Kinston, NC is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 172% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Kinston, NC shows violent crime at 958.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 4,964.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 172% 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
958.6/100K violent
4964.2/100K property
+172% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Kinston, NC
Position in the state cohort
Kinston reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina cities
At 958.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Kinston ranks 14 of 206 — above 192 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +263.8% 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
Kinston's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Kinston's 958.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Salisbury (960.0), Burlington (952.3), Greensboro (923.7), Pembroke (916.8). 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 1188.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 958.6 in 2024 (-19.3%). The highest observed value was 1188.2 in 2020 and the lowest 708.3 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 16.2% of the 1,143 Part I offenses reported in Kinston for 2024, against a median of 11.4% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 4.8 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.
Property counts dominate Kinston'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.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Kinston's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 18.3 Census sq mi, Kinston logged 52.4 property and 10.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Kinston's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (63% of 1,143 offenses; mix index 4,433).
Violent offenses are 16% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (18.3 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
+28.5%
3864.6 → 4964.2/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+6.9%
897 → 958.6/100K
Property offenses lead Kinston's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
958
4964.2
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
719
3725.8
-
-
Burglary
192
994.9
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
47
243.5
-
-
Arson
13
67.4
-
-
Violent Crime
185
958.6
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
150
777.3
-
-
Robbery
16
82.9
-
-
Rape
15
77.7
-
-
Murder
4
20.7
-
-
Kinston Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Kinston 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
Kinston Police Department
Reporting agency for Kinston NIBRS-participating
Kinston Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Kinston's 1,143 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 Kinston in population. Their populations run from 18,201 to 20,024, against 19,298 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Kinston at 958.6/100K violent and 4,964.2/100K property - matched below outside North Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Kinston reported 185 violent crimes and 958 property crimes, for a total of 1,143 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Kinston?
From 2023 to 2024, Kinston's violent crime rate increased by 6.9%, and the property crime rate increased by 28.5%.
What is the most common crime in Kinston?
The most common crime type in Kinston is larceny-theft, accounting for 62.9% of all reported crimes (719 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Kinston figures are FBI UCR CIUS Table 8 (vintage 2024), population-adjusted per 100,000.
Denominators are the reporting-year population on the municipal row. Incomplete years are dropped from rankings. Confirm at FBI Crime Data Explorer and Census.gov QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (mid-size municipal): figures are informational, not advice. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is the source. Consult a professional before decisions.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Kinston, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.