Missing Persons, Missing Children Reports Drop to Lowest in Decades

A girl takes a picture of a missing person sign displaying portraits of Amanda Berry, one of the three women held captive for a decade, in front of her sister's house in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 7, 2013. The three women were found safe, authorities said. Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

The reports of missing persons, and missing children in particular, decreased in 2018, reaching levels unseen since the beginning of available FBI data.

Nearly 613,000 Americans were reported missing in 2018, more than 424,000 of them under the age of 18. That’s a drop of almost 6 and 9 percent respectively from the year prior and the lowest shown in available records going as far back as 1990.