Hillsborough, NC is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a D PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 7% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Hillsborough, NC shows violent crime at 378 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 4,526 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 7% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade D from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
D safety grade
378/100K violent
4526/100K property
+7% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Hillsborough, NC
Comparable rate records
Hillsborough's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Hillsborough's 378.0 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Edenton (378.2), Belmont (382.8), Southern Pines (368.6), Chadbourn (390.1). 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
Hillsborough sits mid-pack among comparable North Carolina cities
At 378.0 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Hillsborough ranks 72 of 206 — above 134 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +43.5% 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.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft dominates the property total more than it does across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 89.2% of reported property offenses in Hillsborough, against a cohort median of 74.5%. The remainder is burglary (22) and motor vehicle theft (26). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 7.7% of the 480 Part I offenses reported in Hillsborough for 2024, against a median of 11.6% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 3.9 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 415.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 378.0 in 2024 (-8.9%). The highest observed value was 521.2 in 2021 and the lowest 295.6 in 2023. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Hillsborough'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.
Hillsborough's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 5.8 Census sq mi, Hillsborough logged 76.9 property and 6.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Hillsborough's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (82% of 480 offenses; mix index 6,858).
Violent offenses are only 8% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (5.8 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
+27.9%
295.6 → 378/100K
Property Crime Rate
-2.6%
4647.4 → 4526/100K
Property offenses lead Hillsborough's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
443
4526
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
395
4035.6
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
26
265.6
-
-
Burglary
22
224.8
-
-
Arson
0
0
-
-
Violent Crime
37
378
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
28
286.1
-
-
Robbery
5
51.1
-
-
Murder
2
20.4
-
-
Rape
2
20.4
-
-
Hillsborough Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Hillsborough 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
Hillsborough: 378 violent, 4526 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Aberdeen: 245 violent, 3267 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Gibsonville: 177 violent, 925 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Morehead City: 361 violent, 3072 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Washington: 520 violent, 3380 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Zebulon: 328 violent, 2453 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Oxford: 842 violent, 3587 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Mount Airy: 312 violent, 2436 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Rockingham: 615 violent, 3836 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Hillsborough Police Department
Reporting agency for Hillsborough NIBRS-participating
Hillsborough Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Hillsborough's 480 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 Hillsborough in population. Their populations run from 8,786 to 10,590, against 9,788 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Hillsborough reported 37 violent crimes and 443 property crimes, for a total of 480 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Hillsborough?
From 2023 to 2024, Hillsborough's violent crime rate increased by 27.9%, and the property crime rate decreased by 2.6%.
What is the most common crime in Hillsborough?
The most common crime type in Hillsborough is larceny-theft, accounting for 82.3% of all reported crimes (395 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Hillsborough 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 Hillsborough, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.