As part of its ongoing research effort, the Office of Research and Planning of the Executive Office obtained a sample of 1,452 recently closed no-asset chapter 7 cases, most of which were originally filed in late 1998 or early 1999. The cases were gathered from 60 of the 84 federal judicial districts served by the U.S. Trustee Program in proportion to the number of chapter 7 cases filed in each district during 1997. We reviewed the petitions to determine the gender, marital status and family size of each of the debtors. Table I shows the results.

Table I

	Female (individual)	Male (individual)	Joint Filing	Unknown	Total
Total Cases	502	428	507	15	1,452
Married	74	82	484	--	640
Separated	32	29	22	--	83
Divorced	126	86	1	2	215
Single*	241	226	--	13	480
Widowed	29	5	--	--	34
*It is likely that some of the debtors who reported themselves as single were actually separated, divorced or widowed.

Filings by females and joint filings each account for about 35 percent of the total, while filings by males accounted for the remaining 30 percent of cases. About 44 percent of the debtors were married, 23 percent were previously married (separated, divorced or widowed), and the remaining 33 percent reported themselves as single.

There are significant financial differences among the male, female and joint debtors. Joint debtors have more dependents, much higher combined incomes, higher unsecured debt levels, and are much more likely to be homeowners than either individual male or female filers. Their debt-to-income ratios¹ tend to be a little lower than individual filers.

Individual male debtors have higher incomes than individual female filers. Individual female debtors are far more likely to have dependents than male debtors. However, one-quarter of the individual male filers reported alimony or child support payments on Schedule J of their petitions (Table II).

Table II

	Female	Male	Joint Filing
Average Family Size	2.01	1.51	3.59
Percent with Dependents (other than spouse)	47.0%	23.1%	75.0%
Percent Disabled or Retired	13.7%	11.4%	9.6%
Percent Homeowners	27.7%	26.9%	51.3%
Gross Income Average Median	$19,716 $18,012	$23,928 $21,420	$37,992 $34,632
Unsecured Debt Average Median	$29,503 $19,613	$39,928 $21,925	$44,527 $27,725
Median Unsecured + Priority Debt-to-Income Ratio	1.23	1.04	.91
Child Support/Alimony Percent Paying Average Amt. Paid/Year	2.8% $78	22.2% $1,176	8.7% $417

Table III shows the same information for three subgroups of unmarried chapter 7 debtors: males with no dependents, females with no dependents and females with dependents.

As a group, the females with no dependents had lower incomes, higher debt-to-income ratios and were more likely to be disabled or retired. The income levels of the unmarried females with dependents were about the same as the unmarried male debtors. Home-ownership rates were comparable among the three subgroups.

More than one-quarter of the unmarried male debtors report making child support or alimony payments. These payments amount to 6.3 percent of this group's total income, and 19.9 percent of the income of those who are required to make payments.

Table III

	Unmarried Males (no dependents)	Unmarried Females (no dependents)	Unmarried Females w/dependents
Number of Cases	303	239	189
Percent of all Cases	20.9%	16.5%	13.0%
Percent Disabled or Retired	12.9%	21.3%	7.9%
Percent Homeowners	25.4%	28.5%	25.4%
Gross Income Average Median	$21,912 $19,800	$17,112 $15,792	$20,760 $19,236
Unsecured Debt Average Median	$35,996 $21,700	$34,172 $20,639	$24,953 $17,970
Median Unsecured + Priority Debt-to-Income Ratio	1.14	1.51	.94
Child Support/Alimony Percent Paying Average Amt. Paid/Year	25.4% $1,387	2.5% $53	3.2% $94

Most unmarried debtors would be eligible for chapter 7 under pending means-testing proposals. Only about 12 percent of the unmarried debtors in our sample exceed the gross income threshold in H.R. 833, and application of the IRS Expense Guidelines would allow many of the higher-income debtors to remain eligible for chapter 7.

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Footnotes

¹ Total priority and general unsecured debt listed on Schedules E and F divided by 12 times the gross monthly income from all sources listed on Schedule I. Return to article