You may have seen a recent article by Fox Business News that has been circulating claims about the top 10 states in terms of robocall volumes. In fact, MSN and Yahoo have picked up similar articles as well. While we’re thrilled that these publications are working to spread awareness on the robocall epidemic, we’re compelled to point out that their claims are basically false.
This Fox Business article “10 states where you’re most likely to get a robocall” claims the top 10 states to get robocalls are these:
- Nevada
- Colorado
- Arizona
- Oregon
- New Jersey
- Connecticut
- Virginia
- Maryland
- Florida
- Michigan
Wrong!
The problem is that this article based its report on the FTC complaint data for 2018 which computed a ratio of complaints per 100,000 people in each state. While the complaint data is likely accurate, complaint data is not an accurate measurement of robocalls, nor likeliness of receiving future robocalls.
The real order of states by robocall volume is here:
This data comes from our YouMail Robocall Index. The Robocall Index supplies the number of robocalls nationwide by observing the behavior of our over 10 million registered users of YouMail’s free robocall blocking app and then extrapolating that data.
The Robocall Index data shows that using the FTC complaint data to estimate robocalls doesn’t quite work. Just take a look at this comparison of the FTC complaint data side by side with the best estimate of per-capita robocall rankings provided by the Robocall Index.
The important difference between Fox’s list and our data is clear: there is almost no overlap in the top 10 states (other than Maryland and Florida). One of the most notable differences is that Nevada isn’t number one in receiving robocalls, but actually takes twelfth place (so sorry to take that championship away!).
So what exactly is causing the vast difference in these two lists?
Well, it turns out that some people are more sensitive to robocalls and therefore faster, more frequent complainers than others. Said another way, people in some states tough it out, and people in other states quickly pull the trigger!
There do seem to be some regional trends, like that the South seems to have a lower robocall to complaint ratio than other regions. For example, people in Louisiana seem to file a complaint with the FTC for every 1 in 22,000 robocalls (an extremely high tolerance to robocalls). Meanwhile, people in Oregon file a complaint after 1 in 3,500 robocalls. That means people in Oregon are over 6 times more likely to complain about robocalls than people in Louisiana! (Way to raise your voices, Oregon. And way to exercise patience, Louisiana.)
Here’s the full list of states and their robocalls per complaint ratio:
If you look at this list, you can see the states that are less likely to submit complaints to the FTC at the top of the list, and the states that submit complaints more quickly at the bottom of the list.
So, what have we learned?
Luckily, there are important lessons to be learned from their mistakes.
The first lesson to learn from this is that you can’t use complaint data as a proxy for robocall volume; it’s just not accurate. The other is this: if you’re looking for the most recent, reliable robocall data, go right to the authoritative source: YouMail’s Robocall Index.
More generally, don’t believe everything you read!
If your phone number was a business land line at one time you are very likely to get more than some. My mother just ignores phone numbers she doesn’t recognize and her landline gets alot of telemarking calls
Very true, Bruce! If you’d like, we do have a landline version of some of our services for free that your mother may be able to use. Feel free to Live Chat us at support.youmail.com with any questions.
I live in Georgia, and it’s nice to see my suspicions confirmed. Within 24 hours of getting a new phone and number last year — before anybody but my wife knew the number — I started getting robocalls, including one in Chinese from Texas. YouMail made things bearable again. Now one or two per week get through, and I immediately report them.
Hey Selden!
Oof, Georgia got 345.1 million robocalls in October so it’s no surprise that you were getting robocalls right after purchasing a brand new phone. We’re glad to hear that we’re helping block those annoying calls for you though. We really appreciate you reporting the numbers that do get through since that data helps users that get calls from that number in the future.
Together we can end this robocall epidemic!
I really don’t care whose list is correct. What I do care about is how to never get a robo call again. I’d love to see an article on that!
Thanks for the feedback, Julianne! Keep your eyes out, maybe our next blog will be on that topic. 🙂
I now have moved to Alabama and got a local number here. I still receive lots of bill collector calls for someone named Paul but thankfully You Mail blocks most of the junk. The only reason I say most is the 3 bill collector calls in just the last few days 😋🐾🐾
The numbers you have are way toooo low for robocalls to people over 65. Based on my own experience with a MINIMUM of 3 calls per day in Massachusetts (about 1000 per year MINIMUM) and more like 5 or 6 robocalls per day on average or almost 2000 calls per year. The robocall situation is completely out of control and there is no relief in sight for landlines or non-smart phones. These clowns are rapidly making phones useless.
It is not perfect! It blocks calls from Duke U. Medical where I use their services. There are thousands of phones. they have their own area and first 3 numbers after that system. Is there any way to to allow calls from them to bypass YouMail?
Thanks for your question, Robert!
If you Live Chat us at support.youmail.com then we can get some more information and help you out. Hope to hear from you!
Do you work with any specific or all carriers? We signed up with an app I believe with one on line carrion and since we moved to Consumer Cellular was wondering if we can keep You Mail. We have certainly gotten less Robocalls since using Youmail and we love that.
Hello Linda! Thanks for your question. You can check out this page for information on what carriers we’re compatible with: https://support.youmail.com/hc/en-us/articles/360033226814-Supported-Carriers-. It looks like Consumer Cellular should work, they just make their customers go through a couple extra steps to get there. If you Live Chat us at support.youmail.com we’d love to help you out!