North Carolina's crime rate
There were 286,231 crimes reported in North Carolina in 2019, the most recent year crime data is available. Adjusted for population, North Carolina's crime rate is 2,729 crimes per 100,000 residents.
How does North Carolina compare?
Crime is more common in North Carolina than it is on average nationwide. By comparison, the national crime rate of 2,489 per 100,000 people is 9% lower. Of the 50 states, 17 have a higher crime rate than North Carolina.
Crime rates nationwide range from 1,361 per 100,000 in Maine to 3,945 per 100,000 in New Mexico, the states with the lowest and highest crime rates, respectively.
Here are the crime rates for all 50 states.
What types of crimes are being committed?
The FBI's crime rate includes seven crime categories: three property crimes -- larceny, burglary, and motor vehicle theft, and four violent crimes -- aggravated assault, robbery, rape, and murder.
Property crime
The vast majority of crimes in America are property crimes, accounting for 85% of total crimes in 2019. This share was roughly the same in North Carolina, with property crimes accounting for 86% of all crimes reported in the state.
There were 247,236 property crimes reported in North Carolina in 2019, or 2,357 per 100,000 residents. This is higher than the national rate of 2,110 property crimes per 100,000 people and is the 18th highest rate of the 50 states.
Larceny
Larceny is by far the most common type of property crime. The 5,086,096 reported incidents nationwide in 2019 accounted for 73% of all property crime. North Carolina's rate of 1,666 reported larceny incidents per 100,000 residents is higher than the nationwide rate of 1,550 per 100,000 and is the 22nd highest among states.
Burglary
An estimated 54,447 break-ins were reported in North Carolina in 2019, or 519 per 100,000 state residents -- the eighth highest rate among states. For reference, there were an estimated 1,117,696 break-ins nationwide, or 341 break-ins per 100,000 people.
Motor vehicle theft
Across the U.S., there were 721,885 reported motor vehicle thefts in 2019, a rate of 220 per 100,000 people. North Carolina's rate of 172 motor vehicle thefts per 100,000 residents was lower than this national rate and the 19th lowest rate compared to all states.
Violent crime
Violent crimes make up a small share of crimes nationwide. In North Carolina, violent crimes account for 14% of total crimes, versus 15% nationwide.
While North Carolina has the 33rd lowest total crime rate of all states, it has the 28th lowest violent crime rate. The state’s violent crime rate of 372 per 100,000 people is slightly lower than the national rate of 379 per 100,000. There were 38,995 violent crimes reported to North Carolina law enforcement agencies in 2019.
Aggravated assault
Aggravated assault is by far the most common type of violent crime. Nationwide, there were 821,182 aggravated assaults in 2019, accounting for 66% of violent crimes across the country. In North Carolina, 27,517 aggravated assaults were reported in 2019. North Carolina's rate of aggravated assault of 262 per 100,000 people is slightly higher than the national rate of 250 per 100,000 and is the 19th highest of all states.
Robbery
Robbery is the second most common type of violent crime in America. There were 7,599 robberies reported in North Carolina in 2019, or 72 robberies for every 100,000 residents. This is lower than the national rate of 82 robberies per 100,000 people, and the 21st highest robbery rate among states.
Rape
There were 3,247 reported rapes in 2019 in North Carolina. The state's rate of rape of 31.0 per 100,000 residents is lower than the national rate of 42.6 per 100,000 people. North Carolina has the fifth lowest rate of rape.
Murder
In 2019, there were 632 murders reported to law enforcement in North Carolina. The state’s murder rate of 6.0 per 100,000 residents is higher than the national rate of 5.0 per 100,000. North Carolina's murder rate is the 14th highest in the country.
Where are these crimes being committed?
Because crime is influenced by local circumstances, crime levels vary considerably within each state. Often a state’s dense urban areas will have higher crime rates than its rural areas. Even in a state with an exceptionally low crime rate, there is often at least one area where crime rates exceed the nation.
City with the highest crime rate in North Carolina
The city with the highest total crime rate in North Carolina is Pineville, with a crime rate of 13,193 per 100,000 residents. This excludes cities with a population below 5,000 and cities with incomplete FBI crime reports.
While the city may have the highest total crime rate in the state, the rate is driven by property crime. Therefore, Pineville is likely less dangerous than other cities in the state where more violent crimes are committed.
The most dangerous city in the state is Wadesboro. This city has the highest violent crime rate in North Carolina, at 1,894 per 100,000 residents, more than five times the statewide rate.
Crime over time
National historical trend
The FBI provides access to crime data by state dating back to 1960. This 60-year span, can be divided into three periods. Crime skyrocketed between 1960 and 1980, with the crime rate more than tripling in just 20 years from 1,887 crimes per 100,000 Americans to 5,950 crimes per 100,000 Americans.
Crime remained high in the 1980s and reached its second highest peak in 1991. Since that year, crime has fallen steadily nationwide, reaching its current rate of 2,489 per 100,000, a 58% decline in 28 years.
North Carolina's historical trend
In 1960, North Carolina's crime rate was 1,180 crimes per 100,000 residents. Crime peaked in the state in 1991 at 5,889 per 100,000, an increase of 399%.
Crime changes 2014-2019
Over the five years since 2014, the nationwide total crime rate has decreased by 15.2%, but this change varied dramatically between states. In New Hampshire, for example, the crime rate decreased by 37.0%, the largest decline of any state. The largest increase was in Alaska, where crime rose by 11.3% between 2014 and 2019.
With a decrease of 14.8%, North Carolina's crime rate has fallen slower than the country as a whole. The crime rate declined in 48 states over this time period, and in most of them, it declined faster than in North Carolina.
How North Carolina has compared to other states historically
Since 1960, North Carolina has had periods of both relatively high and relatively low crime rates compared to the other states. Also, the state's crime rate ranking has varied much more than most states since 1960. In fact, North Carolina has been among the 10 states with the highest crime rates and the 10 states with the lowest crime rates over the time period, one of only six states where this was true.
All cities in North Carolina
Here are all North Carolina cities ranked by total crime rate. For a city to be included, it must have a complete 2019 FBI crime report and population of 5,000 or more. Click any bar or city name to see more about crime in that city.
Click here to see a list of all city crime pages.
Click here to see a list of all state crime pages.
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