NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Toyota Camry and Honda Accord were the top targets of car thieves last year.

The analysis of 2001 FBI crime data was done by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), a not-for-profit industry group, and released Tuesday. The No. 1 ranking of the Camry and No. 2 ranking for the Accord shouldn't be that much of a surprise. The Accord was the best selling car in the United States last year, while the Camry was No. 2, reversing their ranking of a year before.

But the Ford F-150 pickup, the best selling of all vehicles in the country last year, shows up at 10th on the list. And of the 50 models on the list, only 17, or about a third, are light trucks, a category that includes sport/utility vehicles, pickups and minivans, even though light trucks accounted for 50.9 percent of new vehicle sales, according to sales tracker Autodata.

The Honda Civic, a compact car, was the No. 3 model in terms of theft, followed by the Oldsmobile Cutlass/Supreme/Ciera. It's not until the No. 5 position that one of the popular light trucks cracks the list, with the Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee. The Chevrolet full-size pickup is next on the list, but the Jeep models, the Chevy and the F-150 are the only light trucks to crack top 10.

Given that it doesn't reflect thefts in relation to the overall numbers of the different car models on the road, the report can be misleading, said Xavier Dominicis, spokesman for Toyota. "Of more than 5.5. million Camrys sold since 1983, more than 85 percent of them are still in operation," he said. Therefore, even if auto thieves were choosing cars at random they would be more likely to steal Camrys.

Furthermore, he said, the high number of Camrys being driven makes parts for those cars more valuable. Thieves frequently steal cars and take them apart to sell the parts.

Because the report doesn't provide model years, the impact of improved antitheft technology on new Camrys is also not reflected, according to Dominicis. The top cars stolen in 2001 were actually 1991 Camrys, followed by 1989 and 1990 Camrys, according to a report issued in March by CCC Information Services, a software and technology provider for auto insurers. The CCC report relies on claims data from insurers.

Autodata says 2001 was the first year light truck sales topped car sales, with light trucks accounting for 50.9 percent of new vehicle sales. That means there still are more cars than trucks on the road for thieves to choose from.

The group said 1.2 million vehicles were stolen in 2001, up 5.7 percent from 2000. The average value of a stolen vehicle was $6,646, while the total value of stolen vehicles came to $8.2 billion. The rate of vehicles stolen per 100,000 people was up 4.5 percent, marking the second straight yearly increase after a 10-year decline.

NICB CEO Robert Bryant attributed the continuing rise to a variety of factors, including a difficult U.S. economy that spurs thieves to steal cars and trucks for financial gain and the reassignment of many law enforcement officers from special auto theft task forces, as well as porous international borders that are difficult to monitor for stolen vehicles.

"Vehicle thieves follow market trends and target the most popular vehicles because they provide the best market for stolen vehicle parts and illegal export to other countries," he said. Those who live in or near port or border communities should take special care against vehicle theft. he added.

Bryant said there are different models preferred by thieves in different markets. American sedans are more attractive to thieves in Chicago, he said, while pickups are more frequently stolen in Dallas and Japanese models in the Los Angeles area.