Burglary and car theft in every large US city

All 338 US cities of 100,000 or more people, from monthly FBI data running from January 2015 to August 2026. Burglary and car theft rates, the share police solve, which cities are changing in 2026 beyond what chance would explain, and each city's riskiest months.

Published November 1, 2026. Monthly FBI data from January 2015 to August 2026.

−60%Fall in the US burglary rate in ten years, from 490 to 195 per 100,000 people (FBI national estimates, 2015 to 2025). The break-in tracker shows 198 for 2025, a separate estimate; here is why.
−20%Car thefts from January to August 2026 against the same months of 2025, across 160 large cities with complete reporting. 108 fell by more than chance would explain; 11 rose.
JulyThe riskiest month in large US cities for both burglary (7% above an average month) and car theft (10% above). February is the quietest.

Every city, ranked

Rates are incidents per 100,000 residents in 2025. “Solved” is the share police cleared. “2026 so far” compares January to August 2026 with the same months of 2025; a Rising or Falling tag means the change is too large to be chance. Select a city for its monthly history and its riskiest months.

RankCity2015–2025

    Where 2026 is breaking from 2025

    More crime, fewer cases solved

    Each circle is a city in the group picked above, sized by population. Further right is a higher rate; lower is a smaller share solved. Dashed lines are the US figures. Select a circle to open the city.

    The car theft wave

    Car thefts per 100,000 residents in every city of 250,000 or more with complete data. The US rate rose 48% from 2019 to its 2023 peak, then fell to below its 2015 level by 2025. Some cities saw far bigger swings: Buffalo's rate rose more than fivefold from 2019 to 2023. Pick a city to follow its line.

    Selected cityUnited StatesOther cities of 250,000+

    The calendar of risk

    The average month-by-month pattern across the 214 large cities that report every month, 2021 to 2025. Above 100 means a busier month than average. July is the peak for both crimes; February is the quietest. Your own city can differ: open any city above to see its pattern.

    BurglariesCar thefts

    What this means for your home and car

    • Police solve a small share of these crimes, so recorded video is often the only evidence. Keep footage somewhere the thief cannot take, such as the cloud or a hidden card.
    • Check your city's busiest months above. Plan upgrades before the peak, not after a break-in.
    • If car thefts are rising where you live, a dash cam with a parking mode and a GPS tracker give you a record and a way to find the car.
    Browse cameras and dash camsEvery Canadian city

    Data and citation

    MkaeSense (2026). Burglary and car theft in every large US city. https://mkaesense.com/pages/burglary-car-theft-us. Data: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

    Free to reuse for non-commercial purposes with credit to MkaeSense and a link to this page (CC BY-NC 4.0). For commercial use, see the data licence.

    Method and limits

    • Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, monthly offences and clearances for each city's main police agency, January 2015 to August 2026, retrieved November 1, 2026. Recent months are preliminary and can be revised.
    • Burglary follows the FBI definition and includes homes, businesses and other structures. Car theft is all motor vehicle theft.
    • Rates use the population the FBI assigns to each agency. A year is shown only if the agency reported all 12 months; gaps mean months were not reported, often during the move to the FBI's newer reporting system around 2021.
    • “Solved” is offences cleared in 2025, by arrest or by exceptional means, divided by offences in 2025. Clearances in 2025 can include earlier offences, and departments differ in how fully they report clearances.
    • “2026 so far” compares January to August 2026 with January to August 2025. September is left out because its reports are still coming in. It is shown only where the city had at least 100 offences in those months of 2025 and every month from January 2025 looks fully reported (no month below 30% of the city's typical month). Rising or Falling means the change is beyond chance at the 95% level, using a normal approximation to the conditional binomial test on the two counts.
    • A 2025 rate is left out when it is less than 0.4 times or more than 2.5 times the city's 2024 rate, which usually signals a reporting problem rather than a real change.
    • Monthly patterns use complete years from 2021 to 2025. Before 2021 many agencies filed only yearly totals, which appear under December. Departments that file yearly totals show no monthly pattern.
    • The Above US and Below US tags use an exact 95% Poisson interval (Byar's method) around each city's 2025 count, compared with the count the US rate would give. US rates are FBI national estimates.
    • Why 195 here and 198 in the break-in tracker: this page uses the FBI's national estimate of the 2025 burglary rate, so every city is compared with the same source as its own figures. The tracker's United States page uses the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimate (197.6 per 100,000) from its Crime Known to Law Enforcement report. The two agencies estimate the national figure separately, with different ways of accounting for police agencies that did not report, so the numbers differ slightly.
    • Only crimes reported to police are counted. About 41% of burglaries were reported to police in 2024, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey.

    All calculations are by MkaeSense. MkaeSense is not affiliated with the FBI or any police department.