Waynesville, NC is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns a D PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 42% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Waynesville, NC shows violent crime at 499.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,811.4 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 42% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade D from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
D safety grade
499.4/100K violent
2811.4/100K property
+42% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Waynesville, NC
Comparable rate records
Waynesville's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Waynesville's 499.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Haw River (504.0), Smithfield (490.2), Raleigh (488.8), Sharpsburg (512.8). 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
Waynesville sits mid-pack among comparable North Carolina cities
At 499.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Waynesville ranks 53 of 206 — above 153 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +89.5% 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.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft dominates the property total more than it does across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 87.5% of reported property offenses in Waynesville, against a cohort median of 74.5%. The remainder is burglary (28) and motor vehicle theft (10). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 15.1% of the 358 Part I offenses reported in Waynesville for 2024, against a median of 11.4% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 3.7 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 530.8 per 100,000 in 2020 to 499.4 in 2024 (-5.9%). The highest observed value was 554.9 in 2023 and the lowest 420.5 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Waynesville'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.
Waynesville's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 9 Census sq mi, Waynesville logged 33.9 property and 6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Waynesville's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (74% of 358 offenses; mix index 5,719).
Violent offenses are 15% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (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
-13.4%
3246.4 → 2811.4/100K
Violent Crime Rate
-10%
554.9 → 499.4/100K
Property offenses lead Waynesville's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
304
2811.4
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
266
2460
-
-
Burglary
28
258.9
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
10
92.5
-
-
Arson
3
27.7
-
-
Violent Crime
54
499.4
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
39
360.7
-
-
Rape
11
101.7
-
-
Murder
2
18.5
-
-
Robbery
2
18.5
-
-
Waynesville Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Waynesville 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
Waynesville Police Department
Reporting agency for Waynesville NIBRS-participating
Waynesville Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Waynesville's 358 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 Waynesville in population. Their populations run from 9,960 to 11,585, against 10,813 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Waynesville at 499.4/100K violent and 2,811.4/100K property - matched below outside North Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Waynesville reported 54 violent crimes and 304 property crimes, for a total of 358 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Waynesville?
From 2023 to 2024, Waynesville's violent crime rate decreased by 10%, and the property crime rate decreased by 13.4%.
What is the most common crime in Waynesville?
The most common crime type in Waynesville is larceny-theft, accounting for 74.3% of all reported crimes (266 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Waynesville 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 Waynesville, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.