Forest City, NC is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 50% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Forest City, NC shows violent crime at 527.7 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 5,290.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 50% 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
527.7/100K violent
5290.2/100K property
+50% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Forest City, NC
Comparable rate records
Forest City's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Forest City's 527.7 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Stantonsburg (528.4), Beulaville (524.0), Washington (520.0), Sylva (519.1). 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.
Position in the state cohort
Forest City reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina cities
At 527.7 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Forest City ranks 47 of 206 — above 159 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +100.3% 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 687.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 527.7 in 2024 (-23.2%). The highest observed value was 703.6 in 2021 and the lowest 527.7 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Forest City'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.
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.
Forest City's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 8.6 Census sq mi, Forest City logged 45.5 property and 4.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Forest City's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (66% of 430 offenses; mix index 4,914).
Violent offenses are only 9% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (8.6 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Both rates shifted (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-20.8%
666.6 → 527.7/100K
Property Crime Rate
-19%
6529.7 → 5290.2/100K
Property offenses lead Forest City's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
391
5290.2
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
284
3842.5
-
-
Burglary
96
1298.9
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
11
148.8
-
-
Arson
3
40.6
-
-
Violent Crime
39
527.7
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
28
378.8
-
-
Rape
7
94.7
-
-
Robbery
4
54.1
-
-
Murder
0
0
-
-
Forest City Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Forest City 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 averagesRead the chart as a list
Forest City: 528 violent, 5290 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Marion: 242 violent, 3201 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Selma: 1049 violent, 2388 property per 100,000 (grade F)
King: 78 violent, 1198 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Kill Devil Hills: 218 violent, 1497 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Carolina Beach: 333 violent, 1851 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Boiling Spring Lakes: 290 violent, 1434 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Angier: 152 violent, 835 property per 100,000 (grade A)
Woodfin: 174 violent, 1083 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Forest City Police Department
Reporting agency for Forest City NIBRS-participating
Forest City Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Forest City's 430 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 Forest City in population. Their populations run from 6,903 to 8,031, against 7,391 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Forest City reported 39 violent crimes and 391 property crimes, for a total of 430 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Forest City?
From 2023 to 2024, Forest City's violent crime rate decreased by 20.8%, and the property crime rate decreased by 19%.
What is the most common crime in Forest City?
The most common crime type in Forest City is larceny-theft, accounting for 66.0% of all reported crimes (284 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Forest City 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.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Forest City, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.