Shoplifting stands out in an otherwise improving national crime picture. While many major categories of crime have fallen across U.S. cities, reported shoplifting in the first half of 2026 was 4% higher than during the same period in 2025 and 5% above the first half of 2019, according to the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ). In fact, among the 13 offenses CCJ examined, shoplifting was the only one that remained above its 2019 level.
The financial stakes extend well beyond the number of incidents reported to police. Capital One Shopping estimates that U.S. stores lost $47.8 billion to retail theft in 2025 and projects losses could exceed $59 billion by 2029. However, retail theft, shoplifting, retail shrinkage, and organized retail crime aren’t interchangeable measures, making it important to distinguish between them when assessing where the problem is most pronounced.
To examine one part of that picture, The Law Offices of Tad Nelson analyzed FBI Crime Data Explorer records specifically coded as shoplifting to create the 2026 All-State Shoplifting Index, ranking all 50 states based on their recorded shoplifting burden and latest-year trends.
Shoplifting across America varies considerably depending on where and when you look. Shoplifting reports declined in most states in 2025, although several remained well above their 2023 totals. Surveys suggest financial strain is behind some individual thefts, but that’s only part of the story. Retailers also report problems with repeat offenders and organized groups that steal goods to resell them.
Shoplifting in 2026: Is Retail Theft Still Rising?
Nationally, the answer depends on the period and dataset being examined.
Across a consistent sample of cities studied by CCJ, police-reported shoplifting declined during 2025 after several years of increases. But that trend reversed in the first half of 2026. Reported shoplifting rates across 18 cities were 4% higher than during the first half of 2025 and 5% above the same period in 2019.
The Tad Law index shows that the recent decline hasn’t erased the increases of the previous few years. FBI-recorded shoplifting reports across the 50 states climbed from 994,652 in 2023 to 1,122,174 in 2024. Reports then fell to 1,069,716 in 2025, but that was still 7.5% higher than the 2023 total.
The drop in 2025 was seen across most of the country, with shoplifting reports falling in 42 states. Only eight states reported an increase. Compared with 2023, though, the picture is less clear-cut. More than half of the states, 26 in total, still had higher report totals in 2025 than they did two years earlier.
The 10 States With the Highest Shoplifting Index Scores
The 2026 All-State Shoplifting Index combines three measures from FBI-recorded shoplifting reports: the 2025 reported shoplifting rate, weighted at 45%; total 2025 report volume, weighted at 30%; and the change in reports between 2024 and 2025, weighted at 25%.
Arizona ranks first with an index score of 85.61. Although its recorded shoplifting reports fell 1.5% between 2024 and 2025, the state’s 30,760 reports in 2025 were still 41.6% above its 2023 total. That was the second-largest two-year increase among the states.
California recorded 99,591 shoplifting reports in 2025, the highest volume among the top 10, while New York recorded 71,578.
Idaho received the lowest index score at 5.10, followed by Rhode Island and Alaska.
These rankings should not be confused with other studies that rank states based on broader measures of retail theft, economic losses, or larceny. Those studies can produce very different rankings because they are measuring different phenomena. The Tad Law index is limited specifically to FBI-recorded shoplifting reports.
The rankings also shouldn’t be interpreted as a count of every shoplifting incident that occurred. The FBI cautions against using crime statistics as simplistic rankings of places because reporting practices and other conditions vary by jurisdiction. CCJ similarly notes that police data likely undercount shoplifting substantially because not every incident is reported.
Where Shoplifting is Surging Across America
The national decline in recorded reports between 2024 and 2025 masks sharp differences among states.
Nevada experienced the largest increase, with recorded shoplifting rising 11.7% to 12,871 reports in 2025. More strikingly, Nevada’s total was 50% higher than in 2023, giving the state the largest two-year increase in the index.
Massachusetts followed with a 5.2% year-over-year increase, while Mississippi rose 4.7%. California increased 3.1%, North Dakota 2.4%, New Jersey 2.0%, Kentucky 0.6%, and Texas 0.2%.
The other end of the table moved much faster. Arkansas recorded the steepest decline at 17%, followed by South Carolina at 14.2%, Washington at 13.2%, Hawaii at 13.1%, and Idaho at 12.5%.
City-level comparisons require similar caution. Differences can reflect the concentration of retailers, local reporting practices, store security policies, and law enforcement recording practices, as well as differences in offending.
“The data shows why it is important to look beyond a single national number,” said a representative from The Law Offices of Tad Nelson. “A national decline can happen at the same time certain states and communities are experiencing significant increases. It also matters whether we are talking about an individual shoplifting incident or a coordinated criminal operation, because those are very different problems.”
What Americans are Stealing and Where They’re Stealing It
For many self-reported shoplifters, the target isn’t a luxury handbag or expensive electronic device. It’s something much more ordinary.
LendingTree’s June 2026 survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers found that food and nonalcoholic drinks were the most commonly reported stolen items, cited by 30% of respondents who said they had shoplifted. Clothing, accessories, and jewelry followed at 25%, while personal hygiene products were reported by 20%.
The places where respondents reported stealing reinforce that picture. Grocery stores were the leading location, with 39% of respondents who had shoplifted saying they had done so there. Dollar stores ranked second at 28%, followed by department stores at 25%. Stores with self-checkout and convenience stores were each cited by 21%.
That makes grocery stores a particularly important part of the 2026 shoplifting story. The prevalence of food, drinks, and hygiene products in the survey suggests that at least some self-reported shoplifting is tied to everyday consumer goods rather than high-value merchandise.
Self-checkout may be creating more opportunities for theft. In a separate LendingTree survey published in late 2025, 27% of people who use self-checkout said they had deliberately taken an item without scanning it. That was up from 15% in 2023. For 47% of those who admitted doing it, the rising cost of essentials was part of the reason.
But these consumer surveys shouldn’t be used to explain all shoplifting. Retailer data points to a separate problem involving repeat offenders, multiple-item theft, and organized operations designed to resell stolen merchandise.
Who is Shoplifting in 2026 and Why?
About 90% of respondents who said they had shoplifted within the past year told LendingTree that inflation and broader economic conditions contributed to their decision. That makes affordability an important starting point for understanding individual shoplifting in 2026, although the survey also shows that the behavior cuts across income and demographic groups.
Overall, 30% of Americans surveyed said they had shoplifted at some point, up from 23% in LendingTree’s 2024 survey. Among those who had shoplifted, 37% said they had done so within the previous year.
The largest differences appear across generations. Thirty-nine percent of Gen Z respondents and 38% of millennials said they had shoplifted, compared with 24% of Gen X and 18% of baby boomers.
Gender also produced a sizable gap: 36% of men reported having shoplifted compared with 23% of women.
Income complicates the assumption that shoplifting is predominantly a product of poverty. Forty percent of respondents with household incomes of $100,000 or more said they had shoplifted at some point. By comparison, 27% of respondents earning less than $30,000 reported doing so.
Self-checkout data shows a similar demographic divide. LendingTree found that 41% of millennial self-checkout users and 37% of Gen Z users admitted to intentionally taking an item without scanning it at least once. Men were more than twice as likely as women to report intentional non-scanning, 38% versus 16%.
The reasons behind shoplifting don’t fit neatly into a question of need versus greed. Financial strain is a common theme among people who say they’ve stolen recently, but shoplifting isn’t limited to those struggling financially. Survey respondents across income levels admit to it, while retailers continue to deal with a separate challenge from repeat offenders and organized theft groups.
“Affordability pressures may help explain why some people say they steal necessities, but they don’t explain every theft occurring in American stores,” said a representative from The Law Offices of Tad Nelson. “Someone taking food during a period of financial hardship shouldn’t automatically be treated as part of the same phenomenon as a group systematically stealing merchandise for resale. Good data requires us to preserve that distinction.”
When Shoplifting Becomes Organized, Coordinated, and Violent
Shoplifting and organized retail crime often appear in the same headlines, but they aren’t synonymous.
The FBI defines shoplifting as the unlawful taking of goods or merchandise exposed for sale by someone other than an employee. Organized retail crime, by contrast, generally involves coordinated theft intended to generate financial gain through the resale or distribution of stolen goods.
That distinction matters because organized groups can operate across stores, cities, states, and even national borders. Merchandise may move from the initial theft through fences or other intermediaries before being resold through physical or online marketplaces.
NRF’s 2026 research indicates that retailers made progress against some forms of in-store theft in 2025. Surveyed retailers experienced an average 12.4% decrease in shoplifting incidents and an 8.1% decrease in merchandise theft incidents from 2024 to 2025.
The research suggests the problem is changing rather than going away. Half of the retailers surveyed said they were seeing more activity from repeat offenders. Another 40% reported an increase in shoplifting tied to organized retail crime, while 37% saw more walkout or pushout thefts.
The methods extend beyond merchandise being carried out of stores. Retailers also reported increasing phone scams, loyalty fraud, and gift-card-related theft or fraud, demonstrating how organized retail crime can cross physical and digital channels.
Cross-jurisdictional operations create additional obstacles. According to NRF, 61% of retailers identified limited law enforcement resources as negatively affecting ORC investigations and prosecutions. Cross-jurisdictional theft and inadequate multi-agency information sharing and investigative coordination were each cited by 49%.
Federal lawmakers have responded with the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, S. 1404 and H.R. 2853, which would establish a coordination center intended to improve cooperation and information sharing in investigations spanning jurisdictions.
These findings also help explain why broader retail-theft statistics should not be used as substitutes for shoplifting data. Individual shoplifting, repeat offending, employee theft, fraud, cargo theft, and organized retail crime can overlap, but each captures a different part of the retail-loss landscape.
What the 2026 Shoplifting Data Tells Us
America’s shoplifting picture is more complicated than a simple rise or decline.
The 2026 All-State Shoplifting Index shows that recorded shoplifting fell in 42 states between 2024 and 2025, yet 26 states still recorded more reports than they did in 2023. Nevada’s reports were 50% higher than two years earlier, while Arizona’s remained 41.6% higher despite a modest decline in 2025.
CCJ’s city-level data shows another change in direction. Reported shoplifting increased during the first half of 2026 and remained above pre-pandemic levels, even as most of the other major crime categories tracked by the organization declined.
What people are stealing also helps fill in the picture. Food tops the list of items reported stolen, and grocery stores are the most frequently cited place for shoplifting. Financial pressure comes up often among people who say they’ve been stealing recently, but that doesn’t explain every case. Higher-income respondents report shoplifting as well, while retailers say repeat offenders and organized theft groups remain an ongoing problem.
The result isn’t one shoplifting problem but several overlapping ones.
“Retail theft can affect businesses, workers, and shoppers in ways that go beyond the value of an individual stolen item,” said a representative from The Law Offices of Tad Nelson. “The most useful response starts with understanding what the data actually measures and recognizing the difference between isolated shoplifting, repeat offending, and organized criminal activity.”
The Law Offices of Tad Nelson conducted this analysis to provide a clearer look at those differences and the changing shoplifting landscape across the country. As criminal defense lawyers in Houston serving clients throughout the surrounding Texas communities, Tad Nelson and his team bring decades of courtroom experience to cases involving the criminal justice system. Those facing criminal allegations can contact the firm to discuss their circumstances and legal options.
Methodology
The 2026 All-State Shoplifting Index analyzes all 50 states using shoplifting reports recorded through the FBI Crime Data Explorer under offense code 23C.
The index combines three measures: each state’s 2025 reported shoplifting rate, weighted at 45%; total number of recorded shoplifting reports in 2025, weighted at 30%; and the percentage change in recorded reports between 2024 and 2025, weighted at 25%.
A higher index score represents a greater current recorded shoplifting burden, a more adverse recent trend, or a combination of the two.
The index measures recorded shoplifting reports only. It does not estimate unreported shoplifting, total retail shrinkage, the value of merchandise lost, employee theft, or the prevalence of organized retail crime. Differences in law enforcement participation, retailer reporting, and local recording practices may affect comparisons among states. For that reason, the rankings should be interpreted as comparisons of recorded reports rather than definitive measures of all shoplifting occurring in each state. Full Index: