ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Perhaps showing that more consumers are in better financial shape, the American Bankruptcy Institute said fewer consumers filed for bankruptcy in the first quarter.

Officials found the total number of U.S. bankruptcy cases filed during the first three months of 2011 decreased 6 percent against the same period in 2010.

According to data released by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, ABI indicated total filings reached 366,178 during the first calendar-year quarter that runs from Jan. 1 to March 31. In the same period a year ago, there were 388,148 new cases.

Furthermore, officials mentioned the first-quarter bankruptcy total represented a 1-percent decrease from the 370,080 bankruptcies filed during the fourth quarter of last year.

Delving deeper into the first quarter number, ABI discovered consumer filings fell 5 percent to 353,802. Officials said there were 373,541 consumer filings a year ago.

The institute learned the percentage of consumers filing for Chapter 13 protection increased slightly from 27.1 percent during the first quarter of 2010 to 28.6 percent. However, the number of consumers filing for Chapter 7 protection fell slightly from 72.8 percent to 71.3 percent.

The chapter breakdown of non-business filings was 252,338 Chapter 7s, 458 Chapter 11s and 101,006 Chapter 13s.

Moving over to a discussion about first-quarter business filings, ABI indicated this bankruptcy category totaled 12,376 cases, representing a 15-percent decrease from the first quarter of last year. That time period had 14,607 business cases.

Officials also noted the first-quarter business filing total represented a 5-percent drop from the fourth quarter total of 13,030 cases.

The chapter breakdown of business filings was 8,615 Chapter 7s, 2,605 Chapter 11s, 181 Chapter 12s and 949 Chapter 13s.

"The drop in bankruptcy filings demonstrates the continued effort of both consumers and businesses to decrease their debt loads and shore up their finances," stated Samuel Gerdano, ABI's executive director. 

Bankruptcy Totals from Last 12 Months & 2011 Full-Year Projection

The institute also calculated bankruptcy totals for the 12-month filing period that ended March 31.

Officials found 1,571,183 cases during that time frame, a 2.6-percent uptick against the same period in 2010, which totaled 1,531,997 filings.

Non-business filings for the 12-month period ending March 31 totaled 1,516,971, leaving the figure 3 percent higher than the year-ago mark when 1,470,849 non-business filings occurred.

However, ABI found business filings fell by more than 11 percent during this span, settling at 54,212. During the 12-month span that finished March 31, 2010, business cases totaled 61,148 filings.

A further breakdown revealed:

—1,118,481 total Chapter 7, a 2-percent increase against 1,100,032 cases from the same period in 2010.

—438,788 total Chapter 13 filings, 5-percent increase against 415,966 cases from the same period in 2010.

—13,051 total Chapter 11 filings, a 14-percent decrease against 15,251 cases from the same period in 2010.

—743 total Chapter 12 filings, a 23-percent increase against 605 cases from the same period in 2010.

ABI also noticed the states with the highest per capita filing rate for the 12-month span that ended March 31:

1.     Nevada

2.     Georgia

3.     Tennessee

4.     California

5.     Indiana

6.     Alabama

7.     Utah

8.     Michigan

9.     Arizona

10.  Colorado

And the institute spotted the districts with the highest percentage increases in total filings for this 12-month span:

1.     Southern District of Florida: 26.5 percent

2.     Central District of California: 22.8 percent

3.     District of Utah: 19.7 percent

4.     District of Hawaii: 18.1 percent

5.     District of Arizona: 11.9 percent

Finally, in wrapping up the report, Gerdano predicted that, "We expect that bankruptcy filings for 2011 will fall below last year's total of 1.5 million."