In 2023, the number of missing person files in the United States equaled 563,389 cases, an increase from 2021 which had the lowest number of missing person files in the U.S. since 1990.

The Missing Person Information Clearinghouse was established July 1, 1985, within the Department of Public Safety providing a program for compiling, coordinating and disseminating information in relation to missing persons and unidentified body/persons. Housed within the Division of Criminal Investigation, the clearinghouse assists in helping to locate missing persons through public awareness and cooperation, and in educating law enforcement officers and the general public about missing person issues.

In 2022, there were 313,017 cases filed by the NCIC where the race of the reported missing was White. In the same year, 18,928 people were missing whose race was unknown.

What is the NCIC?

The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) is a digital database that stores crime data for the United States, so criminal justice agencies can access it. As a part of the FBI, it helps criminal justice professionals find criminals, missing people, stolen property, and terrorists. The NCIC database is broken down into 21 files. Seven files belong to stolen property and items, and 14 belong to persons, including the National Sex Offender Register, Missing Person, and Identify Theft. It works alongside federal, tribal, state, and local agencies. The NCIC’s goal is to maintain a centralized information system between local branches and offices, so information is easily accessible nationwide.

Missing people in the United States

A person is considered missing when they have disappeared and their location is unknown. A person who is considered missing might have left voluntarily, but that is not always the case. The number of the NCIC unidentified person files in the United States has fluctuated since 1990, and in 2022, there were slightly more NCIC missing person files for males as compared to females. Fortunately, the number of NCIC missing person files has been mostly decreasing since 1998.

While the fear of being kidnapped may persist for one’s entire life, in 2022 the number of missing persons under the age of 21 was much higher than those 21 and over, with 206,371 females under 21 reported missing, and 64,956 females over the age of 21 reported missing.

Why people go missing

There are many reasons why people go missing; some are kidnapped, some purposefully go missing - in order to escape abuse, for example - and some, usually children, are runaways. What persists in the imagination when thinking of missing persons, however, are kidnapping victims, usually due to extensive media coverage of child kidnappings by the media.

Demographics of missing persons

While the number of missing persons in the United States fluctuates, in 2021, this number was at its lowest since 1990. Additionally, while it has been observed that there is more media coverage in the United States of white missing persons, almost half of the missing persons cases in 2022 were of minorities.

NamUs is the only national repository for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed persons cases. The program provides a singular resource hub for law enforcement, medical examiners, coroners, and investigating professionals. It is the only national database for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed persons that allows limited access to the public, empowering family members to take a more proactive role in the search for their missing loved ones.

The dataset contains the state-wise number of persons reported missing in a particular year, the total number of persons missing including those from previous years, the number of persons recovered/traced and those unrecovered/untraced. The dataset also contains the percentage recovery of missing persons which is calculated as the percentage share of total number of persons traced over the total number of persons missing. NCRB started providing detailed data on missing & traced persons including children from 2016 onwards following the Supreme Court’s direction in a Writ Petition. It should also be noted that the data published by NCRB is restricted to those cases where FIRs have been registered by the police in respective States/UTs.

Note: Figures for projected_mid_year_population are sourced from the Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections for India and States 2011-2036

Missing Persons Statistics........................

Under Section 8 of the Missing Persons Act, 2018, police services are required to report annually on their use of urgent demands for records under the Act and the Ministry of the Solicitor General is required to make the OPP’s annual report data publicly available. The data includes: * year in which the urgent demands were reported * category of records * description of records accessed under each category * total number of times each category of records was demanded * total number of missing persons investigations which had urgent demands for records * total number of urgent demands for records made by OPP in a year.

In 2023 alone, ****** persons have been reported as missing in Mexico, a figure that implies about ** people going missing every day. The volume of these incidents soared after Felipe Calderon's government declared the war on drugs in December 2006, an event that marked a surged in violence throughout the Latin American country.

Number of homicide victims, by Indigenous identity (total, by Indigenous identity; Indigenous identity; First Nations (North American Indian); Métis; Inuk (Inuit); Indigenous person, Indigenous group unknown; non-Indigenous identity; unknown Indigenous identity) and missing person status (total, by missing person status; missing; not missing; missing person status unknown), Canada, 2015 to 2024.

In 2023, around ***** thousand missing person reports were filed in Japan, with young adults aged 10 to 19 years old representing the group with the most people missing by ***** thousand. The leading reason for people going missing was reported to be illness-related accounting for more than **** percent of missing person reports that year.

Missing Persons Data

Data collected on persons considered a long-term missing person (LTMP) as at 19 May 2020. Persons included were listed as LTMP on National Missing Persons Coordination Centre (NMPCC) and Australian Missing Person Register (AMPR) websites on 19 May 2020. Searches were carried out using the LTMP’s name including variations and/or alternate names used or reported as used by that individual. This data was collected to determine if publicly available data could be gathered for the purposes of creating a dataset. This dataset was analysed to establish if such a dataset could be compared to results from existing studies and if so where those results similar or different. Having such a dataset created from publicly available data provided an additional avenue for datasets as opposed to relying only on stakeholder's information. Data was collected from Coroner's reports, law enforcement media releases (including archived) NMPCC and/or AMPR, Trove – online library of current and historical information obtained from universities, museums, galleries, and archives, crime stoppers, ancestry records, cemetery records/images, news/media reports, social network/media platforms i.e., LinkedIn, Facebook, and random ad hoc websites/pages.

Software/equipment used to create/collect the data: Equipment Computer: DELL, System Name R6SR05D, Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6300U CPU @ 2.40 GHz, 16.0 GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro installed.

Software/equipment used to manipulate/analyse the data: Software: Excel Microsoft 365 (Version 2308)

Taichung City missing people......................

The dataset contains the age-group wise and gender-wise number of persons reported missing in a particular year, total number of persons missing including those from previous years, number of persons recovered/traced and those unrecovered/untraced. The dataset also contains the percentage recovery of missing persons which is calculated as the percentage share of total number of persons traced over the total number of persons missing. NCRB started providing detailed data on missing & traced persons including children from 2016 onwards following the Supreme Court’s direction in a Writ Petition. It should also be noted that the data published by NCRB is restricted to those cases where FIRs have been registered by the police in respective States/UTs.

Missing persons...................................

The Mississippi Repository for Missing and Unidentified Persons (MS Repository) was developed in January 2022 to help identify, resolve, and archive Mississippi’s missing and unidentified persons cases. The MS Repository, housed at Mississippi State University, serves as a statewide missing and unidentified persons clearinghouse database. The MS Repository is under the purview of the Cobb Institute of Archaeology (including the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures) and the MSU Police Department (MSUPD). In collaboration with law enforcement agencies throughout the state, the goals of the MS Repository are to:1. Provide a centralized location for data on missing and unidentified persons from Mississippi2. Increase missing persons public access for all Mississippians3. Visualize socioeconomic and medicolegal disparities affecting missing persons through geospatial analysis4. Partner with neighboring states to facilitate data sharing of missing and unidentified persons information.The lack of comprehensive missing and unidentified persons repository data at the state and national levels continues to hinder identifying missing and unidentified people. The MS Repository is the only secure, formalized, searchable Mississippi data repository for unidentified and missing persons information. It includes missing and unidentified persons information from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUS), law enforcement missing persons reports on social media, cases from non-profit missing persons advocacy groups, and reports from families with missing loved ones. Like NamUS, the MS Repository provides demographic information about the missing individual and case circumstances, including last seen date and location. Each profile has a built-in capacity for holding copies of medical records and DNA records results (including family reference samples). All profiles (current and resolved) are stored electronically and available in perpetuity, regardless of case status. In addition to the database, there is a searchable clearinghouse website accessible to the public (missinginms.msstate.edu).

The number of missing person cases in Japan amounted to approximately ***** thousand in 2023, up from the previous fiscal year, that represented about ***** thousand. Boosted by the aging Japanese society, the leading cause for missing people reports was related to illnesses, with dementia accounting for around **** percent of the total number of missing person cases in that year.

This project provides a comprehensive dataset of over 125,000 missing and unaccounted-for people in Mexico from the 1960s to 2025. The dataset is sourced from the publicly available records on the RNPDO website and represents individuals who were actively missing as of the date of collection (July 1, 2025). To protect individual identities, personal identifiers, such as names, have been removed.Dataset Features:The data has been cleaned and translated to facilitate analysis by a global audience.Fields include:SexDate of birthDate of incidenceState and municipality of the incidentData spans over six decades, offering insights into trends and regional disparities.Additional Materials:Python Script: A Python script to generate customizable visualizations based on the dataset. Users can specify the state to generate tailored charts.Sample Chart: An example chart showcasing the evolution of missing persons per 100,000 inhabitants in Mexico between 2006 and 2025.Requirements File: A requirements.txt file listing the necessary Python libraries to run the script seamlessly.This dataset and accompanying tools aim to support researchers, policymakers, and journalists in analyzing and addressing the issue of missing persons in Mexico.

Comprehensive dataset of 68 Missing persons organizations in United States as of July, 2025. Includes verified contact information (email, phone), geocoded addresses, customer ratings, reviews, business categories, and operational details. Perfect for market research, lead generation, competitive analysis, and business intelligence. Download a complimentary sample to evaluate data quality and completeness.