FactHub curated dataset

Washington and U.S. Motor-Vehicle-Theft Rate Comparison

A chart-ready long-form monthly rate series derived from the published Washington motor-vehicle-theft dataset, with one Washington and one United States observation per month.

Coverage: 2018-01-01 through 2025-12-01 (96 calendar months)

Node: dataset:washington-mvt-rate-comparison:1

What this dataset measures

The reusable chart renderer requires long-form series data. This release reshapes the published wide monthly table without changing values, enabling an accessible two-line comparison tied to an exact source release.

Curated data tables

These related tables form this versioned dataset release. Each table has its own downloadable file and field definitions.

Monthly Washington and United States Motor-Vehicle-Theft Series

Principal analysis-ready table containing 96 consecutive monthly observations from the FBI Crime Data Explorer response.

Unit of observation: One calendar month.

View this table

monthly.csv text/csv · 9.9 KB (10,117 bytes)
13 field definitions
FieldTypeMeaningUnitsValue type
month date First day of the represented calendar month in ISO 8601 format. — observed
wa_reported_offenses integer FBI CDE value labeled Washington Offenses for motor-vehicle theft. reported offenses observed
wa_offense_rate_per_100k decimal FBI-published Washington motor-vehicle-theft offense rate. reported offenses per 100,000 people observed
wa_clearances integer FBI CDE value labeled Washington Clearances; not synonymous with arrests or cohort resolution. clearances observed
wa_clearance_rate_per_100k decimal FBI-published Washington clearance rate. clearances per 100,000 people observed
wa_population integer Washington population value returned by the FBI endpoint. people observed
wa_population_coverage_pct decimal FBI estimate of the percentage of Washington's population represented by reporting agencies. percent estimated
us_reported_offenses integer United States reported-offense value returned by the FBI endpoint. The retained response contains zero in this field, so it must not be used as a national count. reported offenses observed
us_offense_rate_per_100k decimal FBI-published United States motor-vehicle-theft offense rate used as the national descriptive benchmark. reported offenses per 100,000 people observed
us_clearances integer United States clearance value returned by the endpoint; the retained response contains zero and it must not be treated as a national clearance count. clearances observed
us_clearance_rate_per_100k decimal FBI-published United States clearance rate. clearances per 100,000 people observed
us_population integer United States population value returned by the FBI endpoint. people observed
us_population_coverage_pct decimal FBI estimate of the percentage of the U.S. population represented by reporting agencies. percent estimated

Saved analyses

Long-form Washington and U.S. monthly theft rates

Question: How did Washington monthly motor-vehicle-theft rates compare with U.S. rates from 2018 through 2025?

Result: A 192-row long-form time series containing Washington and United States monthly reported-offense rates.

Operation: reshape-two-rate-columns-to-long-series

Scope: All 96 source months, producing two series rows per month.

View this analysis

  • The comparison does not control for reporting systems, vehicle fleets, economics, policing, or the Kia and Hyundai theft wave.
  • Washington coverage is lower in the second half of 2025.

Derived from

This dataset uses data from these FactHub dataset versions.

Sources

  1. Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer Principal source for monthly Washington and United States offenses, clearances, rates, population, and population-coverage values.

    Retrieved October 7, 2026. U.S. federal government data. Retained source response is redistributed for reproducibility with attribution to the FBI Crime Data Explorer.

  2. Washington State Legislature Official source for HB 1054 and its 2021 pursuit-law effective date.

    Retrieved October 7, 2026. Washington State public record. Linked as an official public record; source document bytes are not redistributed in this release.

  3. Washington State Legislature Official session law for SB 5352 and its immediate May 3, 2023 effective date.

    Retrieved October 7, 2026. Washington State public record. Linked as an official public record; source document bytes are not redistributed in this release.

  4. Washington State Legislature Official session law for Initiative 2113 and its June 6, 2024 effective date.

    Retrieved October 7, 2026. Washington State public record. Linked as an official public record; source document bytes are not redistributed in this release.

Limitations and reproducibility

Fully reproducible by selecting the two published rate fields and reshaping them from wide to long form.: For each of the 96 source months, emit a Washington row using wa_offense_rate_per_100k and a United States row using us_offense_rate_per_100k. Preserve the month, Washington coverage, and policy-period label.

  • The United States series is a descriptive benchmark, not a causal counterfactual.
  • Temporal alignment with legal events does not identify policy effects.
  • Washington reporting coverage declines during the second half of 2025.
  • The rate values are reproduced from FBI CDE and are not recalculated by FactHub.