ALEXANDRIA, Va. -

The American Bankruptcy Institute projected how many filings there could be this year after learning the amount of cases reported through the first six months of 2017.

According to data provided by Epiq Systems, ABI reported that total bankruptcy filings during the first six months of the year increased 0.21 percent to 399,454 cases, a rise from the 398,627 total filings during the same period in 2016.

Total commercial filings also increased slightly, rising 1 percent to 19,765 during the first six months of 2017 from the 19,567 total commercial filings during the same period a year ago.

Consumer bankruptcies during the first half of 2017 also registered a slight increase as the 379,689 represented a 0.17 percent increase over the 379,060 consumer filings during the first six months of 2016.

However, the 3,013 total commercial Chapter 11 filings for the first half of 2017 represented a 7 percent drop from the commercial Chapter 11 filing total of 3,225 for the first half of 2016.

“The economic challenges weighing on the balance sheets of struggling consumers and companies, especially retail businesses, have them seeking the financial shelter of bankruptcy,” ABI executive director Samuel Gerdano said. “Total bankruptcies for 2017 will likely approach 800,000, a slight increase over last year.”

Looking strictly at June data, total filings during the month increased to 66,757 from the 66,338 total filings in June of last year. Total commercial bankruptcies increased to 3,385 filings in June from the 3,338 registered last June, while noncommercial bankruptcies for June increased to 63,372 from the 63,000 filings in June of last year.

The average nationwide per capita bankruptcy filing rate for the first six calendar months of 2017 increased to 2.57 (total filings per 1,000 per population) over the 2.54 filing rate of the first five months.

The average total filings per day in June were 3,034, a 1 percent increase from the 3,015 total daily filings in the same month a year ago.

States with the highest per capita filing rate (total filings per 1,000 population) through the first six months of 2017 were:

1. Alabama (5.81)

2. Tennessee (5.69)

3. Georgia (4.73)

4. Mississippi (4.16)

5. Utah (4.14)

ABI has partnered with Epiq Systems, a provider of managed technology for the global legal profession, in order to provide the most current bankruptcy filing data for analysts, researchers and members of the news media.