Data concerning bankruptcies comes from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Washington.  Years prior to 2005 are given as aggregated for the entire region and are not broken down by county.  The data prior to 2005 also provide information on whether or not the bankruptcy is a business or non-business related (personal) filing, which is not available via the bankruptcy court at this time. 

Annually, personal bankruptcies have increased 223% since 2006 when there were 1,584 filings to 2010 when 5,122 bankruptcies were filed in Pierce County, an average of 35% increase per year.  (Chart 1)  Pierce County is on track to match the 2010 total of over 5,000 filed in the year.
In November of 2011, the number of bankruptcies ( 387) increased by 5% from the previous month when 370 were filed, and was down slightly (-3%) from November 2010 when 398 bankruptcies were filed.  The highest number of bankruptcies in Pierce County which was 500 filings in March of 2010 and the lowest number of bankruptcies for the period, January 2006 to present, occurred in January 2006 when 78 were filed. 

Source: US Bankruptcy Court; Western Washington Division