Key Facts about Missing Children 800,000 missing in one year!!!!

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children®assists law enforcement, families and the professionals who serve them with cases of missing and exploited children. NCMEC serves as the national clearinghouse for information about missing and exploited children.

Unfortunately, there is no reliable way to determine how many total children are actually missing in the U.S., as many children are never reported missing.

When a child is reported missing to law enforcement, federal law requires that child be entered into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, also known as NCIC.

According to the FBI, in 2015 there were 460,699 NCIC entries for missing children. Similarly, in 2014, the total number of missing children entries into NCIC was 466,949.

This number represents reports of missing children. That means if a child runs away multiple times in a year, each instance would be entered into NCIC separately and counted in the yearly total. Likewise, if an entry is withdrawn and amended or updated, that would also be reflected in the total.

During the last 31 years, NCMEC’s national toll-free hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678), has received more than 4.2 million calls. NCMEC has circulated billions of photos of missing children, assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 222,000 missing children and facilitated training for more than 322,000 law enforcement, criminal/juvenile justice and healthcare professionals. NCMEC’s Team HOPE volunteers have provided resources and emotional support to more than 56,000 families of missing and exploited children.

NCMEC by the Numbers(i)

MISSING In 2015 NCMEC assisted law enforcement with more than 13,700cases of missing children. Case type: 86 percent endangered runaways. 10 percent family abductions. 2 percent lost, injured or otherwise missing children. 1 percent nonfamily abductions. 1 percent critically missing young adults, ages 18 to 20. Of the more than 11,800 endangered runaways reported to NCMEC in 2015, one in five were likely victims of child sex trafficking. Of those,74 percent were in the care of social services when they went missing. AMBER Alerts1 have successfully recovered 816 children, including 28recoveries credited to the wireless emergency alert program. NCMEC’s forensic artists have age-progressed more than 6,000images of long-term missing children and created more than 480 facial reconstructions for unidentified deceased children. NCMEC has assisted law enforcement with more than 717 cases of unidentified children’s remains and has assisted in 65 identifications. Team Adam2, which provides rapid, on-site assistance to law enforcement in cases of critically missing children, has deployed more than 960 times. Project ALERT®3, which provides technical assistance and outreach regarding long-term missing child cases, has assisted law enforcement and communities more than 9,300 times. NCMEC has analyzed more than 11,500 attempted child abductions to identify trends and help develop safety tips for families.

EXPLOITED NCMEC is authorized by Congress to operate the CyberTipline®4, a national mechanism for the public and electronic service providers to report suspected child sexual exploitation. In 2015 the CyberTipline received 4.4 million reports, most of which related to: Apparent child sexual abuse images. Online enticement, including “sextortion.” Child sex trafficking. Child sexual molestation. Since its inception, the CyberTipline has received more than 7.5 millionreports. NCMEC has sent more than 111,000 notifications to electronic service providers regarding publicly accessible websites (URLs) on which suspected child sexual abuse images appeared5. NCMEC’s Child Victim Identification Program6, which assists law enforcement in its efforts to locate and rescue child victims in abusive images, has reviewed more than 164 million images and videos and law enforcement has identified more than 10,900 child victims. NCMEC has assisted with more than 68,000 requests relating to law enforcement’s efforts to locate noncompliant sex offenders7.

Looking for stats on missing kids in your state? Each state has a missing person’s clearinghouse, which can provide regionalized information on missing kids. Check out the list here.

i All numbers provided reflect program totals since inception, except where otherwise noted.
1 AMBER Alerts began in 1996 and are a program of the U.S. Department of Justice.
NCMEC is a secondary distributor of AMBER Alerts.
2 NCMEC’s Team Adam program began in 2003.
3 NCMEC’s Project ALERT program began in 1992.
4 NCMEC’s CyberTipline began receiving reports in 1998.
5 NCMEC began formally tracking notifications to ESPs in 2010.
6 NCMEC’s CVIP program began in 2002.
7 NCMEC created SOTT in 2006.