MISSING PERSONS: FACTS AND FIGURES
Numbers on this subject get repeated for years after they stop being true. Everything below is current as of August 2026, and every figure names its source and its year so you can check it
for yourself. We review this page annually.
THE NATIONAL PICTURE
In 2025, law enforcement entered 498,038 missing person records into the FBI's National Crime Information Center. In the same year, 503,409 records were cleared or cancelled. At the end of 2025, 88,093 records remained active.
That gap matters. The half-million figure is not a standing population of missing people. It is the number of reports filed in a single year, and the great majority are resolved within days. The number that describes people still missing at any given moment is the smaller one: 88,093.
Of the records still active at the end of 2025, 21,487 were for children under 18, and 29,533 were for people under 21.
Of the records entered during 2025, 252,313 were male, 245,725 were female, and 130 were unrecorded.
By race, the 2025 entries were 273,981 White, 187,235 Black, 11,176 Asian, 9,672 American Indian, and 15,844 unknown. Black Americans make up roughly 14 percent of the United States population and about 38 percent of the missing person records entered in 2025.
Source: FBI, 2025 NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics.
CHILDREN
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children assisted with 32,167 missing child cases in 2025. Ninety percent of those children were recovered.
NCMEC's Team Adam deployed on 296 cases involving long-term or critically missing children. Its forensic artists produced 187 age progression images and 75 facial reconstructions.
Source: NCMEC, 2025 data.
THE UNIDENTIFIED
At the end of 2025 the NCIC held 8,509 active unidentified person records. During 2025, 777 new records were entered: 561 deceased, 211 living, and 5 catastrophe victims.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) listed 15,483 open unidentified person cases and 22,470 unclaimed person cases as of February 2026. NamUs has helped resolve 64,660 missing person cases and 9,048 unidentified person cases to date.
NamUs services are free of charge, including DNA testing, forensic odontology, fingerprint comparison, forensic anthropology and investigative genetic genealogy. Family reference DNA samples must be collected through law enforcement or medicolegal personnel. Families cannot submit them directly.
Sources: FBI NCIC, 2025. NamUs monthly case report, February 2026.
FLORIDA
Florida's Missing Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse, part of FDLE, coordinates missing person alerts statewide. The number is 1-888-FL-MISSING, or 1-888-356-4774.
Florida operates five alert programs: AMBER Alert, Missing Child Alert, Purple Alert for adults with a disability other than dementia, Silver Alert for dementia, and Spectrum Alert for autism, which took effect on 1 July 2026.
Only a law enforcement agency can request an alert. That is one of several reasons a missing person report has to be filed with local law enforcement first.
As of February 2026, Florida had 187 open missing person cases in NamUs, the most of any state.
WHY MINUTES MATTER
Six in ten people living with dementia will wander at least once, and many do so repeatedly. Many are found within a mile and a half of where they went missing. The Alzheimer's Association advises calling 911 if the person is not found within 15 minutes.
For children with autism who wander, drowning is the dominant risk. In 2024, 91 percent of wandering fatalities in the United States were drownings, and the drowning risk for autistic children has been estimated at 160 times that of the general pediatric population.
Sources: Alzheimer's Association. National Autism Association. Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 2017.
WHAT THE NUMBERS DO NOT TELL YOU
Statistics describe reports, not people. They do not separate the teenager who is home by dinner from the adult who has been gone eleven years. They do not count the person nobody reported. And they say nothing at all about what a family lives through in the meantime.
If someone you love is missing, start with your local law enforcement agency, either 911 or your county sheriff's office. A documented missing person report must exist before PRSAR can work a case.
Last reviewed August 2026.
for yourself. We review this page annually.
THE NATIONAL PICTURE
In 2025, law enforcement entered 498,038 missing person records into the FBI's National Crime Information Center. In the same year, 503,409 records were cleared or cancelled. At the end of 2025, 88,093 records remained active.
That gap matters. The half-million figure is not a standing population of missing people. It is the number of reports filed in a single year, and the great majority are resolved within days. The number that describes people still missing at any given moment is the smaller one: 88,093.
Of the records still active at the end of 2025, 21,487 were for children under 18, and 29,533 were for people under 21.
Of the records entered during 2025, 252,313 were male, 245,725 were female, and 130 were unrecorded.
By race, the 2025 entries were 273,981 White, 187,235 Black, 11,176 Asian, 9,672 American Indian, and 15,844 unknown. Black Americans make up roughly 14 percent of the United States population and about 38 percent of the missing person records entered in 2025.
Source: FBI, 2025 NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics.
CHILDREN
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children assisted with 32,167 missing child cases in 2025. Ninety percent of those children were recovered.
NCMEC's Team Adam deployed on 296 cases involving long-term or critically missing children. Its forensic artists produced 187 age progression images and 75 facial reconstructions.
Source: NCMEC, 2025 data.
THE UNIDENTIFIED
At the end of 2025 the NCIC held 8,509 active unidentified person records. During 2025, 777 new records were entered: 561 deceased, 211 living, and 5 catastrophe victims.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) listed 15,483 open unidentified person cases and 22,470 unclaimed person cases as of February 2026. NamUs has helped resolve 64,660 missing person cases and 9,048 unidentified person cases to date.
NamUs services are free of charge, including DNA testing, forensic odontology, fingerprint comparison, forensic anthropology and investigative genetic genealogy. Family reference DNA samples must be collected through law enforcement or medicolegal personnel. Families cannot submit them directly.
Sources: FBI NCIC, 2025. NamUs monthly case report, February 2026.
FLORIDA
Florida's Missing Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse, part of FDLE, coordinates missing person alerts statewide. The number is 1-888-FL-MISSING, or 1-888-356-4774.
Florida operates five alert programs: AMBER Alert, Missing Child Alert, Purple Alert for adults with a disability other than dementia, Silver Alert for dementia, and Spectrum Alert for autism, which took effect on 1 July 2026.
Only a law enforcement agency can request an alert. That is one of several reasons a missing person report has to be filed with local law enforcement first.
As of February 2026, Florida had 187 open missing person cases in NamUs, the most of any state.
WHY MINUTES MATTER
Six in ten people living with dementia will wander at least once, and many do so repeatedly. Many are found within a mile and a half of where they went missing. The Alzheimer's Association advises calling 911 if the person is not found within 15 minutes.
For children with autism who wander, drowning is the dominant risk. In 2024, 91 percent of wandering fatalities in the United States were drownings, and the drowning risk for autistic children has been estimated at 160 times that of the general pediatric population.
Sources: Alzheimer's Association. National Autism Association. Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 2017.
WHAT THE NUMBERS DO NOT TELL YOU
Statistics describe reports, not people. They do not separate the teenager who is home by dinner from the adult who has been gone eleven years. They do not count the person nobody reported. And they say nothing at all about what a family lives through in the meantime.
If someone you love is missing, start with your local law enforcement agency, either 911 or your county sheriff's office. A documented missing person report must exist before PRSAR can work a case.
Last reviewed August 2026.
