Data · Call and text complaints
Unwanted-call and text complaints, by state
How many unwanted calls, robocalls and texts people reported to the FCC, in every state, month by month over the years, and how that compares per 100,000 residents. Counts only, straight from the FCC's own file.
What is in this dataset?
Complaints about unwanted calls, robocalls and telemarketing that people filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), counted by state, month, issue and method (text message, prerecorded voice, live voice and others) from January 2015, with the last 12 months set against the 12 before and per 100,000 residents. One record per state, DC, Puerto Rico and territory for text-message complaints and one for phone-call complaints. The counts come from the FCC's open Consumer Complaints Data, grouped on the FCC's server so no complaint, caller number or free text is ever copied, and the state rows add up to a separate FCC-side count for every month. Complaints are self-reported and unverified, not findings of any violation.
Use it to see where people report the most unwanted texts and calls, and how that has moved, before you plan texting or phone outreach. Look up your state: the record gives the last 12 months of text-message or phone-call complaints, the rate per 100,000 residents, the change from the 12 months before, and three years of monthly counts. Read the rate as how often people in a state file complaints, not how often calls are made; a few filers can move a small state.
- Records
- 114
- Look up by
- 57
- state
- Primary source
- 114
The letters are explained in what P, S, D and U mean.
Where does the data come from?
The FCC's Consumer Complaints Data (Socrata dataset 3xyp-aqkj) is aggregated on the FCC's server with a SoQL group-by on month, state, issue and method for the phone issues Unwanted Calls, Robocalls and Telemarketing, from January 2015 through the last complete month. The rows of every month and issue must add up to a separate FCC-side count before a release is published. Rates divide by the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 state population estimates.
- Period covered
- January 2015 to September 2026
- Places
- The whole US and states
- How often we refresh it
- Every month
- The source's next release
- November 5, 2026
- Records read
- October 27, 2026
Official sources
- U.S. Federal Communications Commission, by official API. Public Domain U.S. Government (stated in the dataset metadata).
- U.S. Federal Communications Commission, by official API. Public Domain U.S. Government.
- U.S. Census Bureau, by bulk download. Public domain (U.S. Government work).
The sources the records cite most
What does a record look like?
-
From October 2025 through September 2026, people in Colorado filed 801 text-message complaints with the FCC about unwanted calls, robocalls and telemarketing, 13.3 per 100,000 residents. That is 7.4% more than in the 12 months before.
Status P · checked October 27, 2026 · source: FCC, CGB Consumer Complaints Data (3xyp-aqkj), complaints counted by state, month, issue and method
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From October 2025 through September 2026, people in Washington filed 1,030 text-message complaints with the FCC about unwanted calls, robocalls and telemarketing, 12.9 per 100,000 residents. That is 60.1% fewer than in the 12 months before.
Status P · checked October 27, 2026 · source: FCC, CGB Consumer Complaints Data (3xyp-aqkj), complaints counted by state, month, issue and method
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From October 2025 through September 2026, people in California filed 1,716 text-message complaints with the FCC about unwanted calls, robocalls and telemarketing, 4.4 per 100,000 residents. That is 25.9% fewer than in the 12 months before.
Status P · checked October 27, 2026 · source: FCC, CGB Consumer Complaints Data (3xyp-aqkj), complaints counted by state, month, issue and method
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From October 2025 through September 2026, people in Texas filed 2,020 text-message complaints with the FCC about unwanted calls, robocalls and telemarketing, 6.4 per 100,000 residents. That is 4.1% more than in the 12 months before.
Status P · checked October 27, 2026 · source: FCC, CGB Consumer Complaints Data (3xyp-aqkj), complaints counted by state, month, issue and method
The full records add the dates, the quoted source text and every field in the CSV and JSON files below.
What each of the 8 main columns means
measure- text (text-message complaints) or call (phone-call complaints, including those with no method given)
value- Complaints in the last 12 complete months
per100k- Complaints per 100,000 residents (Census Vintage 2025 estimate for July 1, 2025); empty for territories the Census file does not cover
previous12- Complaints in the 12 months before that
yoyPct- Change from the previous 12 months, in percent
referenceYear2024- Complaints in calendar year 2024, a full year with no gap in the file
referenceYear2024Per100k- The same per 100,000 residents (2024 estimate)
monthly36- The last 36 monthly counts, oldest first, starting at monthly36Start
How do I use it in my own tools?
robocalls_lookup- For one state, DC, Puerto Rico or a territory (two-letter code) or US: FCC complaints about unwanted calls, robocalls and telemarketing in the last 12 months, split into text-message and phone-call complaints, with the rate per 100,000 residents, the change from the 12 months before and 36 monthly counts.
robocalls_compare- FCC unwanted-call and text-message complaints side by side for up to 10 states or territories (two-letter codes), with the rate per 100,000 residents and the change from a year earlier.
robocalls_search- Complaint records whose text matches the words given, such as a state name, "text message" or "phone call".
How to cite this dataset
You can reuse, adapt and republish this data, including commercially, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0). The only condition is that you credit Probative and link to the source.
- Version
- 1.0.0, released October 28, 2026
- Every version
- 10.5281/zenodo.23733009 (always points to the newest)
- License
- CC BY 4.0
Download the data
- CSV: robocall-complaints.csv 108 KB · one row per record (columns in README.txt)
- JSON: robocall-complaints.json 218 KB · every record with its sources
Free, no email or login. The files are hosted on this site and Zenodo, a public research archive.
Suggested citation
Probative. (2026). Unwanted-call and text-message complaints to the FCC, by state and month (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23733010
Credit line for a chart, table or article
Source: Probative, Unwanted-call and text-message complaints to the FCC, by state and month, version 1.0.0, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23733010, licensed CC BY 4.0.
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Not legal advice. These are counts of complaints people filed with the FCC, kept for marketing planning. A complaint is a report, not a finding that anyone broke a law, and no phone number or complaint text is published. Texting and calling rules (the TCPA and state laws) are for your own counsel.
What are the limits?
- A complaint is a report from one person. It is not checked, and it is not a finding that anyone broke a law.
- People in a state file more or fewer complaints for many reasons, so a rate shows how often people report, not how many calls are made. A few filers can move a small state.
- The FCC file holds far fewer complaints than usual for a stretch of the latest 12 months, so the latest totals run low (the study page names the months).
- The complaint's state is where the person lives or reports from. Calls can come from anywhere.
- No phone number, caller ID or complaint text is published; only counts.
- Records older than 45 days since their last check are marked
stalein the files until we re-check them. Every confirmed error we fix is listed in the data corrections log.
Found a wrong value? Report an error with the record id and the source that shows the right value.
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