Main messages for England and Wales

• After seasonal adjustment, 10,147 individuals entered insolvency in England and Wales in February 2025. This was 4% higher than in January 2025 and 5% lower than in February 2024.

• The individual insolvencies consisted of 600 bankruptcies, 3,865 debt relief orders (DROs) and 5,682 individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs). The number of DROs in February 2025 was similar to January 2025. DRO numbers have been at record-high monthly levels since the abolition of the upfront £90 fee in April 2024. The number of IVAs registered in February 2025 was similar to the average monthly number seen in 2024. Bankruptcy numbers remained at about half of pre-2020 levels and were also 10% lower than in February 2024.

• In the 12 months ending 28 February 2025, one in 417 adults in England and Wales entered insolvency (at a rate of 24.0 per 10,000 adults). This is higher than the rate of 21.9 per 10,000 adults (one in 457) who entered insolvency in the 12 months ending 29 February 2024.

• There were 7,889 Breathing Space registrations in February 2025. This is similar to February 2024.

Main Messages for England and Wales

• After seasonal adjustment, 8,708 individuals entered insolvency in England & Wales in March 2024. This was 19% lower than in February 2024 and 9% lower than in March 2023.

• The individual insolvencies consisted of 681 bankruptcies, 2,628 debt relief orders (DROs) and 5,399 individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs). The number of IVAs registered in March was similar to numbers seen over the past 12 months. DRO numbers were slightly lower than the record high monthly numbers seen in the second half of 2023, but remained high compared to historical levels. The number of bankruptcies was similar to the past nine months and slightly higher than in March 2023. However, bankruptcy numbers remained at about half of pre-2020 levels.

• In the 12 months ending 31 March 2024, one in 470 adults in England & Wales entered insolvency (a rate of 21.3 per 10,000 adults). This is lower than the individual insolvency rate of 24.3 per 10,000 adults (1 in 412) who entered insolvency in the 12 months ending 31 March 2023.

• There were 7,710 Breathing Space registrations in March 2024. This is 7% lower than in March 2023.

This statistics release contains the latest data on company insolvency (companies which are unable to pay debts and enter liquidation, or enter administration or other company rescue process) and individual insolvency (people who are unable to pay debts and enter formal procedures).

Statistics are presented separately for England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland because of differences in legislation and policy.

Main Messages

Companies

• Total company insolvencies in Q1 2017 decreased compared with the unusually high level in the previous quarter, when a large number of connected personal service companies entered liquidation.
• Compared with last quarter’s underlying numbers, company insolvencies rose in Q1 2017 for the third successive quarter.

People

• Total individual insolvencies increased this quarter, driven primarily by an increase in individual voluntary arrangements. This was the highest number of individual insolvencies since Q2 2014.

This statistics release contains the latest data on monthly company and individual insolvency (companies and individual people who are unable to pay debts and enter formal procedures).

Statistics are presented separately for England and Wales , Scotland and for Northern Ireland in this release.

Main messages

Company insolvencies

• There were 1,228 company insolvencies in December 2020.

Individual insolvencies

• There were 1,241 debt relief orders and 807 bankruptcies in December 2020.
• There were an average of 7,918 individual voluntary arrangements registered in the 3 months ending December 2020.

Annual 2021

• One in 429 adults (at a rate of 23.3 per 10,000 adults) entered insolvency in 2021. This is broadly similar to the rate in 2020 but a decrease from the 26.1 per 10,000 adults who entered insolvency in 2019 (pre-pandemic).
• The total number of individual insolvencies registered in 2021 was similar to the number registered in 2020 but 10% lower than 2019.
• IVAs reached a record high in 2021 and accounted for 74% of all individual insolvencies. 2021 saw the lowest annual number of bankruptcies since 1989, while numbers of DROs were similar to 2020 but remained below pre-pandemic levels.
• Between the launch of the Breathing Space scheme on 4 May 2021, and 31 December 2021, there were 41,127 registrations, comprised of 40,503 Standard breathing space registrations and 624 Mental Health breathing space registrations.

Quarterly Q4 2021

• After seasonal adjustment, the number of individual insolvencies in Q4 2021 was similar to Q3 2021, but 12% lower than in Q4 2020.
• During Q4 2021, there were 27,349 (seasonally adjusted) individual insolvencies, as shown in Figure 1, comprised of 19,662 Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs), 5,863 Debt Relief Orders (DROs) and 1,824 bankruptcies.

• After seasonal adjustment, the number of individual insolvencies in April to June (Q2) 2022 was 10% lower than in Q1 2022. Numbers of individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs), debt relief orders (DROs) and bankruptcies were all lower. However, total individual insolvencies were 7% higher than in Q2 2021.
• One in 409 adults (at a rate of 24.4 per 10,000 adults) entered insolvency between 1 July 2021 and 30 June 2022. This is an increase from the 22.6 per 10,000 adults who entered insolvency in the 12 months ending 30 June 2021.
• During Q2 2022, there were 28,946 (seasonally adjusted) individual insolvencies, as shown in Figure 1, comprised of 21,578 IVAs, 5,772 DROs and 1,596 bankruptcies.
• Between the launch of the Breathing Space scheme on 4 May 2021, and 30 June 2022, there were 75,385 registrations, comprised of 74,177 Standard breathing space registrations and 1,208 Mental Health breathing space registrations.

Company insolvencies

The number of registered company insolvencies in January 2021 was 752, approximately half the number registered in the same month in the previous year (1,515 in January 2020).

Individual insolvencies

For individual insolvencies, the number of bankruptcies in January 2021 was 818, while the number of Debt Relief Orders was 1,167. Both were 47% lower than in January 2020. There were, on average, 6,950 IVAs registered per month in the three-month period ending January 2021, 17% higher than for the three-month period ending January 2020, although this series is volatile.

This statistical release provides breakdowns of individual insolvencies in England and Wales by region; county and unitary authority; and local authority levels. It also includes age and gender breakdowns of individual insolvencies at these levels for 2019. The statistics cover the calendar years 2000 to 2019.

Please note that we are currently experiencing technical issues with uploading the accompanying PowerBi Dashboard that enables users to interrogate the data by location. We are working to resolve this issue and will publish the dashboard at the earliest opportunity. In the meantime the underlying data can be found in the accompanying Excel documents. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Main Messages

• The total insolvency rate increased for the fourth successive year; similarly to last year the insolvency rate increased in all regions of England and Wales in 2019.

• The North East continued to have the highest insolvency rates, while London had the lowest.

• Of the 10 local authorities with the lowest insolvency rates, 9 were in London.

• Eight out of the 10 local authorities with the highest insolvency rates were in coastal areas.

• The insolvency rate for females was higher than the male rate for the sixth successive year, and the gap has continued to widen.

• Insolvency rates were highest in the 25 to 34 age group for females and 35 to 44 for males.

• Insolvency rates increased for all age groups expected for those aged 65 and over, which decreased slightly.

The number of registered company insolvencies in May 2021 was 1,011:

• 7% higher than the number registered in the same month in the previous year (946 in May 2020), and
• 25% lower than the number registered two years previously (pre-pandemic; 1,352 in May 2019).

For individuals, 718 bankruptcies and 1,525 Debt Relief Orders were registered. The number of Bankruptcies was similar to May 2020 and 50% lower than during May 2019. DRO numbers were similar to May 2020, but 33% lower than in May 2019 (pre-pandemic).

There were, on average, 7,393 IVAs registered per month in the three-month period ending May 2021, which is similar to both the three-month periods ending May 2020 and May 2019.

The number of registered company insolvencies in October 2022 was 1,948:

• 38% higher than in the same month in the previous year (1,410 in October 2021), and
• 32% higher than the number registered three years previously (pre-pandemic; 1,477 in October 2019).

There were 242 compulsory liquidations in October 2022, more than 4 times as many as in October 2021 and 2% higher than in October 2019. Numbers of compulsory liquidations have increased from historical lows seen during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, partly as a result of an increase in winding-up petitions presented by HMRC. October 2022 was the first time that the number of compulsory liquidations was similar to the pre-pandemic comparison month. This was partly caused by a large number of petitions from a single bank, which accounted for 45 of the compulsory liquidations in this month.

In October 2022 there were 1,594 Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidations (CVLs), 28% higher than in October 2021 and 53% higher than October 2019. Numbers of administrations and Company Voluntary Arrangements (CVAs) remained lower than before the pandemic.

For individuals, 531 bankruptcies were registered, which was 14% lower than in October 2021 and 62% lower than October 2019.

There were 1,894 Debt Relief Orders (DROs) in October 2022, which was 2% lower than October 2021 and 25% lower than the pre-pandemic comparison month (October 2019).

There were, on average, 7,610 Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) registered per month in the three-month period ending October 2022, which is 8% higher than the three-month period ending October 2021, and 13% higher than the three-month period ending October 2019. IVA numbers have ranged from around 6,300 to 7,800 per month over the past year.

There were 6,342 Breathing Space registrations in October 2022, which is 31% higher than the number registered in October 2021. 6,230 were Standard breathing space registrations, which is 31% higher than in October 2021, and 112 were Mental Health breathing space registrations, which is 38% higher than the number in October 2021.

Companies House produces quarterly reports about those companies newly incorporated to and removed from the register, and the total and effective register sizes. Additional information is provided on company liquidations and other insolvency procedures.

Information is provided for all companies, for public companies and for limited liability partnerships (LLPs). Tables cover the UK as a whole, and England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland individually.

The full statistical report is currently provided in English only. If you would like to see a Welsh translation of future versions of this report, contact statistics@companieshouse.gov.uk.

Previous statistics

You can read previous statistics releases for incorporated companies, or statistics releases from previous years can be found on The National Archives.