Spring Lake, NC is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 54% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Spring Lake, NC shows violent crime at 541.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,377.3 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 54% 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
541.1/100K violent
3377.3/100K property
+54% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Spring Lake, NC
Comparable rate records
Spring Lake's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Spring Lake's 541.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Whiteville (537.2), Stantonsburg (528.4), Forest City (527.7), Beulaville (524.0). 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
Spring Lake reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina cities
At 541.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Spring Lake ranks 44 of 206 — above 162 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +105.4% 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 837.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 541.1 in 2024 (-35.4%). The highest observed value was 837.3 in 2020 and the lowest 440.6 in 2021. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property-offense composition
Burglary and vehicle theft carry more of the property total than they do across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 62.0% of reported property offenses in Spring Lake, against a cohort median of 74.6%. The remainder is burglary (78) and motor vehicle theft (69). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Spring Lake'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.
Spring Lake's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 23.6 Census sq mi, Spring Lake logged 16.4 property and 2.6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Spring Lake leans on larceny-theft at 53% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,552.
Violent offenses are only 14% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (23.6 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
+4.9%
516 → 541.1/100K
Property Crime Rate
-2.1%
3451.5 → 3377.3/100K
Property offenses lead Spring Lake's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
387
3377.3
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
240
2094.4
-
-
Burglary
78
680.7
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
69
602.1
-
-
Arson
0
0
-
-
Violent Crime
62
541.1
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
56
488.7
-
-
Rape
3
26.2
-
-
Robbery
3
26.2
-
-
Murder
0
0
-
-
Spring Lake Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Spring Lake 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
Spring Lake Police Department
Reporting agency for Spring Lake NIBRS-participating
Spring Lake Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Spring Lake's 449 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 Spring Lake in population. Their populations run from 10,813 to 12,143, against 11,459 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Spring Lake at 541.1/100K violent and 3,377.3/100K property - matched below outside North Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Spring Lake reported 62 violent crimes and 387 property crimes, for a total of 449 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Spring Lake?
From 2023 to 2024, Spring Lake's violent crime rate increased by 4.9%, and the property crime rate decreased by 2.1%.
What is the most common crime in Spring Lake?
The most common crime type in Spring Lake is larceny-theft, accounting for 53.5% of all reported crimes (240 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Spring Lake 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 Spring Lake, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.