The number of consumer bankruptcies in Canada has risen substantially over the last twenty years. Using a 1997 survey of approximately 1,000 Canadian debtors, this article explores the economic situation of debtors seeking bankruptcy protection. This economic situation seems to be quite weak-most of the debtors have very low income, very high debts, and few assets. Moreover, the economic situation of the 1997 debtors seems quite similar to that of the 1977 debtors studied by Wayne Brighton and Justin Connidis almost twenty years ago. The aggregate amount of consumer credit, as a proportion of disposable income, has not risen dramatically, and the author discusses the possibility that the increase in bankruptcy is the result of greater amounts of borrowing among three specific groups of borrowers: the self-employed, women, and young people. Overall, the findings from the survey are quite similar to those reported in a similar American study of bankrupts, and suggest that the rise in bankruptcies is not the result of more widespread opportunistic behaviour by debtors
