ALEXANDRIA, Va. — As 2011 comes to an end, a look back on the year reveals that consumers and businesses may be recovering from the credit crisis of 2008, and are likely to continue their progress this coming year.

Total bankruptcy filings in the U.S. decreased year-over-year by 12 percent in 2011, according to date provided by Epiq Systems. This computes to 1,379,113 bankruptcy filings for the year ending Dec. 31, over 2010’s total of 1,561,008.

Furthermore, the consumer filing total for calendar year 2011 was 1,304,971, representing an 11 percent decrease from the 1,468,938 total consumer filings during the same period in 2010.

“The decline in total filings reflects the retrenchment in consumer spending associated with a down U.S. economy,” said American Bankruptcy Institute executive director Samuel Gerdano.

“As consumers continue to deleverage their debt and access to credit remains tight, bankruptcy filings will continue to decrease,” he added.

Total commercial filings for 2011 also decreased. Consumer filings came in at to 74,142, representing a 19 percent decline from the 92,070 business filings recorded in 2010.

And as for this past December, the month also saw a significant decrease in filings from the same period of 2010, dropping 16 percent year-over-year. There were a total of 96,264 total filings recorded this past December, down from 114,738 in 2010.

Commercial filings also fell this past month. They came in at 5,496, marking a 21 percent decrease from the 6,986 business filings in December 2010.

Breaking the year's filings down by state, Nevada saw the highest per capita filing rate during the 2011, coming in at 8.98 (total filings per 1,000 population).

Some of the states in the deep South also saw higher filing rates this past month. Georgia followed Nevada with 7.35, and Tennessee came in at 7.34. Moving West, Utah came in at 6.53, and Alabama rounded out the list with 6.37 for 2011.

And moving on to highlight this past year’s bankruptcies by chapter, Epiq officials noted that total filings for chapter 7, 11 and 13 bankruptcies all decreased during 2011.

Specifically, the 965,423 total chapter 7 filings during the 2011 calendar year represented a 13 percent decrease from the 1,111,236 total chapter 7 filings recorded during the same period in 2010.

Total chapter 11 filings also dropped by double digits year-over-year. Chapter 11 filings reached 11,396 in calendar year 2011, marking a decrease of 17 percent from the 13,665 recorded in 2010.

And lastly, total chapter 13 bankruptcies fell 8 percent from 435,242 during the 2010 calendar year to 401,588 during the same period in 2011.

Wrapping up with commercial filings for 2011, Epiq explained that for chapters 7 and 11, commercial filings also recorded double-digit decreases during 2011.

Commercial chapter 7 filings reached 49,500, a 21-percent decrease from the 62,519 filings during 2010. And total chapter 11 commercial filings for calendar year 2011 were 8,611, a decrease of 19 percent from the 10,604 recorded in 2010.