Williamston, NC is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 230% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Williamston, NC shows violent crime at 1,161.4 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 6,407.7 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 230% 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
1161.4/100K violent
6407.7/100K property
+230% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Williamston, NC
Position in the state cohort
Williamston reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina cities
At 1161.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Williamston ranks 7 of 206 — above 199 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +340.8% 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
Williamston's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Williamston's 1161.4 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Goldsboro (1076.4), Selma (1049.1), Shelby (1044.1), Fairmont (1041.7). 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 15.3% of the 378 Part I offenses reported in Williamston 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.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 1282.8 per 100,000 in 2020 to 1161.4 in 2024 (-9.5%). The highest observed value was 1624.7 in 2022 and the lowest 1073.6 in 2023. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Williamston'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.
Williamston's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 4.5 Census sq mi, Williamston logged 70.9 property and 12.9 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Williamston's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (67% of 378 offenses; mix index 4,908).
Violent offenses are 15% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (4.5 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
+8.2%
1073.6 → 1161.4/100K
Property Crime Rate
-7.9%
6958.3 → 6407.7/100K
Property offenses lead Williamston's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
320
6407.7
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
254
5086.1
-
-
Burglary
58
1161.4
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
8
160.2
-
-
Arson
0
0
-
-
Violent Crime
58
1161.4
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
46
921.1
-
-
Robbery
8
160.2
-
-
Murder
3
60.1
-
-
Rape
1
20
-
-
Williamston Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Williamston 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
Williamston: 1161 violent, 6408 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Pittsboro: 101 violent, 3060 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Creedmoor: 316 violent, 1599 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Beaufort: 305 violent, 1728 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Wadesboro: 2037 violent, 7354 property per 100,000 (grade F)
Granite Falls: 204 violent, 2975 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Surf City: 293 violent, 1777 property per 100,000 (grade C)
Ayden: 254 violent, 1483 property per 100,000 (grade B)
Erwin: 436 violent, 2348 property per 100,000 (grade D)
Williamston Police Department
Reporting agency for Williamston NIBRS-participating
Williamston Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Williamston's 378 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 Williamston in population. Their populations run from 4,812 to 5,126, against 4,994 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, Williamston reported 58 violent crimes and 320 property crimes, for a total of 378 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Williamston?
From 2023 to 2024, Williamston's violent crime rate increased by 8.2%, and the property crime rate decreased by 7.9%.
What is the most common crime in Williamston?
The most common crime type in Williamston is larceny-theft, accounting for 67.2% of all reported crimes (254 incidents in 2024).
Small-city read: Williamston 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 Williamston, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.