Matthews, NC is close to the national middle for violent crime, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 48% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Matthews, NC shows violent crime at 184.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,654.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 48% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade C from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
C safety grade
184.6/100K violent
2654.2/100K property
-48% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Matthews, NC
Comparable rate records
Matthews's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Matthews's 184.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Carrboro (180.6), Gibsonville (176.7), Knightdale (194.6), Woodfin (174.3). 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
Matthews sits mid-pack among comparable North Carolina cities
At 184.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Matthews ranks 130 of 206 — above 76 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -35.3% against the cohort median of 285.1. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 6.5% of the 892 Part I offenses reported in Matthews for 2024, against a median of 11.6% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 5.1 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 higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 174.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 184.6 in 2024 (+5.9%). The highest observed value was 239.9 in 2023 and the lowest 161.4 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Matthews'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.
Matthews's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 17.1 Census sq mi, Matthews logged 48.7 property and 3.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Matthews's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (75% of 892 offenses; mix index 5,787).
Violent offenses are only 7% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (17.1 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
-23.1%
239.9 → 184.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
-11.6%
3003.3 → 2654.2/100K
Property offenses lead Matthews's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
834
2654.2
1711
Larceny-Theft
666
2119.5
-
Burglary
110
350.1
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
58
184.6
-
Arson
0
0
-
Violent Crime
58
184.6
352
Aggravated Assault
32
101.8
-
Robbery
20
63.6
-
Rape
6
19.1
-
Murder
0
0
-
Matthews Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Matthews 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
Matthews Police Department
Reporting agency for Matthews NIBRS-participating
Matthews Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Matthews's 892 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 Matthews in population. Their populations run from 28,259 to 33,699, against 31,422 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Matthews at 184.6/100K violent and 2,654.2/100K property - matched below outside North Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Matthews reported 58 violent crimes and 834 property crimes, for a total of 892 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Matthews?
From 2023 to 2024, Matthews's violent crime rate decreased by 23.1%, and the property crime rate decreased by 11.6%.
What is the most common crime in Matthews?
The most common crime type in Matthews is larceny-theft, accounting for 74.7% of all reported crimes (666 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Matthews 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 Matthews, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.