More than 533,000 individual bankruptcy cases were filed in the United States last year, an approximately 11% increase from the previous year. Bankruptcy attorneys said they are seeing growing numbers of young adults among those seeking debt relief.

Florida bankruptcy attorney Chad Van Horn said, "We're definitely seeing more young filers, and it's not because they're irresponsible. It's because they entered adulthood during one of the most financially distorted environments in decades."

North Carolina bankruptcy attorney Ed Boltz said, "What we're seeing is sort of the hangover from several years of government stimulus and all the various economic things that have driven up costs and expenses while keeping wages fairly flat."

There is no comprehensive national data source tracking the ages of bankruptcy filers in the U.S., making it difficult to independently verify the scope of the shift attorneys described.

Young people are using TikTok to document their bankruptcy journeys and present the process as a way to eliminate large amounts of debt. An anonymous young woman said in a TikTok video, "I 100% believe that filing bankruptcy has been the best thing that has happened to me." The authenticity of such anonymous accounts could not be independently verified.