Southern Pines, NC is higher-crime than most U.S. cities, and earns a C PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 5% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Southern Pines, NC shows violent crime at 368.6 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,030.2 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 5% 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
368.6/100K violent
2030.2/100K property
+5% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Southern Pines, NC
Comparable rate records
Southern Pines's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Southern Pines's 368.6 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Star (364.1), New Bern (362.5), Morehead City (361.4), Lincolnton (360.6). 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
Southern Pines sits mid-pack among comparable North Carolina cities
At 368.6 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Southern Pines ranks 73 of 206 — above 133 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +39.9% 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 448.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 368.6 in 2024 (-17.9%). The highest observed value was 488.3 in 2021 and the lowest 244.1 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 15.4% of the 410 Part I offenses reported in Southern Pines for 2024, against a median of 11.4% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 3.9 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 Southern Pines'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.
Southern Pines's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 18.4 Census sq mi, Southern Pines logged 18.9 property and 3.4 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Southern Pines's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (64% of 410 offenses; mix index 4,455).
Violent offenses are 15% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (18.4 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
+23.4%
298.7 → 368.6/100K
Property Crime Rate
+12.2%
1809.7 → 2030.2/100K
Property offenses lead Southern Pines's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
347
2030.2
1711
Larceny-Theft
262
1532.9
-
Burglary
45
263.3
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
40
234
-
Arson
4
23.4
-
Violent Crime
63
368.6
352
Aggravated Assault
50
292.5
-
Robbery
10
58.5
-
Rape
3
17.6
-
Murder
0
0
-
Southern Pines Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Southern Pines property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Southern Pines Police Department
Reporting agency for Southern Pines NIBRS-participating
Southern Pines Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Southern Pines's 410 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 Southern Pines in population. Their populations run from 15,561 to 18,716, against 17,092 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Southern Pines at 368.6/100K violent and 2,030.2/100K property - matched below outside North Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Southern Pines reported 63 violent crimes and 347 property crimes, for a total of 410 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Southern Pines?
From 2023 to 2024, Southern Pines's violent crime rate increased by 23.4%, and the property crime rate increased by 12.2%.
What is the most common crime in Southern Pines?
The most common crime type in Southern Pines is larceny-theft, accounting for 63.9% of all reported crimes (262 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Southern Pines 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 Southern Pines, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.