Carrboro, NC has a B safety grade (65/100) with a violent crime rate of 181 per 100,000, 49% below the national average.

FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city

Carrboro, NC Crime Rate & Safety

Carrboro (21,045 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then NC and national benchmarks.

Data updated 2026-09-05

My saved cities Subscribe to annual updates About this data
B
Safety grade
1,929.2
Property / 100K
180.6
Violent / 100K
21K
Population

Carrboro, NC is close to the national middle for violent crime, and earns a B PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 49% below the U.S. average

According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Carrboro, NC shows violent crime at 180.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,929.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 49% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade B from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.

  • B safety grade
  • 180.6/100K violent
  • 1929.2/100K property
  • -49% vs U.S.

What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Carrboro, NC

Comparable rate records

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

The nearest comparable 2024 records to Carrboro's 180.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Gibsonville (176.7), Matthews (184.6), Woodfin (174.3), Cherryville (173.4). 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.

Position in the state cohort

Carrboro sits mid-pack among comparable North Carolina cities

At 180.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Carrboro ranks 131 of 206 — above 75 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -36.7% against the cohort median of 285.1. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.

2020–2024 direction

The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower

Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 215.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 180.6 in 2024 (-16.1%). The highest observed value was 322.2 in 2021 and the lowest 180.6 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.

Offense mix

The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort

Violent offenses are 8.6% of the 444 Part I offenses reported in Carrboro for 2024, against a median of 11.6% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 3.0 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 Carrboro'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.

Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.

Carrboro's 2024 municipal footprint

Across 6.5 Census sq mi, Carrboro logged 62.6 property and 5.9 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.

Carrboro's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (66% of 444 offenses; mix index 4,698).

Violent offenses are only 9% of the municipal total - a property-led book.

Carrboro offense mix (2024)

Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (6.5 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.

Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)

Violent Crime Rate
-34.8%
277 → 180.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
-17.5%
2338.2 → 1929.2/100K

Property offenses lead Carrboro's 2024 record

Offense Count Rate /100K
Property Crime 406 1929.2
Larceny-Theft 292 1387.5
Burglary 60 285.1
Motor Vehicle Theft 54 256.6
Arson 2 9.5
Violent Crime 38 180.6
Aggravated Assault 28 133
Rape 5 23.8
Robbery 4 19
Murder 1 4.8

Carrboro Crime Trend (2020-2024)

Carrboro property crime rate trend

Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR

Property crime rate (2024)
1,929.2/100K 17.5% vs 2023
1,6001,8002,0002,2002,400 20202021202220232024 1,929

Carrboro violent crime rate trend

Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR

Violent crime rate (2024)
180.6/100K 34.8% vs 2023
150200250300350 20202021202220232024 181
Year Coverage Population Violent Rate Property Rate
2020 Comparable 21,377 215.2 1735.5
2021 Comparable 21,413 322.2 1933.4
2022 Comparable 21,190 273.7 1731.9
2023 Comparable 21,298 277 2338.2
2024 Comparable 21,045 180.6 1929.2

How Carrboro sits among NC peers

POP-MIDCOHORT-SIZEVIOL-LOWPROP-HIGHQUAD-LHGRADE-BNIBRSUCR-2024
Carrboro 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. Carrboro vs. similar-size NC cities, violent vs. property crime 81 1,811 Violent crime per 100K → 818 10,739 Property crime per 100K → Carrboro SAFEST HIGHEST CRIME PROPERTY-HEAVY VIOLENT-HEAVY Safety grade A / B C D / F
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages

Carrboro Police Department

Reporting agency for Carrboro NIBRS-participating

Carrboro Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Carrboro's 444 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 Carrboro in population. Their populations run from 19,064 to 22,028, against 21,045 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.

Carrboro's closest NC violent-rate matches

Carrboro sits at 180.6/100K violent (grade B); the North Carolina cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.

Out-of-state peers for Carrboro

Carrboro at 180.6/100K violent and 1,929.2/100K property - matched below outside North Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).

More about Carrboro's 2024 record

How many crimes were reported in Carrboro?

In 2024, Carrboro reported 38 violent crimes and 406 property crimes, for a total of 444 reported offenses.

Is crime increasing or decreasing in Carrboro?

From 2023 to 2024, Carrboro's violent crime rate decreased by 34.8%, and the property crime rate decreased by 17.5%.

What is the most common crime in Carrboro?

The most common crime type in Carrboro is larceny-theft, accounting for 65.8% of all reported crimes (292 incidents in 2024).

Mid-size read: Carrboro figures are FBI UCR CIUS Table 8 (vintage 2024), population-adjusted per 100,000.

Denominators are the reporting-year population on the municipal row. Incomplete years are dropped from rankings. Confirm at FBI Crime Data Explorer and Census.gov QuickFacts.

Disclaimer (mid-size municipal): figures are informational, not advice. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is the source. Consult a professional before decisions.

Federal sources for this mid-size row
Cite, share, or save this city record

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

Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)

Put this to use

Put the Carrboro, NC FBI UCR record to work: compare peers, open the state atlas, or look up another city.

A citywide UCR rate is a starting point, not a neighbourhood verdict: read the full profile and the year coverage notes before drawing conclusions.

Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Carrboro is scored in the mid-size municipal band (21,045 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.