Burlington, NC has a F safety grade (3/100) with a violent crime rate of 952 per 100,000, 171% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Burlington, NC Crime Rate & Safety
At 60,906 residents, Burlington is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against NC and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Burlington, NC is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 171% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Burlington, NC shows violent crime at 952.3 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,085.1 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 171% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade F from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
F safety grade
952.3/100K violent
3085.1/100K property
+171% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Burlington, NC
Position in the state cohort
Burlington reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina cities
At 952.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Burlington ranks 15 of 206 — above 191 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +261.4% against the cohort median of 263.5. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Comparable rate records
Burlington's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Burlington's 952.3 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Kinston (958.6), Salisbury (960.0), Greensboro (923.7), Pembroke (916.8). These are same-year agency submissions that pass the same completeness screen, not a claim that the cities have identical conditions. They make the cohort position above checkable against named records instead of a generic state average.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 23.6% of the 2,459 Part I offenses reported in Burlington for 2024, against a median of 11.4% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 12.2 points. Offense mix is shaped by which agencies report and how incidents are classified as well as by the underlying offenses, so it describes the reported record rather than a settled difference in conditions.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 1039.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 952.3 in 2024 (-8.4%). The highest observed value was 1039.9 in 2020 and the lowest 829.0 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Burlington's FBI UCR Table 8 municipal row. Per-100,000 rates use the reporting-year population on that row; cities that fail the completeness test stay out of rate rankings. A citywide figure rarely describes any single neighbourhood inside the municipal boundary.
On a large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Burlington's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 30.8 Census sq mi, Burlington logged 61 property and 18.8 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Burlington leans on larceny-theft at 55% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,595.
Violent offenses are 24% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (30.8 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Property rate moved most (2023→2024)
Property Crime Rate
-19%
3808.4 → 3085.1/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+12.1%
849.5 → 952.3/100K
Property offenses lead Burlington's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
1,879
3085.1
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
1,345
2208.3
-
-
Burglary
315
517.2
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
219
359.6
-
-
Arson
26
42.7
-
-
Violent Crime
580
952.3
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
458
752
-
-
Robbery
70
114.9
-
-
Rape
48
78.8
-
-
Murder
4
6.6
-
-
Burlington Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Burlington property crime rate trend
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Burlington Police Department
Reporting agency for Burlington NIBRS-participating
Burlington Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Burlington's 2,459 reported offenses (5-year span 2020-2024).
This agency reports via NIBRS, the incident-based system that captures more detail per offense (multiple crimes per incident, victim/offender data) than the older summary counts.
Similar-Size Cities in North Carolina
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the North Carolina cities closest to Burlington in population. Their populations run from 47,436 to 65,752, against 60,906 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Burlington at 952.3/100K violent and 3,085.1/100K property - matched below outside North Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Burlington reported 580 violent crimes and 1,879 property crimes, for a total of 2,459 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Burlington?
From 2023 to 2024, Burlington's violent crime rate increased by 12.1%, and the property crime rate decreased by 19%.
What is the most common crime in Burlington?
The most common crime type in Burlington is larceny-theft, accounting for 54.7% of all reported crimes (1,345 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Burlington's rates come from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, CIUS Table 8, vintage 2024.
Incomplete reporters stay out of rate rankings. Cross-check population with Census ACS; state UCR programs for statewide context. Primary verify links: FBI.gov UCR, Census QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (large city): informational crime rates only - not legal, insurance, or personal-safety advice. Source: FBI UCR. Ask a qualified professional before acting.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Burlington, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.