CHEYENNE -- At the beginning of the year, Wyoming was ranked with the nation's second-fastest increase in bankruptcies.

Filings rose 60 percent between 2008 and 2009 as unemployment and mortgage foreclosures also rose.

But the Cowboy State earned top billing with a volume of cases that totaled just 1,384 filings for 2009.

The jump was the result of a 518-case increase between 2008 and 2009. Bankruptcy filings totaled 866 for 2008, said Tim Ellis, clerk of the Bankruptcy Court in Cheyenne.

But even that 1,384 total is far below the record of 3,300 bankruptcies set in 2005. Filings rose across the nation that year before new bankruptcy laws went into effect.

"We never had a volume like that," Ellis said. "My impression was that people thought bankruptcy was going away forever."

Wyoming's bankruptcy ranking also changes when the numbers are adjusted on a per capita basis, said John Hartgen of the American Bankruptcy Institute.

The state sits at No. 46 for bankruptcy filings, based on population.

But this number only includes the filings for the first nine months of 2009. He said it's difficult to make a year-to-year comparison when data for the year's final three months aren't available.

Ellis said from 1998 to 2004 his office saw an average of 2,300 to 2,500 filings each year. But one of the side effects of congressional efforts to prevent bankruptcy abuse was that filings dropped after the laws took effect in October 2005.

He said the new average became 700 to 800 bankruptcy filings a year.

"It's about a third of what we would consider normal," Ellis added.

Colorado used to be his barometer since Wyoming collected about 10 percent of the volume in that state. Now that standard no longer holds up.

He said filings in Colorado almost hit 30,000 in 2009. He added that Wyoming's total for the same year was 1,384 filings, not the expected 3,000.

Wyoming's economy was strong before the nation went into a recession, and the Cowboy State entered the downturn late.

Ellis said it also takes a while for debt to build up to the point where a person considers bankruptcy. And this is true whether their financial problems stem from an expensive medical bill, job loss or mortgage foreclosure.