Morehead City, NC is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a D PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 3% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Morehead City, NC shows violent crime at 361.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,072.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 3% 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
361.4/100K violent
3072.3/100K property
+3% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Morehead City, NC
Comparable rate records
Morehead City's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Morehead City's 361.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Lincolnton (360.6), New Bern (362.5), Louisburg (359.3), Star (364.1). 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.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft dominates the property total more than it does across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 91.8% of reported property offenses in Morehead City, against a cohort median of 74.5%. The remainder is burglary (17) and motor vehicle theft (8). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Position in the state cohort
Morehead City sits mid-pack among comparable North Carolina cities
At 361.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Morehead City ranks 76 of 206 — above 130 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +37.2% 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 390.6 per 100,000 in 2020 to 361.4 in 2024 (-7.5%). The highest observed value was 390.6 in 2020 and the lowest 295.6 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Morehead 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.
Morehead City's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 7.4 Census sq mi, Morehead City logged 41.3 property and 4.9 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Morehead City's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (82% of 342 offenses; mix index 6,860).
Violent offenses are only 11% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (7.4 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
+16.6%
310 → 361.4/100K
Property Crime Rate
+8.6%
2829.7 → 3072.3/100K
Property offenses lead Morehead City's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
306
3072.3
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
281
2821.3
-
-
Burglary
17
170.7
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
8
80.3
-
-
Arson
0
0
-
-
Violent Crime
36
361.4
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
30
301.2
-
-
Rape
5
50.2
-
-
Robbery
1
10
-
-
Murder
0
0
-
-
Morehead City Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Morehead 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
Morehead City: 361 violent, 3072 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Aberdeen: 245 violent, 3267 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Hillsborough: 378 violent, 4526 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Gibsonville: 177 violent, 925 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Washington: 520 violent, 3380 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Zebulon: 328 violent, 2453 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Mount Airy: 312 violent, 2436 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Waynesville: 499 violent, 2811 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Oxford: 842 violent, 3587 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Morehead City Police Department
Reporting agency for Morehead City NIBRS-participating
Morehead City Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Morehead City's 342 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 Morehead City in population. Their populations run from 9,032 to 10,813, against 9,960 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Morehead City reported 36 violent crimes and 306 property crimes, for a total of 342 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Morehead City?
From 2023 to 2024, Morehead City's violent crime rate increased by 16.6%, and the property crime rate increased by 8.6%.
What is the most common crime in Morehead City?
The most common crime type in Morehead City is larceny-theft, accounting for 82.2% of all reported crimes (281 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Morehead 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 Morehead City, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.