New Bern, NC is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 3% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, New Bern, NC shows violent crime at 362.5 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,616.1 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 3% above 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
362.5/100K violent
1616.1/100K property
+3% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for New Bern, NC
Comparable rate records
New Bern's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to New Bern's 362.5 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Morehead City (361.4), Star (364.1), Lincolnton (360.6), Louisburg (359.3). 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 635.7 per 100,000 in 2020 to 362.5 in 2024 (-43.0%). The highest observed value was 635.7 in 2020 and the lowest 296.8 in 2023. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Position in the state cohort
New Bern sits mid-pack among comparable North Carolina cities
At 362.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, New Bern ranks 75 of 206 — above 131 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +37.6% 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 18.3% of the 644 Part I offenses reported in New Bern for 2024, against a median of 11.4% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 6.9 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.
Property counts dominate New Bern'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.
New Bern's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 28.7 Census sq mi, New Bern logged 18.3 property and 4.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
New Bern's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (65% of 644 offenses; mix index 4,670).
Violent offenses are 18% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (28.7 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Both rates shifted (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+22.1%
296.8 → 362.5/100K
Property Crime Rate
-23.3%
2106.3 → 1616.1/100K
Property offenses lead New Bern's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs NC
Property Crime
526
1616.1
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
421
1293.5
-
Burglary
89
273.4
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
16
49.2
-
Arson
0
0
-
Violent Crime
118
362.5
364.6
Aggravated Assault
89
273.4
-
Robbery
14
43
-
Rape
11
33.8
-
Murder
4
12.3
-
New Bern Crime Trend (2020-2024)
New Bern 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
New Bern Police Department
Reporting agency for New Bern NIBRS-participating
New Bern Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind New Bern's 644 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 New Bern in population. Their populations run from 28,522 to 36,564, against 32,548 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
New Bern at 362.5/100K violent and 1,616.1/100K property - matched below outside North Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, New Bern reported 118 violent crimes and 526 property crimes, for a total of 644 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in New Bern?
From 2023 to 2024, New Bern's violent crime rate increased by 22.1%, and the property crime rate decreased by 23.3%.
What is the most common crime in New Bern?
The most common crime type in New Bern is larceny-theft, accounting for 65.4% of all reported crimes (421 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: New Bern 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 New Bern, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.