Gastonia, NC has a F safety grade (0/100) with a violent crime rate of 850 per 100,000, 141% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Gastonia, NC Crime Rate & Safety
At 85,112 residents, Gastonia is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against NC and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Gastonia, NC carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 141% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Gastonia, NC shows violent crime at 849.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,514.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 141% 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
849.5/100K violent
3514.2/100K property
+141% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Gastonia, NC
Position in the state cohort
Gastonia reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina cities
At 849.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Gastonia ranks 21 of 206 — above 185 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +222.4% 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
Gastonia's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Gastonia's 849.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Oxford (841.5), Red Springs (885.8), Winston-Salem (809.7), Roanoke Rapids (896.7). 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 19.5% of the 3,714 Part I offenses reported in Gastonia for 2024, against a median of 11.4% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 8.0 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 927.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 849.5 in 2024 (-8.5%). The highest observed value was 927.9 in 2020 and the lowest 792.1 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Gastonia'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 large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Gastonia's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 53.7 Census sq mi, Gastonia logged 55.7 property and 13.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Gastonia leans on larceny-theft at 59% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,998.
Violent offenses are 19% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (53.7 sq mi); 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
-9.7%
3893 → 3514.2/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+4.5%
813.2 → 849.5/100K
Property offenses lead Gastonia's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
2,991
3514.2
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
2,202
2587.2
-
-
Burglary
436
512.3
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
353
414.7
-
-
Arson
22
25.8
-
-
Violent Crime
723
849.5
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
582
683.8
-
-
Robbery
105
123.4
-
-
Rape
32
37.6
-
-
Murder
4
4.7
-
-
Gastonia Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Gastonia 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 averages
Gastonia Police Department
Reporting agency for Gastonia NIBRS-participating
Gastonia Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Gastonia's 3,714 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 Gastonia in population. Their populations run from 55,872 to 111,922, against 85,112 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Gastonia at 849.5/100K violent and 3,514.2/100K property - matched below outside North Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Gastonia reported 723 violent crimes and 2,991 property crimes, for a total of 3,714 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Gastonia?
From 2023 to 2024, Gastonia's violent crime rate increased by 4.5%, and the property crime rate decreased by 9.7%.
What is the most common crime in Gastonia?
The most common crime type in Gastonia is larceny-theft, accounting for 59.3% of all reported crimes (2,202 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Gastonia'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 (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 Gastonia, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.