The states where people go missing the most revealed in eye-opening map

The state with the most active missing persons cases has been revealed – but not all is quite as it seems.

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) database, a whopping 600,000 people are reported missing in America each year.

NamUS describes itself as 'a national centralized repository and resource center for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases across the United States'.

Fortunately, a lot of these cases end up being resolved, but some investigations end up going on for months, or even years.

One American citizen who went missing last year was Texas native Kaura Taylor. Her mom reported her missing in May 2025 and Kaura was later found to be alive and well, living thousands of miles away in Scotland, UK, after joining a tribe.

Kaura Taylor is now part of a tribe in Scotland (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

More recently, TODAY star Savannah Guthrie's mom Nancy, 84, was reported missing by her family in February.

She's believed to have been abducted from her home in Tucson, Arizona, in the early hours of February 1 and is yet to be found.

Both Texas and Arizona have made it on the list of the top ten states with the most open missing persons cases. Texas is second on the list with 2,879 cases as of this year, while Arizona is fifth with 1,094.

Topping the list is California, which has 3,764 open cases, as per World Population Review.

While in absolute terms California is at the top of the list, the state's rate of missing persons is roughly average, at 7.61 missing for every 100,000 people.

The highest rate of missing persons is actually in Alaska, which has a worrying rate of 178.08 missing people per 100,000 residents, according to Newsweek.

This is substantially higher than other parts of the US. For example, the second highest rate is in Hawaii with 20.13 per 100,000 people.

The map demonstrates where the most missing people are (World Population Review)

Of course, the loved ones of those who go missing hope that the investigation will be wrapped up quickly, but in the case of Christina Marie Plante, her family didn't get answers for over three decades.

Plante went missing at the age of 13 in 1994 in Arizona and, just after law enforcement had likely lost hope of ever locating the missing teenager, Gila County Sheriff's Office made an unexpected announcement on Facebook on April 1.

They said that they'd successfully resolved the 32-year-old case regarding Plante as she'd been found 'alive and well'.

"Investigators have confirmed her identity, and her status as a missing person has been officially resolved," a press release said.

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