Complaints in September 2026
10,273
Up 29% on September 2025, across the 100 largest metro areas.
Official data: FCC + U.S. Census Bureau, updated October 2026Last updated October 25, 2026
People in the 100 largest metro areas filed 10,273 robocall complaints in September 2026.
That is 29% more than in September 2025 and 4% more than in August 2026. Below, the metro areas with the most complaints per resident, a lookup for all 100, and a free table and map for your own site.
Looking for states instead? See the robocall complaints by state page.
Metro areas with more complaints than a year ago
70 of 100
September 2026 against September 2025. In 30 metro areas it was the same or lower.
Per 100,000 residents, last 12 months
38.4
The 100 largest metro areas together. The country as a whole: 37.8.
Together the 100 metro areas filed 85,323 of the 125,367 unwanted-call complaints the FCC logged from October 2025 to September 2026.
The map
Complaints per resident run from 7.7 to 99.4 per 100,000 across the 100 largest metro areas.
Each dot is one metro area. Hover or tap a dot to read its numbers, then open its month-by-month panel.
Dot colour is complaints per 100,000 residents. Dot size is total complaints.
- Under 27
- 27 to 35
- 35 to 41
- 41 to 51
- 51 or more
- One ZIP code files 25% or more
1st of 100 per resident
Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA
99.4per 100,000 residents
582complaints, 12 months
One ZIP code files 61%. Without it: 38.4.
The top 20
These 20 metro areas file the most robocall complaints per resident.
FCC unwanted-call complaints, October 2025 to September 2026, per 100,000 residents of the metro area. Click a name to see its month-by-month count.
| Rank | Metro area | Per 100,000 residents | Complaints, 12 months | September 2026, against a year earlier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 582 complaints in 12 monthsOne ZIP code files 61%. Without it: 38.4. | 99.4 | 582 | Down −8% |
| 2 | 688 complaints in 12 monthsOne ZIP code files 26%. Without it: 56.7. | 76.2 | 688 | Up +5% |
| 3 | 429 complaints in 12 monthsOne ZIP code files 27%. Without it: 51.6. | 70.7 | 429 | Down −15% |
| 4 | 1,828 complaints in 12 monthsOne ZIP code files 34%. Without it: 45.5. | 68.7 | 1,828 | Down −31% |
| 5 | 453 complaints in 12 months | 67.7 | 453 | Up +14% |
| 6 | 3,010 complaints in 12 months | 62.0 | 3,010 | Up +71% |
| 7 | 1,804 complaints in 12 months | 60.9 | 1,804 | Up +6% |
| 8 | 1,708 complaints in 12 monthsOne ZIP code files 34%. Without it: 39.5. | 60.0 | 1,708 | Down −12% |
| 9 | 1,457 complaints in 12 monthsOne ZIP code files 38%. Without it: 36.6. | 59.3 | 1,457 | Up +260% |
| 10 | 830 complaints in 12 months | 58.7 | 830 | Down −27% |
| 11 | 353 complaints in 12 monthsOne ZIP code files 39%. Without it: 35.0. | 57.8 | 353 | Up +5% |
| 12 | 1,813 complaints in 12 months | 57.1 | 1,813 | Up +78% |
| 13 | 450 complaints in 12 months | 56.3 | 450 | Up +122% |
| 14 | 1,256 complaints in 12 months | 55.0 | 1,256 | Down −7% |
| 15 | 709 complaints in 12 months | 53.9 | 709 | Up +96% |
| 16 | 402 complaints in 12 months | 53.1 | 402 | Up +58% |
| 17 | 708 complaints in 12 monthsOne ZIP code files 41%. Without it: 30.8. | 52.6 | 708 | Up +2% |
| 18 | 431 complaints in 12 months | 51.7 | 431 | Up +100% |
| 19 | 830 complaints in 12 months | 51.7 | 830 | Down −32% |
| 20 | 1,355 complaints in 12 months | 50.7 | 1,355 | Up +29% |
Ranked by complaints per 100,000 residents. The FCC publishes no filer ID, so the data cannot say whether a ZIP code's complaints came from many households or from a few people filing again and again. In 8 of these 20 metro areas, one ZIP code files at least a quarter of the complaints.
Look up your metro area
Look up any of the 100 largest metro areas.
Pick a metro area to see its complaints month by month and the kind of call people reported. A pick from the search box, the map or the table lands here too.
All 100 metro areas together
The 100 largest metro areas had 10,273 robocall complaints in September 2026.
Per 100,000 residents
38.4
Last 12 months
Complaints, last 12 months
85,323
All 100 added up
September 2026 against September 2025
Up +29%
10,273 against 7,976
Residents
221,964,050
2020 Census count
September 202610,273 complaints
FCC complaint center closed Oct 1 to Nov 12, 2025. The two grey columns are a closed door, not a drop in calls.
| Month | Complaints |
|---|---|
| Oct 2024 | 10,059 |
| Nov 2024 | 8,490 |
| Dec 2024 | 6,113 |
| Jan 2025 | 7,461 |
| Feb 2025 | 7,898 |
| Mar 2025 | 8,005 |
| Apr 2025 | 8,089 |
| May 2025 | 8,927 |
| Jun 2025 | 8,727 |
| Jul 2025 | 8,994 |
| Aug 2025 | 8,825 |
| Sep 2025 | 7,976 |
| Oct 2025 | 20 |
| Nov 2025 | 4,477 |
| Dec 2025 | 6,695 |
| Jan 2026 | 7,828 |
| Feb 2026 | 7,210 |
| Mar 2026 | 7,510 |
| Apr 2026 | 7,197 |
| May 2026 | 7,009 |
| Jun 2026 | 7,823 |
| Jul 2026 | 9,439 |
| Aug 2026 | 9,842 |
| Sep 2026 | 10,273 |
What kind of call people reported
- Prerecorded voice47%
- Live voice33%
- Text message20%
Share of the 70,036 complaints in the last 12 months that name a type of call.
Embed and data
You can put this table and map on your own site for free.
Newsrooms, city sites and blogs can paste one block of code. It shows the map and the top-20 table in a light or dark version, with a credit line that links back to this page.
You can download the data behind every number on this page.
Method
How we count these complaints.
Each one is an FCC consumer complaint with the issue "Unwanted Calls", counted by the day it was filed and placed in a metro area by its ZIP code, with residents from the Census Bureau's 2020 count; the 380 complaints with no usable ZIP code are left out of the metro rows. The FCC's complaint center was closed from October 1 to November 12, 2025, so the 12-month totals are low.
Complaints come from the FCC.
CGB - Consumer Complaints Data on the FCC’s open data portal (dataset 3xyp-aqkj), published under the U.S. Government Works license. The FCC last updated it on October 25, 2026.
Residents and places come from the Census Bureau.
Metro area population estimates (the 2020 Census count), the ZIP-to-county relationship file and the ZIP code gazetteer.
- A complaint counts when its Issue is "Unwanted Calls", the category the FCC uses for robocalls and telemarketing, including do-not-call and spoofing. Months use the day the complaint was filed.
- The 12-month figures cover October 2025 to September 2026, the last 12 complete months. The monthly charts cover October 2024 to September 2026.
- A complaint is placed in a metro area by the ZIP code the consumer gave. A ZIP code that spans two metro areas goes to the one that holds most of its land, and 1,145 ZIP codes that are not Census areas go to the nearest one that is.
- Complaints per 100,000 residents is the 12-month count divided by the metro area's 2020 Census count, times 100,000. Ranks use the unrounded rate. The country's rate, 37.8, uses the 50 states and DC.
- 13,785 complaints came from places outside the metro areas the Census Bureau defines, 25,879 from smaller metro areas, and 380 had no usable ZIP code. All are in the national total of 125,367, none in the 100 rows.
- When one ZIP code files 25% or more of a metro area's complaints, the table shows the rate without it. The ranking always uses the full count.
- We asked the FCC for counts only, so no individual complaint was downloaded. The numbers are saved as a static file in the site, not fetched when you load the page, and we re-run the same queries each month.
- The FCC’s complaint center took almost no complaints from October 1 to November 12, 2025, so the two grey months in the charts are a closed door, not a drop in calls. The FCC’s own notices: DA 25-922 and DA 25-943.
The exact queries we ran against the FCC’s open data
- Complaints by month, state, ZIP code and type of call, last 24 complete months (page 1)
- Complaints by month, state, ZIP code and type of call, last 24 complete months (page 2)
- Complaints by month, state, ZIP code and type of call, last 24 complete months (page 3)
- Complaints by month, state, ZIP code and type of call, last 24 complete months (page 4)
- Center point of each ZIP code (page 1)
- National total, last 12 complete months
- National total, last 24 complete months
- Complaints per month, last 24 complete months
- Complaints per state, last 12 complete months
If your business calls or texts customers, the TCPA calling hours calculator shows the legal window for any number. You can link to this page as www.voicedrop.ai/robocall-complaints-by-metro-area/.
FAQ
Here are answers to 5 common questions about robocall complaints by metro area.
Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA, with 99.4 complaints for every 100,000 residents from October 2025 to September 2026, against 38.4 across the 100 largest metro areas and 37.8 for the country. One ZIP code filed 61% of its complaints; without it the rate would be 38.4, level with the 100 metro areas together. Knoxville, TN is next at 76.2.
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ filed the most, 5,579 complaints from October 2025 to September 2026. Big metro areas file more simply because more people live there, so this page ranks by complaints per resident, where New York-Newark-Jersey City is 79th of 100.
10,273, 29% more than in September 2025. Over the last 12 complete months they filed 85,323 of the 125,367 unwanted-call complaints the FCC logged nationwide. For every state, see robocall complaints by state.
Each complaint is placed in a metro area by the ZIP code the consumer gave. The 12-month count is divided by the metro area's 2020 Census count and multiplied by 100,000. Spokane-Spokane Valley: 582 complaints divided by 585,778 residents is 99.4.
Yes. Paste the free embed into any page or download the CSV files, and credit VoiceDrop with a link to this page. The page, the files and the embed are refreshed every month from the FCC's open data; this edition uses data pulled on October 25, 2026.
More data: the robocall complaints by state page and the area code lookup, which shows where any US area code is and its local time.