In the first half of 2026, 268,415 vehicles were stolen in the US, 21 percent fewer than in the same period in 2025.
All 50 states had fewer thefts than the year before.
In 2025, 659,880 vehicles were stolen, 23 percent fewer than in 2024 and the lowest level in several decades.
Fewer thefts in every state
In the first six months of the year, 268,415 stolen vehicles were reported to police in the US. That is 21 percent fewer than in the same period in 2025. The figures come from NICB, the National Insurance Crime Bureau, which works against insurance fraud and vehicle crime. The statistics are based on thefts reported to police in all 50 states and Washington DC.
All 50 states had fewer thefts than the year before. In the first half of 2026, 77.81 vehicles were stolen per 100,000 people. In the same period in 2025, the figure was 97.33, and in 2024 it was 126.62, according to The Drive. That is a drop of almost 40 percent in two years.
Largest drop in Washington DC
Washington DC had the largest drop. There, 1,262 vehicles were stolen in the first half of the year, compared with 2,641 in the same period the year before. That is 52 percent fewer. Tennessee fell by 42 percent, from 7,754 to 4,528 thefts. Vermont fell by 37 percent. New Hampshire and Colorado fell by 35 percent each. Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri all fell by 30 percent or more.
California had the most thefts, 57,821. The Los Angeles metro area had 21,540 thefts, 23 percent fewer than the year before. Thefts fell in nine of the ten metro areas with the most stolen vehicles. The Washington metro area fell by 31 percent, Dallas-Fort Worth by 30 percent and Seattle by 27 percent.
Third year of fewer thefts
The decline began in 2024. That year, thefts fell by 17 percent from the peak in 2023, when more than one million vehicles were stolen, according to Insurance Business. At the time, it was the largest drop in a single year in 40 years. In 2025, 659,880 vehicles were stolen. That was 23 percent fewer than in 2024. The level was the lowest in several decades, according to NICB's annual report.
The Council on Criminal Justice is an organization that tracks crime in US cities. In the 32 cities that reported data, car thefts in the first half of 2026 were 20 percent lower than in the same period in 2025. Thefts fell in 27 of the 32 cities. The level was 51 percent below the 2023 peak and about 3 percent below the first half of 2019, before the pandemic.
Car thefts in the US peaked in 1991, at 659 thefts per 100,000 people for the full year. By 2019, the figure had fallen to 220. We have previously written about how car thefts in Sweden have fallen sharply since 1990. Other crimes are also falling in the US. We have also written about the largest drop in violent crime and murder in the US since 1937.
Cooperation and cars that are harder to steal
NICB's chief operating officer, Tim Slater, attributes the drop to long-term cooperation among law enforcement, insurers, auto theft prevention authorities and other partners. He says continued investment in that cooperation is needed to keep thefts down.
Carmakers have also made cars harder to steal. Many Hyundai and Kia models from 2011 to 2022 had no engine immobilizer. That made them easy to steal, and the method for stealing them spread on social media. In 2023, the manufacturers began updating the cars' software. The share of all stolen vehicles that were Hyundais or Kias fell from 21 percent in 2023 to 16 percent in 2024 and 14 percent in 2025.
Some states have toughened their laws. In Colorado, every car theft has counted as a felony since 2023, regardless of the car's value. Before that, stealing a car worth $2,000 or less counted as a misdemeanor. In the first half of 2026, thefts in Colorado fell by 35 percent.
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