Car thefts fell 21% nationwide, but Bakersfield still had America’s highest metro theft rate

Bakersfield-Delano, California, recorded 223.28 vehicle thefts for every 100,000 residents in the first half of 2026, the highest rate of any metropolitan area in the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s latest count and nearly triple the national rate of about 77.81. It topped the list in a period when the country as a whole improved sharply: law enforcement agencies reported 268,415 stolen vehicles from January through June, 21 percent fewer than in the same months of 2025.

The gap between those two facts is the story of this report. A national decline can be real in every state and still leave one Central Valley metro far above everyone else, and the figures show how much of the improvement came from places that were not Bakersfield.

Bakersfield-Delano at 223.28 per 100,000

The NICB release, dated Sept. 30, 2026, names the Bakersfield-Delano metro as having the highest rate in the country at 223.28 thefts per 100,000 people. The bureau does not publish rates for other metros in the release, so the Bakersfield figure stands alone as the metro-level top rate rather than the head of a published ranking.

That scope matters. The release also says the District of Columbia had the highest theft rate of any state or jurisdiction, at 181.94 per 100,000, even after a 52 percent fall in the number of thefts there, from 2,641 to 1,262. Bakersfield’s rate is the highest among metropolitan areas; D.C.’s is the highest among states and jurisdictions. The two tables measure different geographies, and the Bakersfield number is the larger of the two.

Bakersfield has been here before. NICB’s earlier Hot Spots report on 2020, released Aug. 31, 2021, listed the Bakersfield metropolitan area, which covers all of Kern County, at 905.41 thefts per 100,000 residents, its second straight year at the top. That figure covers a full year and a different period, so it cannot be set directly against the half-year 2026 rate, but the ranking has persisted through very different national totals.

Los Angeles and the largest metros

Counting thefts instead of measuring rates gives a different list. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim had the most stolen vehicles of any metro, 21,540, though that was a 23 percent drop. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin followed with 11,761 and was the only one of the ten largest metros where thefts rose, by 2 percent. New York-Newark-Jersey City reported 11,306 (down 16 percent), Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 10,008 (down 18 percent) and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont 9,825 (down 14 percent).

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington fell 30 percent to 8,212, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington 11 percent to 8,056, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario 20 percent to 5,937, Washington-Arlington-Alexandria 31 percent to 5,717 and Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue 27 percent to 4,834. California’s total was the largest of any state at 57,821 vehicles, a figure that includes Bakersfield’s county.

Every state down, led by D.C. and Tennessee

NICB chief operating officer Tim Slater said in the release: “Vehicle thefts continue to decrease across the country, and it’s encouraging to see that every state experienced a decline.” All 50 states posted decreases, and the steepest percentage falls were concentrated in a handful of places. After D.C., Tennessee dropped 42 percent (from 7,754 thefts to 4,528), Vermont 37 percent, New Hampshire and Colorado 35 percent each, and Delaware 32 percent. Florida fell 31 percent to 10,211, Missouri 30 percent to 6,386 and Nevada 30 percent to 3,897.

The trend follows a long slide. NICB’s first-half 2025 release counted 334,114 thefts, a 23 percent fall from 2024, and put the national rate at 97.33 per 100,000, down from 126.62. The 2026 national rate of 77.81 is lower again. D.C. shows the same pattern in miniature: its first-half 2025 rate was 373.09 per 100,000, and the 2026 rate of 181.94 is roughly half that, yet still the highest of any state or jurisdiction. The 21 percent decline is NICB’s own figure for the 2026 release; Insurance Business and AutoConnectedCar both reported the same headline number and the same 223.28 Bakersfield rate.

Slater also pointed to partnerships as the lever: coverage of the release quotes him saying continued investment in partnerships is “paramount to sustaining positive progress,” a line Insurance Business also carried. Against a national rate of 77.81, Bakersfield-Delano’s 223.28 means roughly 2.9 thefts for every one that the average American community recorded per resident in the same six months.

NICB’s release does not name the stolen models this time and does not say what population base it used for the rate, so Bakersfield’s standing rests on the bureau’s own metro calculation. The release stops at 268,415, and that count covers only thefts reported to law enforcement.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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