Durham, NC has a F safety grade (8/100) with a violent crime rate of 619 per 100,000, 76% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · very large city
Durham, NC Crime Rate & Safety
At 300,208 residents, Durham 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.
Durham, NC carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 76% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Durham, NC shows violent crime at 619.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,799.7 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 76% 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
619.2/100K violent
3799.7/100K property
+76% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Durham, NC
Comparable rate records
Durham's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Durham's 619.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Rockingham (614.6), Bryson City (602.0), Reidsville (596.5), Kings Mountain (647.6). 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
Durham reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina cities
At 619.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Durham ranks 37 of 206 — above 169 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +135.0% 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 861.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 619.2 in 2024 (-28.1%). The highest observed value was 861.3 in 2020 and the lowest 619.2 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Durham'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.
Durham's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 118.8 Census sq mi, Durham logged 96 property and 15.6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Durham's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (62% of 13,266 offenses; mix index 4,200).
Violent offenses are only 14% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (118.8 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-3%
638.6 → 619.2/100K
Property Crime Rate
+0.3%
3789.2 → 3799.7/100K
Property offenses lead Durham's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
11,407
3799.7
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
8,182
2725.4
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
1,873
623.9
-
-
Burglary
1,352
450.4
-
-
Arson
35
11.7
-
-
Violent Crime
1,859
619.2
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
1,167
388.7
-
-
Robbery
483
160.9
-
-
Rape
172
57.3
-
-
Murder
37
12.3
-
-
Durham Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Durham 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
Durham Police Department
Reporting agency for Durham NIBRS-participating
Durham Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Durham's 13,266 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 Durham in population. Their populations run from 111,922 to 488,085, against 300,208 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Durham at 619.2/100K violent and 3,799.7/100K property - matched below outside North Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Durham reported 1,859 violent crimes and 11,407 property crimes, for a total of 13,266 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Durham?
From 2023 to 2024, Durham's violent crime rate decreased by 3%, and the property crime rate increased by 0.3%.
What is the most common crime in Durham?
The most common crime type in Durham is larceny-theft, accounting for 61.7% of all reported crimes (8,182 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Durham'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 Durham, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.