What the 2025 figures show
The Insolvency Service publishes monthly individual insolvency statistics for England and Wales. The annual figures for 2025 were published in January 2026 and show 126,240 individual insolvencies registered during the year.
This was 7 per cent higher than the 117,958 recorded in 2024 and the highest annual level since 2010.
Breakdown by insolvency type
The 126,240 individual insolvencies in 2025 were split as follows:
- IVAs: 57 per cent of all individual insolvencies
- DROs: 37 per cent of all individual insolvencies
- Bankruptcies: 6 per cent of all individual insolvencies
The Insolvency Service notes that the long-term trend shows a decrease in the proportion of individual insolvencies that are bankruptcies. In 2015, 50 per cent of individual insolvencies were IVAs, 30 per cent were DROs and 20 per cent were bankruptcies.
How IVA volumes compared
IVA numbers in 2025 were slightly higher than 2024 levels, but remained below the record annual numbers seen between 2018 and 2022.
DROs at a record high
DRO numbers in 2025 were slightly higher than 2024, making 2025 the year with the highest volume of DROs since their introduction in 2009. The Insolvency Service attributes some of this growth to the 2024 DRO reforms that removed the £90 application fee and raised eligibility thresholds.
Bankruptcy numbers remain low
Bankruptcy numbers in 2025 were slightly lower than 2024 and remained at less than half of pre-2020 levels. They were, however, higher than the 40-year low seen in 2022.
How the data is collected
Individual insolvency data for England and Wales is sourced from the Insolvency Service Case Information System (ISCIS). Figures are seasonally adjusted using ARIMA modelling to allow reliable comparisons between months. The individual insolvency rate is calculated using Office for National Statistics population estimates for people over the age of 18.
The Insolvency Service moved to a new case management system on 1 November 2025, which created a temporary backlog in case processing. This affected the distribution of registrations between November and December 2025 but did not materially affect the annual total.