PlainRecalls

U.S. Recall Counts by Year, 2017–2023

Annual recall counts from 2017 to 2023 across the FDA, CPSC and NHTSA. Issuance fell to 6,617 recalls in 2023; the peak was 2018 (7,795).

Research period:

Research question

How did annual recall counts change from 2017 to 2023 across the three federal agencies in the PlainRecalls index, the FDA, the CPSC, and the NHTSA?

Methodology

Recall counts are read live from the PlainRecalls SQLite database at page-render time. The yearly series groups the recalls table by SUBSTR(date_reported, 1, 4) - the four-digit reporting year, and counts rows. The agency split runs the same grouping bounded to 2017–2023 and joins each agency code to its display name. No projections, weighting, or per-capita adjustment are applied: these are raw counts of distinct recall events.

Recalls per year, 2017–2023

Distinct recall events across the FDA, CPSC and NHTSA (of 101,704 total in the index)

5,0006,0007,0008,000 2017201820192020202120222023 6,617

Recalls by issuing agency, 2017–2023

Distinct recall events by federal source over the period

1. FDA Medical Devices192002. FDA Food Safety132983. FDA Drug Safety93044. NHTSA28095. CPSC1871

Findings

Across 2017–2023 the index records 46,482 recalls from the three agencies. Annual counts ran from 5,168 in 2021 to 7,795 in 2018. In 2017 there were 7,536 recalls; by 2023 the figure was 6,617. That is 919 fewer than at the start of the period.

The early years carried the highest volumes: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023 each exceeded 6,000 recalls. Counts then stepped down, with 2021 the lowest year in the window. Year-to-year movement here reflects how much the agencies detected and announced, not a clean measure of how many products were unsafe.

By agency

FDA Medical Devices accounts for the largest share of the 2017–2023 total, with 19,200 recalls. The full split:

  • FDA Medical Devices: 19,200 recalls
  • FDA Food Safety: 13,298 recalls
  • FDA Drug Safety: 9,304 recalls
  • NHTSA: 2,809 recalls
  • CPSC: 1,871 recalls

FDA recalls span three programs in the index, food safety, drug safety, and medical devices, which together dominate the count. Vehicle recalls come from the NHTSA and consumer-product recalls from the CPSC. The index holds no USDA FSIS records, so meat and poultry recalls do not appear in any of these totals.

Coverage

Figures are read from the PlainRecalls SQLite database when the page loads, grouped by the four-digit reporting year in each recall's date_reported field. Because the numbers are computed at render time, the prose and the charts always agree with the underlying table. The index normalizes each agency's recall notices into one schema; each recall links back to its official agency page.

What this analysis cannot tell us

These are counts of recall events, not units affected or severity, one recall covering millions of units counts the same as one covering a single batch. Year-to-year swings reflect detection and enforcement activity as much as underlying product safety. The index covers FDA, CPSC, and NHTSA recalls only; it holds no USDA FSIS records, so meat and poultry recalls are out of scope. Counts depend on each agency's reporting cadence and may lag the most recent weeks.

Related data

Sources