Cathro Clarity – July 2026

Personal bankruptcy and corporate insolvency – what the latest AFSA and ASIC data tells us

Cathro and Partners have recently expanded our Cathro Clarity dashboard, which provides real time interactive analysis of insolvency statistics.

We are pleased to now offer live data on personal bankruptcy as well as corporate insolvency.

How Australians are entering personal insolvency

The source of personal insolvency has consistently been led by debtors’ petitions from FY22 to FY26. However, there has been a steady increase in debt agreements, both in absolute numbers and as a share of all personal insolvencies:

Source: AFSA, Provisional monthly personal insolvency statistics (Australia). *FY26 covers the 11 months to May 2026.

Debt agreements have grown from 3,414 in FY22 to 5,274 in the eleven months to May 2026 – a rise of 54% – and now account for 43% of all personal insolvencies, up from 36% in FY22. Over the same period, debtors’ petitions have fallen from 57% to 47% of the total. On a like-for-like July-to-May basis, debt agreements rose 13% year on year in FY26, against a 5% increase in total bankruptcies.

Industry: construction leads, but healthcare is the point of difference

As with corporate insolvency, construction has consistently been the leading industry leading to personal bankruptcy, accounting for 1,109 bankruptcies in FY26 – 20% of all bankruptcies where an industry was reported, up from 15% in FY22.

However, a substantial point of difference is that individuals involved in healthcare have consistently been among the most common backgrounds leading to bankruptcy, at a level that is not reflected in the corporate numbers:

Source: AFSA monthly personal insolvency statistics and ASIC Table 1.2 (first-time external administration and controller appointments), FY26. Personal figures are for the 11 months to May 2026; corporate figures are for the full financial year.

Healthcare has represented between 10% and 12% of personal bankruptcies in every year from FY22 to FY26, ranking second or third across the period and second in FY26. By contrast, healthcare accounted for just 464 corporate appointments in FY26, or 3% of the total, ranking tenth. Accommodation and food services shows the opposite pattern – 15% of corporate appointments but only 8% of personal bankruptcies.

Corporate insolvency and personal bankruptcy, year on year

Comparing corporate insolvency appointments to total bankruptcies on a full financial year basis shows how sharply the two series have diverged:

Source: ASIC Table 1 (first-time external administration or controller appointments) and AFSA monthly personal insolvency statistics, full financial year. *FY26 corporate figures cover the full year, while personal figures cover the 11 months to May 2026, so the FY26 ratio overstates the gap. Neither dataset reports the dollar value of appointments.

Corporate appointments have almost tripled since FY22, from 4,912 to 14,152, while bankruptcies rose from 5,995 to 6,922 in FY25 – an increase of 15%. FY26 is the first year in which corporate appointments have eased, down 4% on FY25, whereas bankruptcies continued to climb: the 6,676 recorded in the eleven months to May 2026 is already 5% above the same period last year, and the full-year figure will be higher again.

Bankruptcy and running a business

Considering the bankruptcy statistics, the relationship between becoming bankrupt and running a business shows a consistently high representation of debtors’ petitions from FY22 to FY26, and in particular in FY26:

• For those involved in a business, debtors’ petitions comprised 2,857 of 3,489 personal insolvencies, or 82% – with debt agreements accounting for only 363, or 10%.
• For those not involved in a business, debt agreements comprised 4,911 of 8,694 personal insolvencies, or 56% – while debtors’ petitions fell to 2,936, or 34%.

This split has held throughout the period. Debtors’ petitions have made up between 77% and 85% of insolvencies for those involved in a business in every year since FY22, while the debt agreement share for those not in business has climbed steadily from 45% in FY22 to 56% in FY26.