Car Theft Capitals of the United States (2021)

Published on March 17, 2022
Published on March 17, 2022
Click here to see the Cities with the Most Stolen Vehicles report for 2022.
While car theft has somewhat decreased over the last decade, in some cities, cars are still stolen at alarmingly high rates.
Last year, 721,885 vehicles were reported stolen in the United States, according to the Insurance Information Institute (III). If spread evenly across the year, nearly 2,000 would occur each day. Although considerably lower than in the 1990s when automotive theft reached its peak, the rate of car theft has hardly changed over the last decade. In fact, car thefts last year were down only 2.4 percent since 2010.
The coronavirus pandemic has also provoked significant changes in driving habits over the past year. Many people are driving less due to shelter in place orders throughout the nation. With cars left idle for longer periods, drivers across the country are left more vulnerable to automotive theft than ever before; in fact, many thieves will steal a car right out of the owner’s driveway.
Car theft has significant repercussions both on an individual and community level. The vast majority of Americans rely on their car to purchase food or commute to work, and the loss of this transportation ability can be devastating. Moreover, replacing a stolen car is costly, even with auto insurance. Besides the upfront cost of a deductible, insurance premiums can increase considerably after the incident. The entire community also experiences the detrimental consequences of car theft, which is associated with increases in crime rates; thieves often use stolen cars to commit additional crimes.
Researchers at Insurify referred to data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) to determine the top 20 cities with the most car thefts per capita. In the interest of public safety and awareness, this report also concludes with simple and cost-effective steps drivers can take to safeguard against car theft.
The data scientists at Insurify, a site to compare auto insurance rates , compiled data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) on auto theft rates in all 384 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA’s) of the United States. From this data, they identified the top twenty cities reporting the highest auto theft incidence per 100,000 residents. Insurify’s data scientists also calculated the average motor vehicle theft rate across all 384 MSA’s. From this number, they determined how much more frequently auto thefts occurred in these top 20 cities compared to the national average.
Population data for each of the top 20 cities were gathered from the United States Census Bureau.
1. Bakersfield, CA - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 726.28
2. Albuquerque, NM - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 697.05
3. St. Joseph, MO-KS - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 614.90
4. Modesto, CA - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 573.13
5. Odessa, TX - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 569.11
6. Topeka, KS - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 557.40
7. Yuba City, CA - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 546.01
8. Merced, CA - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 534.07
9. Yakima, WA - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 528.16
10. Springfield, MO - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 514.57
11. Redding, CA - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 503.67
12. Pueblo, CO - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 493.99
13. Vallejo, CA - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 492.58
14. San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 492.33
15. Lubbock, TX - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 485.64
16. Tulsa, OK - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 483.86
17. Stockton, CA - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 483.63
18. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 478.34
19. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 474.95
20. Chico, CA - motor vehicle theft per 100k: 468.55
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