2-year job category analysis 
All 50 states + D.C.
Executive summary
KeyMe Locksmiths analyzed nearly 58,000 locksmith service jobs dispatched over a two-year period,
across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., to identify the most common reasons Americans call a locksmith. Each job was classified into one of five categories: Vehicle Lockout, Residential, Vehicle Booking, Commercial, or Other.
The result is one of the more lopsided findings in this research series: the overwhelming majority of locksmith calls nationwide are for a single reason - someone locked out of their car. That pattern holds with remarkable consistency across most of the country, with one striking regional exception that flips
the script entirely.
Key Findings
Vehicle Lockout is, by a wide margin, the single most common reason Americans call a locksmith Accounting for 89.0% of all service calls nationwide, more than eight times every other category combined.
Residential calls rank a distant second nationally at just 7.1%, followed by Vehicle Booking (2.2%), Commercial (1.5%), and a small residual Other category (0.1%).
Iowa, Minnesota, and Kentucky show the most concentrated Vehicle Lockout demand, with 98–99.5% of all calls in those states falling into that single category.
New Jersey is a dramatic outlier. Only 23.9% of its calls are Vehicle Lockout — the single-most car-dependent category nationwide — while 63.0% are Residential, by far the highest share of any state.
Virginia and Wisconsin are the two highest-volume states overall, each logging more than 3,600 locksmith calls over the two-year period — ahead of far more populous states like Illinois and Texas.
“It's the most basic thing that can go wrong with a car, and it happens to almost everyone eventually. You set your keys down for a second, the door locks, and you're stuck. That single moment accounts for nearly 9 out of every 10 locksmith calls we track nationwide.”
KeyMe Locksmiths Analyst
Read the full white paper
Explore the Complete 8-Page Analysis
The complete 8-page analysis includes the full category breakdown, all ten top states, regional detail, the New Jersey deep dive, consumer insights, FAQ, and methodology.
