Identity Theft Statistics 2026: Reports Rose 20% to 1.36 Million, Led by a 33% Jump in Credit Card Fraud

Identity theft statistics for 2025 from the FTC: consumers filed 1,358,236 identity theft reports, up 20% from 2024, even though the FTC stopped taking reports for six weeks during the shutdown. Credit card fraud, mostly new accounts opened in a victim’s name, was the most common type and grew fastest (+33%). Florida had the highest rate, 728 reports per 100,000 residents.

We built the state league and type series from the FTC’s own data: the Consumer Sentinel Data Book files for 2019 to 2021, and the FTC’s public Tableau dashboards for 2022 to 2025, queried one calendar year at a time with every quarter selected. The dashboard data run to June 30, 2026. As the FTC stresses, these are unverified reports filed by consumers, not a survey, so they measure reporting, not every crime.

Identity theft by state

Each hexagon is a state, placed on a grid that roughly follows US geography. Number = 2025 identity theft reports per 100,000 residents. Rates are the FTC’s, which use Census population estimates for 2023 in every year.

Florida (728 per 100,000), Georgia (691), Nevada (543) and Texas (508) lead the 2025 league, the same top four as 2024. The rate in Florida is 7.3 times the rate in Vermont, the lowest state (99). Rates rose in 44 of 50 states; the largest increases were in Mississippi (+53%), Florida (+38%) and Illinois (+38%).

All 50 states and DC, ranked

Source: FTC Consumer Sentinel dashboard (Fraud and ID Theft Maps), calendar years, data as of June 30, 2026. The FTC does not rank the District of Columbia.

Which type of identity theft grew fastest?

Credit card fraud. Reports rose from 449,099 in 2024 to 597,766 in 2025 (+33%), the fastest of the seven FTC types. Because the fall 2025 shutdown cut the fourth quarter, we also compared January to September only: on that like-for-like basis, credit card fraud rose 54%, again the fastest. Bank account fraud (0%), employment or tax fraud (-6%) and government documents or benefits fraud (-7%) were flat or down for the full year, but all three were up from January to September, so their full-year declines come from the missing fourth-quarter weeks.

Bars: full year 2025 vs 2024. Circles: January to September 2025 vs the same months of 2024. Numbers at left are 2025 reports. A report can list more than one type (14% did in 2024), so types do not sum to the total.

Every type, quarter by quarter

Shaded column: 2025 Q4, the shutdown quarter. Each panel has its own scale. Data for 2026 Q2 may rise as late reports arrive.

Inside the types, the biggest movers among subtypes with at least 5,000 reports in 2024 were federal student loans opened in a victim’s name (+141%), non-federal student loans (+51%), new credit card accounts (+36%) and auto loans or leases (+30%).

Identity theft by type, 2019 to 2025

The long series shows how much the mix has shifted. Government documents or benefits fraud was the top type in 2020 and 2021, with 395,948 reports in 2021, and fell to 65,711 in 2025. Credit card fraud has been the largest type in every year since, and in 2025 it reached its highest count in the series.

2019 to 2021: each year’s Consumer Sentinel Data Book, as first published. 2022 to 2025: FTC dashboard, data as of June 30, 2026.

Who reports identity theft: age

Identity theft reports skew young. People aged 30 to 39 filed 32% of 2025 reports that included an age, and people in their 20s and 30s together filed 52%. People 60 and over filed 11%. About 84% of 2025 identity theft reports included the person’s age.

Identity theft is counted apart from scams. When someone is tricked into paying, the FTC records fraud; our scam statistics report breaks down those losses by contact method, payment method and age.

What this means for MSPs

New-account fraud dominates: 553,179 reports of credit cards opened in someone else’s name, plus loans and leases on top. That kind of fraud runs on personal identifiers, so when a client has a breach that exposes staff or customer data, the follow-up should include helping affected people place credit freezes and file at IdentityTheft.gov, not just resetting passwords. For the attack side of the same problem, our phishing statistics track phishing volumes across four primary sources. For HR and payroll teams, employment and tax-related identity theft still produced 81,897 reports in 2025, and in every year since 2022 these reports have peaked in the first two quarters, so W-2 and payroll-change requests deserve the same out-of-band verification as vendor payment changes. Personal data is also sold legally; our data brokers list shows which companies are registered to sell it in three states.

Frequently asked questions

Is identity theft increasing or decreasing?

Increasing. The FTC received 1,358,236 identity theft reports in 2025, up 20% from 1,135,262 in 2024, even though it took no consumer reports for six weeks in the fall. Credit card fraud reports in the first half of 2026 (415,510) were already 31% above the first half of 2025.

What is the #1 type of identity theft?

Credit card fraud: 597,766 reports in 2025, about 44% of all identity theft reports. Most were new accounts opened in the victim’s name (553,179).

What is the number one state for identity theft?

Florida, with 728 identity theft reports per 100,000 residents in 2025 (159,555 reports), followed by Georgia (691). The District of Columbia, which the FTC does not rank, had 622. Vermont had the lowest rate (99).

What are the odds of having your identity stolen?

FTC reports are not a survey, so they cannot give true odds. Across the 50 states and DC, 2025 reports work out to about 366 per 100,000 residents, or roughly 1 report for every 274 people. Many victims never report, and one person can file more than once.

Which age group reports the most identity theft?

People aged 30 to 39 filed 32% of the 2025 identity theft reports that included an age, and people in their 20s and 30s together filed 52%. People 60 and over filed 11%.

Methodology

References

1. FTC, Data Sets: Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book CSV archives, CY 2019 to CY 2024. Accessed October 2026.
2. FTC, Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2024 (methodology notes: unverified reports, not a survey, five-year retention). Accessed October 2026.
3. FTC, Fraud and ID Theft Maps: Identity Theft by State (Tableau Public). Accessed October 2026.
4. FTC, Identity Theft Reports dashboards (Tableau Public). Accessed October 2026.
5. FTC, Protecting Older Consumers 2025-2026 (report to Congress, October 2026), note on the October 1 to November 13, 2025 reporting gap. Accessed October 2026.
6. FTC, Status of FTC Online Services During Lapse in Funding. Accessed October 2026.
7. FTC, IdentityTheft.gov. Accessed October 2026.