Vehicle theft is still on the rise, which correlates to higher insurance rates.

Thefts rose in the U.S. about 14% from 2020 to 2022, the latest period with available national data, according to LendingTree, a Charlotte, N.C.-based online lending marketplace.

The toll reached nearly a million stolen vehicles: 999,188, to be exact, according to LendingTree, which said 34 states saw increases during the period, five of them by more than 40%: Vermont, Washington, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Oregon.

Looking at state-level numbers from last year, the 10 with the highest theft rates had average annual auto insurance costs 6% above the national average, LendingTree said.

And at the vehicle model level, the 10 most stolen had 19% higher average annual insurance costs, led by the Hyundai Sonata, with about a 31% higher cost than the national average. Hyundais and Kias experienced higher theft rates after a rash of social media-fueled thefts of 2011 to 2022 models without standard antitheft technology.

The national theft spike continues an upward trend that started during the Covid pandemic, though the year-over-year increases have since been less dramatic. Before the crisis, vehicle thefts had declined from 2017 to 2019, LendingTree said.

“Bad actors know using a stolen car makes it easier for them to get away with other crimes,” says LendingTree auto insurance expert Rob Bhatt in a press release on the data. “Car theft usually isn’t as high a priority for law enforcement and prosecutors as violent crimes.”

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