Small-business bankruptcies are declining in Atlanta, falling 44 percent between the second and third quarters of this year, according to data from Equifax.
The Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta area ranked fifth in the nation for the number of small-business bankruptcies in June; at the end of September, the area had fallen to 15th place. The city with the highest number of small-business bankruptcies is Los Angeles.
Savannah made the list of 15 metro areas with the fewest small-business bankruptcy filings.
Nationwide, commercial bankruptcies among the country's 25 million small businesses increased by 44 percent from the third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2009. In the month of September alone, the most recent month for which complete data are available, total bankruptcy filings around the country rose 27 percent, from 7,386 in September 2008 to 9,361 in September 2009, according to the Equifax analysis.
Equifax, which analyzed Chapter 7, 11 and 13 filings to collect this data, defines a small business as a commercial entity with fewer than 100 employees.