Carolina Beach, NC has a C safety grade (51/100) with a violent crime rate of 333 per 100,000, 6% below the national average.

FBI UCR 2024 Per-capita rates FBI UCR + NIBRS

Carolina Beach, NC Crime Rate & Safety

Carolina Beach is a small municipal reporter (6,917 on the UCR row). Per-100,000 violent and property rates are shown with NC and U.S. context.

My saved cities About this data
C
Safety grade
Average
1850.5
Property / 100K
332.5
Violent / 100K
7K
Population
+8%
property vs U.S.

Carolina Beach, NC carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 6% below the U.S. average

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Carolina Beach, NC shows violent crime at 332.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,850.5 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 6% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade C from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.

  • C safety grade
  • 332.5/100K violent
  • 1850.5/100K property
  • -6% vs U.S.

The verdict

Carolina Beach earns a C safety grade: violent crime runs 6% below the U.S. average, placing it higher-crime than most U.S. cities.

C
PlainCrime safety grade
-6%
violent crime vs. U.S. average
26th
percentile of 7,769 U.S. cities
1,850.5
property crimes per 100K

Based on 23 reported violent incidents in a population of 6,917. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.

What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Carolina Beach, NC

Small-count caution

The violent-crime count is small enough that the derived rate is unstable

Carolina Beach reported 23 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 6,917. At this volume one additional or one fewer report moves the per-100,000 rate noticeably, so the figure is better read as a data point than as a precise measurement, and year-to-year swings here are expected.

Comparable rate records

Carolina Beach's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort

The nearest comparable 2024 records to Carolina Beach's 332.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Thomasville (330.6), Warsaw (328.7), Zebulon (328.3), Rowland (337.1). 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.

2020–2024 direction

The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower

Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 463.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 332.5 in 2024 (-28.2%). The highest observed value was 466.0 in 2022 and the lowest 332.5 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.

Position in the state cohort

Carolina Beach sits mid-pack among comparable North Carolina cities

At 332.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Carolina Beach ranks 84 of 206 — above 122 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +26.2% 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.

Offense mix

Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix

Violent offenses are 15.2% of the 151 Part I offenses reported in Carolina Beach for 2024, against a median of 11.4% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 3.8 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.

Property counts dominate Carolina Beach'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.

Based on 23 reported violent incidents in a population of 6,917. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.

Small-city offense counts above are voluntary UCR submissions, not neighbourhood advice. Year-to-year swings can look large when the population base is modest.

Property rate moved most (2023→2024)

Property Crime Rate
-17.8%
2252.3 → 1850.5/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-15.2%
392.3 → 332.5/100K

Property offenses lead Carolina Beach's 2024 record

Offense Count Rate /100K
Property Crime 128 1850.5
Larceny-Theft 104 1503.5
Burglary 15 216.9
Motor Vehicle Theft 9 130.1
Arson 1 14.5
Violent Crime 23 332.5
Aggravated Assault 16 231.3
Rape 5 72.3
Murder 1 14.5
Robbery 1 14.5

Carolina Beach Crime Trend (2020-2024)

Carolina Beach property crime rate trend

Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR

Property crime rate (2024)
1,850.5/100K 17.8% vs 2023
1,5002,0002,5003,000 20202021202220232024 1,851

Carolina Beach violent crime rate trend

Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR

Violent crime rate (2024)
332.5/100K 15.2% vs 2023
300350400450500 20202021202220232024 333
Year Coverage Population Violent Rate Property Rate
2020 Comparable 6,479 463 2886.2
2021 Comparable 6,437 403.9 2035.1
2022 Comparable 6,652 466 2270
2023 Comparable 6,882 392.3 2252.3
2024 Comparable 6,917 332.5 1850.5

How Carolina Beach sits among NC peers

Carolina Beach vs. similar-size NC cities, violent vs. property crime. X axis violent crime per 100K, Y axis property crime per 100K, split by the national averages. 9 cities; the anchor is ringed. Carolina Beach vs. similar-size NC cities, violent vs. property crime 70 1,133 Violent crime per 100K → 1,078 5,713 Property crime per 100K → Carolina Beach SAFEST HIGHEST CRIME Safety grade A / B C D / F
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages

Reporting Agency

Carolina Beach Police Department NIBRS-participating

Carolina Beach's crime figures on this page originate from Carolina Beach Police Department's submission to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

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 Carolina Beach in population. Their populations run from 6,225 to 7,817, against 6,917 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.

Similar violent-crime rates in North Carolina

These North Carolina cities report the closest violent-crime rates to Carolina Beach's 332.5/100K (same FBI UCR vintage rules; size peers above are excluded so the two lists stay distinct).

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the crime rate in Carolina Beach, NC?
Carolina Beach has a violent crime rate of 332.5 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 1850.5 per 100,000, based on 2024 FBI UCR data.
Is Carolina Beach, NC safe?
Carolina Beach receives a safety grade of C (Average), with a safety score of 51/100. The violent crime rate is 6% below the national average and 9% below the North Carolina average.
What is the population of Carolina Beach, NC?
The reporting population for Carolina Beach is 6,917 as of 2024.
How many crimes were reported in Carolina Beach?
In 2024, Carolina Beach reported 23 violent crimes and 128 property crimes, for a total of 151 reported offenses.
How do Carolina Beach's reported offenses compare with its population?
In 2024, Carolina Beach recorded about one reported offense per 46 residents and one reported violent offense per 301 residents. These ratios count reported offenses, not distinct victims, and are not a person's probability of victimization.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Carolina Beach?
From 2023 to 2024, Carolina Beach's violent crime rate decreased by 15.2%, and the property crime rate decreased by 17.8%.
What is the most common crime in Carolina Beach?
The most common crime type in Carolina Beach is larceny-theft, accounting for 68.9% of all reported crimes (104 incidents in 2024).

Small-city read: Carolina Beach is sourced from FBI UCR Table 8 for 2024; rates use that row's population.

Small-city rows use the same per-100,000 formula; a few unreported years can leave gaps in the trend table. Verify the agency's submission on FBI.gov UCR.

Disclaimer (small city): UCR counts here are informational only. They are not a victimization probability. Source: FBI UCR Program.

Federal sources for this small-city row

Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Carolina Beach, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.

Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)

Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Carolina Beach is scored as a small-city UCR reporter (6,917 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.