Identity Theft Statistics (2026)

Complaint counts, losses and the most common types of identity theft in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, taken from government agencies and fraud-prevention bodies.

By Siddharth ShankarUpdated October 12, 202641 statistics · 12 sourcesCite this page

Key takeaways

• Complaints are rising fast but are a small slice of the problem. FBI identity theft complaints rose 48% in 2025 (our calculation), while the BJS survey estimates 23.9 million US victims in 2021 and says only about 7% reported to police.
• Credit cards are the most common target. In the FTC’s 2024 data, credit card identity theft accounted for 449,032 of 1,135,291 identity theft reports (FTC).
• In the UK, identity fraud is more than half of the National Fraud Database: more than 242,000 cases, 54% of all cases filed in 2025 (Cifas).
• Most people affected by a breach do not report identity theft afterwards. In Australia, 8% of breach-affected adults reported identity theft and 16% reported financial or credit fraud (OAIC, 2026).
• Reporting systems differ, so compare trends within a source rather than totals across sources.

The United States: complaints and losses

Three US sources count identity theft in different ways. The Federal Trade Commission collects reports from consumers and from other agencies. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) counts complaints about internet-enabled crime. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) surveys households, so it captures victims who never report. The totals are not meant to match.

Complaints grew far faster than losses in 2025: the 48% increase in complaints compares with a 6.6% increase in reported losses (our calculation from the IC3 figures). The IC3 report does not explain the gap in the pages we read, so we do not offer a cause.

The FTC had published a 2025 data release for fraud (about 3 million fraud reports and $15.9 billion in reported losses, per its March 2026 testimony release). We did not find a 2025 identity theft count on a primary FTC page, so we use the 2024 Data Book for identity theft types.

What the BJS survey adds

The BJS Identity Theft Supplement asks a nationally representative sample of people aged 16 and over about their own experience. Its latest data year is 2021. It is the best available guide to how much identity theft goes unreported.

The contrast with the complaint data is large. The FTC logged about 1.1 million identity theft reports in 2024 and the FBI about 21,000, while the BJS estimated 23.9 million victims in 2021. The surveys and the complaint systems count different things, and the years differ, so the figures cannot be subtracted from each other. They do show that most incidents never reach a regulator. The most common form in the BJS survey was misuse of an existing account, not a new account opened in someone’s name.

The United Kingdom: Cifas data

Cifas runs the UK National Fraud Database, which holds cases filed by its member organizations. It counts those filings, not offences reported to police.

See the Cifas Fraudscape reports for how it defines each category. Cifas does not state the base period for the 2024 percentage increases in the release we read.

Canada and Australia

The OAIC figures use a base of Australian adults who had been affected by a data breach (566 respondents in 2026; 760 in 2023). The CAFC release does not give a dollar loss for identity fraud, so none is shown.

After a breach: what consumers report

The ITRC figures are answers from 1,040 survey respondents, not a rate for the whole population. For what to do once a notice arrives, see what to do if your identity is stolen and how to prevent identity theft.

Methodology and limitations

Every figure on this page comes from the organization that published it, such as a regulator, a government agency or the original report. We read the source page or document directly, and we record the period each figure covers. When a number could not be confirmed against a primary source, we left it out. Rows marked “Our calculation” are simple arithmetic on published figures, and the inputs are named in the same row.

• Complaint counts depend on who chooses to report and on how each agency classifies a report. The FBI, FTC and Cifas categories overlap but are not equivalent.
• The BJS survey covers 2021, the latest year the agency lists for its Identity Theft Supplement, and a 12-month recall period.
• The IC3 figures count complaints received by the FBI, not every incident.
• Currency amounts are in US dollars.

Counts of reports, complaints and notifications measure what was reported or notified, not everything that happened. Currency symbols follow the source. Where an agency does not name its currency, we show the symbol the source uses (for example, C$ for Canada and A$ for Australia are our labels). Figures from different countries use different definitions and should not be added together. Spot an error? Tell us and include the source link; we correct verified errors and note the date at the top of the page.