Accredited official statistics
Individual Insolvency Statistics: October to December 2022
Statistics on new individual insolvencies in England and Wales, and related statistics for Scotland and Northern Ireland
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Annual Summary for 2022
- One in 399 adults (at a rate of 25.0 per 10,000 adults) entered insolvency in 2022. This is higher than the 23.3 per 10,000 adults who entered insolvency in 2021 but a decrease from the 26.1 per 10,000 adults who entered insolvency in 2019 (before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic).
- The total number of individual insolvencies registered in 2022 was 118,850, as shown in Figure 1, which was higher than the 110,045 registered in 2021, but slightly lower than the 122,150 registered in 2019.
- 2022 saw the lowest annual number of bankruptcies since 1982, while numbers of DROs were higher than 2021 but remained below pre-pandemic levels. The annual number of IVAs in 2022 increased from the previous record high in 2021. IVAs accounted for 74% of all individual insolvencies.
- There were 70,546 registered breathing spaces in 2022, comprised of 69,334 Standard and 1,212 Mental Health breathing space registrations. Average quarterly Breathing Space numbers were 14% higher than in 2021. Since the start of the scheme in 4 May 2021, more than 110,000 breathing spaces have been registered.
Quarterly summary for Q4 2022
- After seasonal adjustment, the number of individual insolvencies in Q4 2022 was 6% higher than Q3 2022, and 7% higher than in Q4 2021.
- During Q4 2022, there were 29,589 (seasonally adjusted) individual insolvencies, comprised of 21,865 Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs), 6,142 Debt Relief Orders (DROs) and 1,582 bankruptcies.