SPOKANE, Wash. — A recent report places Washington among the top five states in the country with the most missing persons per capita.
The report from VivintSource.com says that Washington currently has 643 open missing persons cases, meaning there at 8.7 missing people for every 100,000 residents in the state.
Alaska is the No. 1 state with the most missing persons (41.8 people missing per 100,000 residents), followed by Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Vermont, according to Vivint.
California has the most missing persons in total, with 2,133 people missing, according to Vivint.
Idaho has 5.9 missing people for 100,000 residents, according to the report. It does not rank among the top states with the most or least missing people.
Vivint Source gathered data from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System to compile the data. State populations reported came from the 2017 American Community Survey one-year estimates.
A missing person is defined as “anyone whose whereabouts are unknown whatever the circumstances of disappearance.” This can include a lost person, someone who has voluntarily gone missing or someone who is missing against their will.
According to NamUS, more than 600,000 people go missing each year in the United States, ranging from young children to older individuals.
Of the 15,207 people currently missing in the U.S., approximately 60 percent are male and 40 percent are female, according to Vivint. The average age of a missing person is 34.
As of Jan. 2019, there are 106 children missing who were younger than a year old when they went missing, according to Vivint.
