Wadesboro, NC is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 479% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Wadesboro, NC shows violent crime at 2,037.1 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 7,353.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 479% 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
2037.1/100K violent
7353.8/100K property
+479% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Wadesboro, NC
Position in the state cohort
Wadesboro reported the highest violent-crime rate among comparable North Carolina cities
At 2037.1 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Wadesboro ranks 1 of 206 — above 205 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +673.1% 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
Wadesboro's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Wadesboro's 2037.1 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Laurinburg (1894.1), Plymouth (1861.8), Henderson (1791.6), Lumberton (1676.5). 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 21.7% of the 461 Part I offenses reported in Wadesboro for 2024, against a median of 11.4% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 10.3 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 2375.0 per 100,000 in 2020 to 2037.1 in 2024 (-14.2%). The highest observed value was 2621.1 in 2022 and the lowest 1841.0 in 2023. 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 64.5% of reported property offenses in Wadesboro, against a cohort median of 74.6%. The remainder is burglary (85) and motor vehicle theft (43). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Property counts dominate Wadesboro'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.
Small-city offense counts above are voluntary UCR submissions, not neighbourhood advice. Year-to-year swings can look large when the population base is modest.
Wadesboro's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 6.6 Census sq mi, Wadesboro logged 54.7 property and 15.2 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Wadesboro leans on larceny-theft at 51% of reported offenses, with a moderate mix index of 3,326.
Violent offenses are 22% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (6.6 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Both rates shifted (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
+10.7%
1841 → 2037.1/100K
Property Crime Rate
-10.5%
8213.6 → 7353.8/100K
Property offenses lead Wadesboro's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
361
7353.8
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
233
4746.4
-
-
Burglary
85
1731.5
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
43
875.9
-
-
Arson
2
40.7
-
-
Violent Crime
100
2037.1
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
85
1731.5
-
-
Robbery
9
183.3
-
-
Murder
3
61.1
-
-
Rape
3
61.1
-
-
Wadesboro Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Wadesboro 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 averagesRead the chart as a list
Wadesboro: 2037 violent, 7354 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Granite Falls: 204 violent, 2975 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Beaufort: 305 violent, 1728 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Pittsboro: 101 violent, 3060 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Williamston: 1161 violent, 6408 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Erwin: 436 violent, 2348 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Creedmoor: 316 violent, 1599 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Weaverville: 63 violent, 3128 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Ranlo: 318 violent, 764 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Wadesboro Police Department
Reporting agency for Wadesboro NIBRS-participating
Wadesboro Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Wadesboro's 461 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 Wadesboro in population. Their populations run from 4,713 to 5,066, against 4,909 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Wadesboro reported 100 violent crimes and 361 property crimes, for a total of 461 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Wadesboro?
From 2023 to 2024, Wadesboro's violent crime rate increased by 10.7%, and the property crime rate decreased by 10.5%.
What is the most common crime in Wadesboro?
The most common crime type in Wadesboro is larceny-theft, accounting for 50.5% of all reported crimes (233 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Wadesboro is sourced from FBI UCR Table 8 for 2024; rates use that row's population.
Small-city rows use the same per-100,000 formula; a few unreported years can leave gaps in the trend table. Verify the agency's submission on FBI.gov UCR.
Disclaimer (small city): UCR counts here are informational only. They are not a victimization probability. Source: FBI UCR Program.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Wadesboro, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.