress and seeking bankruptcy related credit counseling and financial education is: Caucasian, married, employed, between the ages of 35-44 years old, has at least a high school education or some college, and makes no more than $30,000 per year. In light of its findings, this paper challenges the academic community to craft effective solutions for America's ever growing personal debt problem.

Keywords: bankruptcy, debtor, debt, financial education, financial literacy, Institute for Financial Literacy, BAPCPA, credit counseling, debtor education, financial management course, demographics, financial counseling, statistics, bankrupt

JEL Classification: J10