WASHINGTON – There were 4,869 bankruptcy filings in Rhode Island in the year ending June 30, up 35 percent from the previous year, according to figures released yesterday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

Rhode Island ranked 16th in the nation for bankruptcies per capita in the 12-month period, with 4.65 filings per 1,000 residents, the court said. Nearly all of those – 4,691 – were personal bankruptcies. Business filings accounted for the remaining 178.

Nationwide, personal bankruptcy filings jumped 34 percent from the previous year to 1.25 million.

The figures also showed that most of those filing for bankruptcy opted for Chapter 7 – which writes off people’s debts, but first forces them to sell off their assets to pay creditors – rather than Chapter 13, which lets them keep some assets in exchange for repaying debts under a court-ordered plan.

The court said Chapter 7 filings made up 4,132 of Rhode Island’s 4,869 bankruptcies, or 85 percent of the total. That amounted to 3.95 Chapter 7 filings per 1,000 residents. Only seven states had a higher number per capita.

By contrast, Massachusetts had 2.29 Chapter 7 filings per 1,000 residents, which was 34th-highest in the nation.

Chapter 13 filings totaled 719 in Rhode Island during the year, or 0.69 per 1,000 residents, which ranked 32nd in the nation.

Experts said they expect the numbers to continue to increase. “This will be the biggest year since 2005,” when a surge of bankruptcies took place before a new law tightening the rules took effect, Samuel J. Gerdano, executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute, told The Washington Post.