U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Report NCJ 236245 by Lynn Langton, BJS Statistician
In 2010, 7.0% of households in the United States, or about 8.6 million households, had at least one member age 12 or older who experienced one or more types of identity theft victimization (figure 1). This percentage was similar to the 7.3% of households that experienced identity theft in 2009. However, it represented an increase from the 5.5% of households, or 6.4 million households, that were victims of one or more types of identity theft in 2005.
The increase in identity theft victimization from 2005 to 2010 was largely attributable to an increase in the misuse or attempted misuse of existing credit card accounts. During this period, the percentage of households that experienced the misuse of an existing credit card account increased by about 50%, from 2.5% to 3.8%. The percentage of households that experienced the misuse of personal information to open a new account or for another fraudulent purpose declined by about 30%, from 0.9% in 2005 to 0.6% in 2010.
The full report is available on BJS.
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