How many sex offenders are in the US?
As of August 2026, we index about 1,560,000 sex-offender registry records across all 58 US registries — roughly 4.7 per 1,000 US residents (2020 Census population). No official national count exists, because each jurisdiction publishes its own registry and counts different things; this figure counts the records in our continuously updated index, rounded and dated.
The ten largest state registries
The national total spans all 58 registries, including national and tribal registries whose coverage overlaps the states — so it exceeds the sum of the state rows. Each state links to its own statistics page.
| # | State | Registrants indexed (approx.) | Per 1,000 residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | ≈ 108,000 | 3.7 |
| 2 | Florida | ≈ 92,900 | 4.3 |
| 3 | California | ≈ 62,900 | 1.6 |
| 4 | Illinois | ≈ 44,300 | 3.5 |
| 5 | Michigan | ≈ 43,300 | 4.3 |
| 6 | Georgia | ≈ 41,500 | 3.9 |
| 7 | Virginia | ≈ 31,900 | 3.7 |
| 8 | North Carolina | ≈ 31,100 | 3.0 |
| 9 | New York | ≈ 28,300 | 1.4 |
| 10 | Tennessee | ≈ 27,900 | 4.0 |
All 56 jurisdictions are ranked on the full state ranking and rate-ranked on the per-capita page. Registry data is not a consumer report, and decisions made on it are regulated in that use.
About the national figure
How many registered sex offenders are there in the United States?
As of August 2026, we index about 1,560,000 sex-offender registry records across all 58 US registries — every state, DC, the five territories, and national and tribal registries whose coverage overlaps the states. Searches de-duplicate across registries, so a person listed in more than one place comes back as one person.
Is there an official national count of sex offenders?
No. Each jurisdiction publishes its own registry on its own terms, and they count different things — some count people, others registrations or addresses — so no single official national table exists. Any national figure, ours included, is an estimate with a method behind it; ours counts the records in our own continuously updated index, rounded and dated.
Is the number of sex offenders going up or down?
We publish a dated snapshot, not a time series, so this page makes no trend claim. Registries add, remove and amend records continuously — people are added on conviction, removed when requirements end, and reclassified in between — which is also why the figure above is rounded and dated to August 2026 rather than presented as a precise live count.
The live answer beats the table
A national total describes the population; a search answers for a person — across every US registry at once. Your first 25 are free.