Property crime · FBI quarterly crime data · 12 months ending March 2026
Motor vehicle theft
609,353 offenses were reported to the FBI in the 12 months ending March 2026, against 776,104 a year earlier — down 21.5%.
Motor vehicle theft, month by month
Each month of the 12 months ending March 2026 against the same calendar month a year earlier — FBI-published national figures. Months are never chained into one continuous series, because the set of reporting agencies differs month to month; only the month-vs-same-month comparison is like for like.
| Month | Year earlier | Latest | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 2025 | 69,214 | 54,462 | -21.3% |
| May 2025 | 73,071 | 58,550 | -19.9% |
| June 2025 | 72,353 | 57,387 | -20.7% |
| July 2025 | 74,980 | 60,259 | -19.6% |
| August 2025 | 71,457 | 56,911 | -20.4% |
| September 2025 | 66,986 | 52,596 | -21.5% |
| October 2025 | 67,202 | 53,034 | -21.1% |
| November 2025 | 61,571 | 48,809 | -20.7% |
| December 2025 | 66,089 | 49,770 | -24.7% |
| January 2026 | 54,436 | 41,236 | -24.2% |
| February 2026 | 47,716 | 36,648 | -23.2% |
| March 2026 | 51,029 | 39,691 | -22.2% |
Motor vehicle theft by state
Reported in the 12 months ending March 2026, with the change from a year earlier. State totals are our sums of agency common-month reports and their percent changes are derived — coverage varies by state, so compare each state with itself, not across states.
| State | To March 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|
| California | 110,353 | -17.3% |
| Texas | 74,295 | -22.0% |
| Illinois | 29,501 | -12.3% |
| New York | 24,191 | -13.0% |
| Pennsylvania | 23,516 | -5.2% |
| Ohio | 20,083 | -17.4% |
| North Carolina | 19,728 | -21.3% |
| Maryland | 19,369 | -18.4% |
| Washington | 18,184 | -36.7% |
| Michigan | 17,260 | -20.8% |
| Missouri | 16,942 | -27.3% |
| Colorado | 16,247 | -39.0% |
| Tennessee | 14,477 | -36.1% |
| Georgia | 14,433 | -31.1% |
| Nevada | 12,340 | -16.8% |
| New Jersey | 12,287 | -16.2% |
| Arizona | 12,088 | -29.8% |
| Florida | 11,658 | -34.2% |
| Minnesota | 9,918 | -15.5% |
| Virginia | 9,680 | -18.4% |
| Indiana | 9,573 | -21.6% |
| Oregon | 8,578 | -24.9% |
| South Carolina | 8,412 | -20.6% |
| Kentucky | 8,395 | -17.0% |
| Alabama | 7,830 | -13.1% |
| Oklahoma | 7,728 | -11.0% |
| Wisconsin | 7,078 | -22.5% |
| Connecticut | 6,000 | -25.7% |
| New Mexico | 5,904 | -37.2% |
| Kansas | 5,747 | -19.0% |
| Louisiana | 5,554 | -20.5% |
| Massachusetts | 5,521 | -18.6% |
| District of Columbia | 4,198 | -24.8% |
| Arkansas | 4,086 | -19.6% |
| Iowa | 3,514 | -15.9% |
| Nebraska | 3,370 | -25.7% |
| Hawaii | 3,233 | -35.8% |
| Utah | 3,200 | -19.5% |
| Mississippi | 2,210 | -14.8% |
| Alaska | 1,871 | +3.0% |
| Delaware | 1,869 | -13.8% |
| Montana | 1,474 | -20.1% |
| North Dakota | 1,151 | -18.2% |
| South Dakota | 1,055 | -32.9% |
| Rhode Island | 1,043 | -14.9% |
| Idaho | 1,002 | -21.8% |
| West Virginia | 986 | -23.8% |
| Maine | 808 | -23.1% |
| New Hampshire | 722 | -17.9% |
| Wyoming | 440 | -17.9% |
| Vermont | 251 | -43.2% |
More property crime trends
About this data
- These are preliminary quarterly submissions, not the FBI's annual crime publication. Nothing is estimated for agencies that did not report, so totals here run lower than the FBI's annual estimated national figures and are not comparable to them.
- Every comparison is over “common months.” Each agency's two 12-month windows are restricted to the calendar months it reported in both years — 12,072 of the 15,767 agencies reported all 12. A partial reporter's “12-month” figure covers fewer months, but identically in both windows, which keeps its percent change honest.
- Blank and zero mean different things. A zero is a month an agency reported with no offenses; a blank month was not reported (or not common to both windows) and contributes nothing to any total. Missing is never counted as zero.
- National figures are FBI-published verbatim; state figures are our sums. The U.S. row comes straight from the FBI's national line, including its published percent changes. State totals are derived by summing agency common-month counts, so state percent changes are computed, not published.
- Agencies are assigned to states by ORI prefix — the agency's headquarters state. A multi-jurisdiction agency's offenses all land in its HQ state.
- No per-capita rates. Reporting coverage varies by state and agency, so covered populations do not line up with counts; comparing raw counts across states reflects coverage as much as crime.
- Arson is reported separately and excluded from the property crime index. It is also measured differently from our annual Arson dataset — the two use different collection windows — so do not compare figures across them.
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, quarterly “Crime in the United States by Volume and Percent Change” table, 12 months ending March 2026. pumsdata is independent and not affiliated with the FBI. How our data works.
Motor vehicle theft — FAQ
Is motor vehicle theft up or down in the U.S.?+
Motor vehicle theft is down 21.5% in the 12 months ending March 2026 compared with the year before, per the FBI's published national figures: 609,353 offenses against 776,104. Both windows cover only the months each agency reported in both years.
Which state reported the most motor vehicle theft?+
California reported the most in the 12 months ending March 2026 (110,353), followed by Texas (74,295) and Illinois (29,501). Reporting coverage varies by state, so raw counts reflect coverage as much as crime.
Where does this data come from?+
The FBI Crime Data Explorer's quarterly "Crime in the United States by Volume and Percent Change" table — preliminary offense counts known to law enforcement, not arrests and not the FBI's annual estimates. pumsdata is independent and not affiliated with the FBI.