2015 Q1 statistics for U.S. bankruptcy filing trends, recently released on uscourts.gov, show a slow decline in filings from the same period one year ago. However, some districts continue to see filing rates decline as much as 16%, while other districts appear to be holding virtually steady, showing a decline as little as 4% since 2014.

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Districts with the smallest declines include Districts 4 and 7 implying that these areas of the U.S. may be seeing the least amount of economic growth over the past year. In contrast, District 9 saw a nearly 16% decline in filings from the same period one year ago, suggesting strong economic growth (and falling unemployment) across the Western U.S. (See related article “Bankruptcy Filing Trends: Using Unemployment Rates to Predict 2015“)

Combined, bankruptcy filing rates declined nearly 10.2% in March 2015 compared to March 2014.