Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC has a F safety grade (0/100) with a violent crime rate of 733 per 100,000, 108% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · very large city
Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC Crime Rate & Safety
At 1,003,130 residents, Charlotte-Mecklenburg is a very large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against NC and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 108% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC shows violent crime at 733.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,705.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 108% 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
733.2/100K violent
3705.3/100K property
+108% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC
Position in the state cohort
Charlotte-Mecklenburg reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina cities
At 733.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Charlotte-Mecklenburg ranks 29 of 206 — above 177 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +178.3% 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
Charlotte-Mecklenburg's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Charlotte-Mecklenburg's 733.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Pineville (723.7), Benson (748.6), Wilson's Mills (754.7), Rocky Mount (765.4). 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.
Share of the state cohort
Charlotte-Mecklenburg carries a large share of the reporting cohort’s total offenses
The 44,524 Part I offenses reported here are 23.5% of the 189,604 reported across all 206 comparable North Carolina cities in 2024. A city this large moves the statewide municipal total on its own, so state-level changes should be read against its population of 1,003,130 rather than as a uniform shift.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 16.5% of the 44,524 Part I offenses reported in Charlotte-Mecklenburg for 2024, against a median of 11.4% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 5.1 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 837.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 733.2 in 2024 (-12.4%). The highest observed value was 837.1 in 2020 and the lowest 725.8 in 2023. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Charlotte-Mecklenburg'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 very large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg's 2024 municipal footprint
Charlotte-Mecklenburg leans on larceny-theft at 57% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,777.
Violent offenses are 17% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (when validated); 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
-3.9%
3853.7 → 3705.3/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+1%
725.8 → 733.2/100K
Property offenses lead Charlotte-Mecklenburg's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
37,169
3705.3
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
25,261
2518.2
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
7,624
760
-
-
Burglary
4,284
427.1
-
-
Arson
164
16.3
-
-
Violent Crime
7,355
733.2
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
5,688
567
-
-
Robbery
1,308
130.4
-
-
Rape
250
24.9
-
-
Murder
109
10.9
-
-
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Charlotte-Mecklenburg property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department
Reporting agency for Charlotte-Mecklenburg NIBRS-participating
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Charlotte-Mecklenburg's 44,524 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 Charlotte-Mecklenburg in population. Their populations run from 117,629 to 488,085, against 1,003,130 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg at 733.2/100K violent and 3,705.3/100K property - matched below outside North Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
How many crimes were reported in Charlotte-Mecklenburg?
In 2024, Charlotte-Mecklenburg reported 7,355 violent crimes and 37,169 property crimes, for a total of 44,524 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Charlotte-Mecklenburg?
From 2023 to 2024, Charlotte-Mecklenburg's violent crime rate increased by 1%, and the property crime rate decreased by 3.9%.
What is the most common crime in Charlotte-Mecklenburg?
The most common crime type in Charlotte-Mecklenburg is larceny-theft, accounting for 56.7% of all reported crimes (25,261 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Charlotte-Mecklenburg'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 (very 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 Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.