The States With the Highest Identity Theft Rates, Ranked. See Where Ohio Lands

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) logged more than 1.1 million identity theft reports nationwide in 2024.

That’s roughly one every 28 seconds.

Every one of those reports came from somebody whose name, Social Security number, or bank account ended up in someone else’s hands.

The FTC ranks all fifty states against each other by how often that happens per person. These are the states with the highest identity theft rates and where Ohio falls.

Note: This is general information, not legal or financial advice. Identity theft data and reporting figures are subject to change, so report suspected identity theft directly at IdentityTheft.gov.

Florida

Florida holds the No. 1 spot on the Federal Trade Commission’s 2024 identity theft ranking.

The agency counted 528 reports for every 100,000 Floridians in 2024, the highest rate in the country, and that per-person math is how the FTC ranks every state rather than counting raw complaints.

By raw totals, Florida isn’t even the top filer.

California and Texas both logged more reports in 2024, but each carries millions more residents to divide that total across.

Rate wins the ranking.

Florida still filed 115,840 identity theft reports on its own, the third-highest raw count in the nation.

Georgia

Georgia sits at No. 2 on the FTC’s identity theft list, with a rate of 517 reports per 100,000 people in 2024, just 11 reports behind Florida’s top spot.

That gap is thin enough to erase in a single year’s data.

Georgians filed 55,955 identity theft reports with the FTC over the year.

Eleven reports separate them.

Nearly half of them involve credit cards, a pattern that repeats across several of the top-ranked states, including Florida and Delaware.

Nevada

Nevada carries fewer people than nearly every state ranked below it here, yet it ranks third nationally with 466 identity theft reports per 100,000 residents in 2024.

Its total of 14,631 reports is smaller than several states that rank below it on this list by raw numbers alone.

Population isn’t destiny.

Identity theft risk simply doesn’t move in step with a state’s size.

Texas

Texas ranks fourth for identity theft reports per person, at 393 per 100,000 residents.

Its raw total tells a very different story.

Texans filed 116,484 identity theft reports in 2024, the second-highest raw count of any state, trailing only California.

Size cuts both ways.

A state that size can rank fourth and still out-file nearly everyone else on the list.

Delaware

Delaware ranks fifth nationally despite being one of the least populated states in the country.

The FTC counted 392 reports per 100,000 Delawareans in 2024.

Yet the state filed just 3,942 identity theft reports total, the smallest raw count of any state in the top ten.

Still cracks the top five.

Massachusetts

Massachusetts filed nearly seven times as many identity theft reports as Delaware in 2024, yet it still ranks one spot lower.

Massachusetts posted 388 reports per 100,000 people last year, on a total of 27,141 reports statewide.

The rate settles it.

Delaware’s rate still edges it out by four reports per 100,000 people, a gap thin enough to decide who ranks fifth and who ranks sixth.

California

California ranks seventh on the FTC’s list, but no state filed more identity theft reports in raw numbers.

The state’s 139,665 reports work out to close to one out of every eight identity theft reports filed nationwide in 2024, according to the FTC’s data book.

That’s how the country’s biggest total lands in seventh place.

Spread across the largest population in the country, that same total works out to a far lower per-person rate.

Louisiana

Louisiana ranks eighth nationally at 346 reports per 100,000 residents.

Louisiana lands in Nevada’s neighborhood.

Louisianans filed 15,991 identity theft reports with the FTC in 2024, a total that sits close to Nevada’s despite the two states sharing very little else.

Illinois

Illinois ranks ninth at 339 reports per 100,000 people in 2024.

Illinois filed 43,028 reports over the year, the fifth-highest raw total among the top ten states.

Not just a Chicago problem.

Many large metro areas post far lower rates than Illinois does statewide, so the city’s size alone doesn’t explain the number.

Maryland

Maryland closes out the top ten at 324 reports per 100,000 residents in 2024.

Marylanders filed 19,990 identity theft reports over the year.

Just outside the pack.

New Jersey sits eleventh, only 11 reports per 100,000 people behind Maryland, close enough that next year’s numbers could easily swap the two.

Where Ohio Lands

Ohio lands in the upper half of the FTC’s 2024 identity theft ranking, at 22nd out of 50 states.

The agency counted 236 reports for every 100,000 Ohioans last year, the same rate as Connecticut one spot up the list.

Ohioans filed 27,766 identity theft reports in total for 2024, more raw reports than Massachusetts posted despite Massachusetts’ higher per-capita rate.

Numbers cut both ways.

Ohio’s Most Common Identity Theft

Ohio’s identity theft reports break down by type, and one category dominates the rest.

Credit card fraud topped Ohio’s list, showing up in 37% of the state’s reports, according to the FTC’s 2024 data book.

Card fraud leads.

A catchall category the FTC labels “other identity theft” followed close behind at 30%, with loan or lease fraud and bank account takeovers rounding out Ohio’s top types.

How the FTC Counts Ohio’s Reports

Ohio’s 27,766 identity theft reports don’t represent 27,766 confirmed crimes, since the FTC logs every claim without investigating it first.

What Counts as One of Ohio’s Reports

Each one is a claim a single Ohio consumer filed with the FTC, online or by phone.

The same Ohioan can file more than one report in a single year.

A thief who hits a stolen credit card, a bank account, and a phone bill in the same year can turn one Ohio victim into three separate reports.

Nationally, 14% of all 2024 identity theft reports listed more than one theft type in a single filing.

Rate Versus Raw Numbers

Ohio’s spot on this list depends on which of two rankings you use.

The FTC’s official list, the one this article uses, ranks states by reports per 100,000 people, which levels the field between a state with 40 million residents and one with under a million.

A raw-count ranking would look completely different, topped by California, Texas, and Florida almost by default, simply because those states hold the most people.

Population wins raw counts.

Rhode Island cracks the top 20 by rate, at 264 reports per 100,000 residents, even though its total of 2,896 reports ranks among the lowest of any state.

A raw-count ranking would bury Rhode Island near the bottom of the table. The FTC’s own per-capita method puts it at 18th instead.

See the FTC’s top ten side by side, then type in your own state to find where it lands on the 2024 list.

Top States for Identity Theft Rates (FTC, 2024)

Tap a column heading to sort, or type in the box to filter.

Figures come from the FTC’s 2024 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book. Rank and rate are based on reports per 100,000 residents, not raw totals. The Overall Fraud Rank compares each state on the FTC’s separate, broader fraud-report table, which covers scams and fraud generally, not the identity theft numbers ranked above.