Spruce Pine, NC carries a PlainCrime A safety grade with violent crime 74% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Spruce Pine, NC shows violent crime at 91.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 1,507.5 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 74% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade A from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
A safety grade
91.4/100K violent
1507.5/100K property
-74% vs U.S.
The verdict
Spruce Pine earns an A safety grade: violent crime runs 74% below the U.S. average, placing it safer than most U.S. cities.
A
PlainCrime safety grade
-74%
violent crime vs. U.S. average
74th
percentile of 7,769 U.S. cities
1,507.5
property crimes per 100K
Based on 2 reported violent incidents in a population of 2,189. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Spruce Pine, NC
Small-count caution
The violent-crime count is small enough that the derived rate is unstable
Spruce Pine reported 2 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 2,189. At this volume one additional or one fewer report moves the per-100,000 rate noticeably, so the figure is better read as a data point than as a precise measurement, and year-to-year swings here are expected.
Comparable rate records
Spruce Pine's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Spruce Pine's 91.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Boone (89.9), Southport (89.0), Leland (96.5), Ocean Isle Beach (98.1). 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.
Position in the state cohort
Spruce Pine reported a lower violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina cities
At 91.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Spruce Pine ranks 167 of 206 — above 39 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -68.0% against the cohort median of 285.1. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 5.7% of the 35 Part I offenses reported in Spruce Pine for 2024, against a median of 11.6% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 5.8 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 Spruce Pine'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.
Based on 2 reported violent incidents in a population of 2,189. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.
On a small municipal row, small denominators make rates sensitive to a handful of incidents. Figures are reported totals, not neighbourhood advice.
Property rate moved most (2023→2024)
Property Crime Rate
+86.8%
807.2 → 1507.5/100K
Violent Crime Rate
+1.9%
89.7 → 91.4/100K
Property offenses lead Spruce Pine's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs NC
Property Crime
33
1507.5
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
23
1050.7
-
Burglary
6
274.1
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
4
182.7
-
Arson
0
0
-
Violent Crime
2
91.4
364.6
Rape
2
91.4
-
Murder
0
0
-
Robbery
0
0
-
Aggravated Assault
0
0
-
Spruce Pine Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Spruce Pine property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Property crime rate (2024)
1,507.5/100K↑86.8%vs 2023
Spruce Pine violent crime rate trend
Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
Violent crime rate (2024)
91.4/100K↑1.9%vs 2023
Year
Coverage
Population
Violent Rate
Property Rate
Total Crimes
2020
Comparable
2,133
0
421.9
9
2021
Comparable
2,115
0
236.4
5
2022
Comparable
2,227
0
134.7
3
2023
Comparable
2,230
89.7
807.2
20
2024
Comparable
2,189
91.4
1507.5
35
How Spruce Pine sits among NC peers
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
Reporting Agency
Spruce Pine Police Department NIBRS-participating
Spruce Pine's crime figures on this page originate from Spruce Pine Police Department's submission to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
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 Spruce Pine in population. Their populations run from 2,116 to 2,353, against 2,189 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
These North Carolina cities report the closest violent-crime rates to Spruce Pine's 91.4/100K (same FBI UCR vintage rules; size peers above are excluded so the two lists stay distinct).
Spruce Pine has a violent crime rate of 91.4 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 1507.5 per 100,000, based on 2024 FBI UCR data.
Is Spruce Pine, NC safe? ▼
Spruce Pine receives a safety grade of A (Safe), with a safety score of 78/100. The violent crime rate is 74% below the national average and 75% below the North Carolina average.
What is the population of Spruce Pine, NC? ▼
The reporting population for Spruce Pine is 2,189 as of 2024.
How many crimes were reported in Spruce Pine? ▼
In 2024, Spruce Pine reported 2 violent crimes and 33 property crimes, for a total of 35 reported offenses.
How do Spruce Pine's reported offenses compare with its population? ▼
In 2024, Spruce Pine recorded about one reported offense per 63 residents and one reported violent offense per 1095 residents. These ratios count reported offenses, not distinct victims, and are not a person's probability of victimization.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Spruce Pine? ▼
From 2023 to 2024, Spruce Pine's violent crime rate increased by 1.9%, and the property crime rate increased by 86.8%.
What is the most common crime in Spruce Pine? ▼
The most common crime type in Spruce Pine is larceny-theft, accounting for 65.7% of all reported crimes (23 incidents in 2024).
Micro-municipal read: Spruce Pine's FBI UCR Table 8 row (2024) is the only source for the rates above.
With a small population base, per-100,000 rates amplify sparse counts. Incomplete submissions are excluded from rankings. See FBI.gov UCR for the raw Table 8 file.
Disclaimer (small municipal): small-base rates are especially easy to misread. Informational only - not advice. Source: FBI UCR Program.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Spruce Pine, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.