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Public FCC data
Do people in the District of Columbia report more spam calls than most states? They filed 360 FCC complaints in 12 months, second most per person.
From October 2025 to September 2026, people in the District of Columbia filed 360 unwanted-call complaints with the FCC, or 51.9 for every 100,000 residents, the second-highest rate among the 50 states and DC. 37% of the 360 complaints were about a live caller, against 26% across the country.
- 360unwanted-call complaints filed with the FCC by people in the District of Columbia, October 2025 to September 2026
- 51.9complaints for every 100,000 residents, second of 51 (the whole country: 36.6)
- 843the area code people there named most, on 18 complaints (Charleston, Myrtle Beach and the South Carolina coast)
Source: Federal Communications Commission, CGB - Consumer Complaints Data (dataset 3xyp-aqkj), issue "Unwanted Calls", read on November 4, 2026. Population: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025. All sources.
People in the District of Columbia reported area code 843 most, and 1 of the 10 busiest area codes is in the District of Columbia.
Each row counts the complaints from people in the District of Columbia whose caller ID started with that code. 4 codes in the list are toll-free and belong to no place. Together these 10 codes account for 64 of the 130 complaints that gave a caller ID.
| Rank | Code | Where it is | In DC? | Complaints |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 843 | Charleston, Myrtle Beach and the South Carolina coastIn SC | No, SC | 18 |
| 2 | 202 | Washington, D.C.In DC | Yes | 17 |
| 3 | 833 | Toll-free, tied to no placeNo place | No place | 6 |
| 4 | 855 | Toll-free, tied to no placeNo place | No place | 6 |
| 5 | 844 | Toll-free, tied to no placeNo place | No place | 5 |
| 6 | 866 | Toll-free, tied to no placeNo place | No place | 4 |
| 7 | 206 | Seattle, WAIn WA | No, WA | 2 |
| 8 | 240 | Silver Spring, Frederick and Hagerstown, MDIn MD | No, MD | 2 |
| 9 | 269 | Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, MIIn MI | No, MI | 2 |
| 10 | 304 | West VirginiaIn WV | No, WV | 2 |
Complaints from the District of Columbia peaked at 94 in July 2026, against 13 in March 2026.
October 2025 and November 2025 are shaded and dotted because the FCC file holds only 323 and 16,267 complaints of any kind in those months, against about 29,400 in a usual one.
Complaints from the District of Columbia by month
Unwanted-call complaints filed from the District of Columbia per month, October 2025 to September 2026.
- Complaints filed from the District of Columbia
- Months the FCC file is thin
| Month | All complaints |
|---|---|
| October 2025 | 0 |
| November 2025 | 18 |
| December 2025 | 19 |
| January 2026 | 20 |
| February 2026 | 23 |
| March 2026 | 13 |
| April 2026 | 22 |
| May 2026 | 26 |
| June 2026 | 46 |
| July 2026 | 94 |
| August 2026 | 36 |
| September 2026 | 43 |
Live callers make up 37% of the complaints from the District of Columbia, above the 26% across the country.
The FCC files robocalls, live callers and texts under one issue, "Unwanted Calls". The bar shows how the 360 complaints from the District of Columbia split by what the person says reached them.
What reached people in the District of Columbia
How the 360 complaints from the District of Columbia split.
- Live caller37% · 133 complaints
- Prerecorded call35% · 125 complaints
- Text message12% · 43 complaints
- Kind not stated16% · 59 complaints
Across the country the split is prerecorded call 41%, live caller 26%, text message 15%, kind not stated 17%.
Fewer than half of the US numbers people in the District of Columbia reported carry a DC area code, 19 of 102 (19%), against 50% across the country.
Of 130 complaints that gave a caller ID, 19 named a DC code, 83 a code from another state, 25 a toll-free code and 3 something else, such as a special-use code, a number abroad or a prefix that is not assigned.
Where the numbers people in the District of Columbia reported came from
Where the 130 caller ID numbers from the District of Columbia came from.
The District of Columbia ranks second of 51 for complaints per 100,000 people, between Colorado and Arizona.
Colorado leads the list at 109.8 and North Dakota is last at 13.8. The 50 states and DC together file 36.6.
The District of Columbia next to the states ranked around it
Complaints for every 100,000 residents, the states ranked next to the District of Columbia.
Here is what to do when a spam call reaches you in the District of Columbia.
See why so many calls reach you
Quote forms, data brokers, leaked databases and recycled numbers are the routes callers use to find a number.
Check one number that called you
Paste it into the spam number lookup to see its line type, its carrier and a risk level.
Get a number with a DC area code
Each of these area codes of the District of Columbia has a page that shows how to get a number in it that rings the phone you already carry.
These are the questions people ask about spam calls in the District of Columbia, answered from the data.
360 unwanted-call complaints from October 2025 to September 2026, which is 51.9 for every 100,000 residents. That ranks second among the 50 states and DC per person and 43rd by total count.
843 (Charleston, Myrtle Beach and the South Carolina coast) was named on 18 complaints, 14% of the complaints that gave a caller ID number. Next were 202 (Washington, D.C.) with 17 and 833 (toll-free, tied to no place) with 6.
Not mostly. 19% of the complaints that named a US area code carried a DC code, against 50% across the country. After DC, the area codes named most belonged to South Carolina (19), New York (9) and Florida (8). Caller ID can be faked, so a code shows what appeared on the phone, not where the caller was.
35% were about prerecorded calls, 37% about a live caller and 12% about text messages, and 16% did not say. Across the country the split is 41%, 26% and 15%.
July 2026, with 94 complaints. The quietest full month was March 2026, with 13. October 2025 and November 2025 are left out of that comparison because the FCC file is thin for them.
File a complaint with the FCC's Consumer Help Center at consumercomplaints.fcc.gov. Complaints filed there are the ones counted on this page, listed by the state of the person who filed. To report a scam or fraud call, use ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
A state with more people files more complaints just by being bigger. Dividing by the Census Bureau's July 1, 2025 estimate for the District of Columbia (693,645 residents) puts every state on one scale, which is why the District of Columbia ranks second per person and 43rd by total count.
Every number on this page comes from two public sources.
The complaints come from the FCC.
Federal Communications Commission, CGB - Consumer Complaints Data (dataset 3xyp-aqkj), issue "Unwanted Calls", filed October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026, read from opendata.fcc.gov on November 4, 2026.
The population comes from the Census Bureau.
U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for the United States, Regions, States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (NST-EST2025-POP), Vintage 2025 estimate for July 1, 2025, released January 2026, checked November 2026.
Data: FCC Consumer Complaints, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026, analysed by ExpressNumber. www.expressnumber.com/spam-calls-by-state/district-of-columbia
See every state ranked
All 50 states and DC by complaints per 100,000 people, with the District of Columbia marked.
See which area codes send the most
The 25 busiest local area codes, the toll-free codes and a search of every code in the data.
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