Which big U.S. cities have the most car thefts?

In 2025, Oakland, CA had the highest car theft rate of the 89 biggest U.S. cities whose police reported a full year to the FBI, about 1,448 per 100,000 people, followed by Kansas City, MO (1,197) and St. Louis, MO (1,188). Irvine, CA (52) and Gilbert, AZ (60) had the lowest; the U.S. rate was about 200. Car theft counts stolen cars, trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles. Departments that didn't report a full year are left out (for 2025, New Orleans, Orlando and St. Petersburg, Florida). Rates count only crimes reported to police. Each rate is per person the department serves, and a few, such as Las Vegas, Honolulu, Jacksonville and Louisville, serve their whole county. A city's rate also depends on where its borders fall, so compare cities with care.

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Key facts

Measure: Motor vehicle thefts per 100,000 people. Written from the data below.

  • Oakland, CA has the highest figure, 1,447.7, followed by Kansas City, MO (1,196.8) and St. Louis, MO (1,188.4).
  • Irvine, CA has the lowest figure, 52.3, followed by Gilbert, AZ (59.9) and Plano, TX (74.9).
  • The highest is 28 times the lowest.
  • U.S. overall: 199.9. Of the 89 compared, 76 are above it and 13 below.

Source and date

Source
FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program
License
Public domain (U.S. government work); source FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “Which big U.S. cities have the most car thefts?” Chart. Data: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend (data as of December 31, 2025). https://chart.ly/charts/car-theft-rate-by-city (accessed October 27, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

City Motor vehicle thefts per 100,000 people
Oakland, CA 1,447.7
Kansas City, MO 1,196.8
St. Louis, MO 1,188.4
Minneapolis, MN 1,147.7
Philadelphia, PA 1,024.3
Detroit, MI 971.6
Cleveland, OH 923.4
Memphis, TN 901.5
Milwaukee, WI 863.1
Dallas, TX 838.7
Baltimore, MD 785.7
Denver, CO 757.1
Seattle, WA 735.6
Long Beach, CA 725.4
Cincinnati, OH 702.6
Newark, NJ 689.2
Louisville, KY 671
Chicago, IL 663.9
Washington, DC 656
Portland, OR 634.1
San Antonio, TX 615
Buffalo, NY 585.1
Albuquerque, NM 584.6
Charlotte, NC 583.2
Wichita, KS 567.5
Nashville, TN 560.6
Indianapolis, IN 549.2
Durham, NC 525.5
Houston, TX 522.4
North Las Vegas, NV 522
San Jose, CA 520.3
Los Angeles, CA 519.6
Las Vegas, NV 513
Aurora, CO 508.2
Anchorage, AK 505.2
Greensboro, NC 496.6
Columbus, OH 484.4
Bakersfield, CA 471.5
Omaha, NE 463.6
Atlanta, GA 453.7
Fresno, CA 434.8
Austin, TX 432.9
Sacramento, CA 418.5
St. Paul, MN 413.1
Stockton, CA 412
Tulsa, OK 399.3
Colorado Springs, CO 391.1
Toledo, OH 379.6
San Francisco, CA 374.1
Phoenix, AZ 351.3
Fort Worth, TX 351.1
Winston-Salem, NC 321.3
Riverside, CA 315.5
Glendale, AZ 314
Pittsburgh, PA 312.6
Raleigh, NC 309.6
Oklahoma City, OK 305.6
San Diego, CA 298.4
Honolulu, HI 295.1
Reno, NV 291.9
Jersey City, NJ 290.9
Anaheim, CA 286.3
Corpus Christi, TX 275
Irving, TX 271.1
Henderson, NV 269.3
El Paso, TX 264.5
Garland, TX 249.9
Lexington, KY 228.4
Arlington, TX 226.8
Miami, FL 219.7
Lincoln, NE 219.2
Santa Ana, CA 216.4
Chula Vista, CA 216.3
Tucson, AZ 214.9
Lubbock, TX 214.4
Jacksonville, FL 201.8
U.S. overall 199.9
New York, NY 183.8
Fort Wayne, IN 170.3
Mesa, AZ 160.2
Laredo, TX 124.8
Boston, MA 112.5
Virginia Beach, VA 101.1
Tampa, FL 97.8
Chesapeake, VA 96.5
Madison, WI 92.7
Chandler, AZ 80.1
Plano, TX 74.9
Gilbert, AZ 59.9
Irvine, CA 52.3

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