Roanoke Rapids, NC is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 155% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Roanoke Rapids, NC shows violent crime at 896.7 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,380 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 155% 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
896.7/100K violent
3380/100K property
+155% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Roanoke Rapids, NC
Position in the state cohort
Roanoke Rapids reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina cities
At 896.7 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Roanoke Rapids ranks 19 of 206 — above 187 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +240.3% 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
Roanoke Rapids's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Roanoke Rapids's 896.7 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Dunn (903.5), Red Springs (885.8), Pembroke (916.8), Greensboro (923.7). 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 21.0% of the 620 Part I offenses reported in Roanoke Rapids for 2024, against a median of 11.4% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 9.5 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 1050.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 896.7 in 2024 (-14.7%). The highest observed value was 1050.9 in 2020 and the lowest 765.4 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Roanoke Rapids'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.
Roanoke Rapids's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 9.9 Census sq mi, Roanoke Rapids logged 49.4 property and 13.1 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Roanoke Rapids's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (61% of 620 offenses; mix index 4,161).
Violent offenses are 21% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (9.9 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
-23.2%
4403.2 → 3380/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+8%
830.3 → 896.7/100K
Property offenses lead Roanoke Rapids's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
490
3380
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
376
2593.6
-
-
Burglary
78
538
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
36
248.3
-
-
Arson
4
27.6
-
-
Violent Crime
130
896.7
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
104
717.4
-
-
Robbery
17
117.3
-
-
Rape
8
55.2
-
-
Murder
1
6.9
-
-
Roanoke Rapids Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Roanoke Rapids 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
Roanoke Rapids Police Department
Reporting agency for Roanoke Rapids NIBRS-participating
Roanoke Rapids Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Roanoke Rapids's 620 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 Roanoke Rapids in population. Their populations run from 13,479 to 15,672, against 14,497 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Roanoke Rapids at 896.7/100K violent and 3,380/100K property - matched below outside North Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Roanoke Rapids reported 130 violent crimes and 490 property crimes, for a total of 620 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Roanoke Rapids?
From 2023 to 2024, Roanoke Rapids's violent crime rate increased by 8%, and the property crime rate decreased by 23.2%.
What is the most common crime in Roanoke Rapids?
The most common crime type in Roanoke Rapids is larceny-theft, accounting for 60.6% of all reported crimes (376 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Roanoke Rapids 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 Roanoke Rapids, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.