U.S. Vehicle Theft Statistics (2026 Update)

Key statistics at a glance

How Many Vehicles Are Stolen in the U.S. Each Year?

The United States recorded 659,880 vehicle thefts in 2025, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) analysis released in March 2026 — a 23% decrease from 2024 and, in NICB's words, a historic low that signals the end of the pandemic-era theft surge. Even at this reduced level, one vehicle is stolen roughly every 48 seconds.

Thefts rose every year from 2019 through 2023, peaking at 1,020,729 in 2023 — the second consecutive year above one million. The turnaround began in 2024, when thefts fell 17% to 850,708, which NICB called the largest annual decrease in 40 years; the 23% drop in 2025 was larger still.

Federal data shows the same arc. The FBI's Motor Vehicle Theft, 2019-2023 special report, published in August 2024, found the national theft rate rose from 199.4 incidents per 100,000 people in 2019 to 283.5 in 2023, based on NIBRS reporting. Automobiles accounted for 78.1% of vehicles stolen over that period, followed by trucks at 12.2%.

The Most Stolen Cars in America

The Hyundai Elantra was the most stolen vehicle in the U.S. in 2025, with 21,732 thefts, followed by the Honda Accord (17,797) and Hyundai Sonata (17,687), per NICB's March 2026 report. Elantra thefts fell sharply from 31,712 in 2024, when NICB's data also ranked it first.

Hyundai and Kia vehicles together accounted for 14% of all U.S. thefts in 2025, down from 16% in 2024 and 21% in 2023, according to NICB, which attributes the third straight year of decline to software updates and theft-prevention measures introduced after those models became top targets.

Full-size pickups remain heavily targeted: the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 ranked fourth in 2025 with 16,764 thefts, after ranking third in 2024 with 21,666. The rest of the 2025 top ten consists of high-volume models: Honda Civic (12,725), Kia Optima (11,521), Ford F-150 (10,102), Toyota Camry (9,833), Honda CR-V (9,809), and Nissan Altima (8,445).

Vehicle Theft by State and Metro Area

California reported 136,988 vehicle thefts in 2025 — more than 20% of the national total and the most of any state, per NICB. Texas (75,269), Illinois (28,327), Florida (27,142), and New York (24,206) completed the top five by volume.

Adjusted for population, the District of Columbia had the nation's highest theft rate in 2024 at 842.4 thefts per 100,000 residents — more than three times the national average of 250.2 — according to NICB's March 2025 report. California (463.21), New Mexico (458.24), Colorado (430.04), and Nevada (394.42) followed.

Theft is concentrated in metropolitan areas: more than one-third of all 2025 thefts occurred in the ten highest-volume metro areas, led by Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim with 53,911, per NICB. The San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro had the highest 2025 theft rate among large metros at 477.51 per 100,000 people. Meanwhile, Washington State posted the largest statewide decline in 2025 at −39%, followed by Colorado (−35%) and Puerto Rico (−34%).

Recovery Rates and What Vehicle Theft Costs

Most stolen vehicles come back. More than 85% of vehicles stolen in 2022 were recovered, according to NICB trend data published by the Insurance Information Institute, and passenger vehicles reported stolen within the first 24 hours had a 34% same-day recovery rate that year. In a July 2024 release, NICB reported that 34% of recovered stolen vehicles are found the same day as the theft and 45% within two days — which is why both NICB and insurers stress reporting a theft immediately.

The financial toll remains large. NHTSA estimated that vehicle theft costs owners more than $8 billion annually, as cited in a joint NICB-NHTSA release in July 2024. At the 2023 peak, roughly one vehicle was stolen every 31 seconds; by 2025 that interval had lengthened to about one every 48 seconds, per NICB.

The FBI's 2019-2023 motor vehicle theft report also tracked carjacking, finding that the reported carjacking rate fell from 7.5 to 6.6 incidents per 100,000 people between 2022 and 2023, even before overall thefts began their sharp 2024 decline.

Why Theft Data Matters When Buying a Used Car

Not every stolen vehicle is recovered. Applying the roughly 85% recovery rate NICB reported for 2022 to that year's 1,008,756 thefts leaves on the order of 150,000 vehicles unrecovered from a single year — and some of them re-enter the used-car market under a disguised identity.

One way stolen vehicles are resold is VIN cloning. As NICB describes the scheme, criminals copy the VIN from a legally owned vehicle, create a counterfeit VIN tag and matching fake ownership documents, attach them to a stolen vehicle of the same type, and sell the clone to an unsuspecting buyer. Because many licensing agencies do not check for duplicate ownership when an out-of-state title is surrendered, cloning can go undetected for years.

Before buying, run the VIN through NICB's free VINCheck, which flags vehicles reported stolen and not recovered — or branded as salvage or flood-damaged — by participating member insurance companies. A free VIN decode confirms the VIN is structurally valid and that the decoded year, make, and model match the car in front of you; a mismatch is a classic cloning red flag. For title history, an NMVTIS-based vehicle history report (such as the ClearVIN report available through VIN Lookup) shows title brands, salvage records, and total-loss records reported by states and insurers. NICB also recommends a title search and a close look at the ownership pattern of any late-model vehicle with no lienholder.