Which PA Towns Have the Most Car Thefts? FBI Data Reveals All

There is probably nothing worse than the experience of having your car stolen. That absolutely shocking moment when you get outside to drive to work on a cold morning, and it's gone. It's just not there. And then you realize, your car has been stolen. You panic and realize how stressful it's about to be as you begin to call the authorities.

It happens more often than you may think. In fact, in some Pennsylvania towns it happens a lot more often than in others.

So where is it happening the most? We went through the FBI's town-by-town crime numbers for 2024 and ranked every Pennsyvlvania municipality with at least 5,000 residents by car thefts per capita.

For context, the average across all reporting Pennsylvania towns is about 235 thefts per 100,000 residents, or roughly one stolen car for every 425 people. Philadelphia is running more than four times that rate. Beyond that, though, there are risks all across Pennsylvania.

How We Made Our Ranking

Every figure here comes from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program for 2024, which collects the crimes each local police department reports. We used the town-level file compiled by PlainCrime, which pulls straight from the FBI.

We took each town's reported motor vehicle thefts, divided by its population, then multiplied by 100,000. That gives a rate per 100,000 residents, so a borough of 6,000 and a city of 1.5 million can be compared fairly. It only makes sense that we do it fairly, right?

Since the data can be skewed in a tiny town (one theft in a small town could overflate these numbers). So we set it a minimum of 5,000 residents for a town to be included in our list below meaning some of Pa's smallest towns were left off the list for fairness.

Some Notes From the Author About Our Findings

Yes, Philly leads the list. Philadelphia had the most thefts by far (15,579) and the highest rate. The good news? Multiple media outlets report that crime of all kinds is down in recent years, but we haven't seen any finalized updated data for car theft totals.
Small boroughs, big rates. When you look at towns like Darby, Morrisville, Swissvale, Steelton and Sharon Hill, they all have fewer than 11,000 residents. So a few dozen thefts lands them high on the list.
Location Matters. Thefts are counted in the town where they happened, so a busy shopping center or train station lot can inflate a town's number. While that is scary to have your car stolen (no matter where), it may give you some peace of mind that it's less likely to be stolen from your driveway.
Motor vehicle theft means the whole vehicle was taken. Break-ins and stolen catalytic converters are counted separately and aren't included.

Which Pennsylvania Town Has the Highest Car Theft Rate?

These 25 Pa. Towns Have the Highest Car Theft Rates in the State

Car theft is still a real problem in parts of Pennsylvania, and some towns are hit much harder than others. We used FBI crime data to rank every Pa. town with at least 5,000 residents by car thefts per 100,000 people. A few big cities top the list, but some smaller suburbs and one shore town might surprise you.

Gallery Credit: Joe (Chris, Jahna, Joe & The Morning Show)