Wilmington, NC has a F safety grade (22/100) with a violent crime rate of 483 per 100,000, 37% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
Wilmington, NC Crime Rate & Safety
At 125,101 residents, Wilmington is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against NC and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
Wilmington, NC carries a PlainCrime F safety grade with violent crime 37% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Wilmington, NC shows violent crime at 482.8 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 3,514.8 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 37% 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
482.8/100K violent
3514.8/100K property
+37% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Wilmington, NC
Comparable rate records
Wilmington's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Wilmington's 482.8 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Siler City (479.0), Raleigh (488.8), Smithfield (490.2), Waynesville (499.4). 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
Wilmington sits mid-pack among comparable North Carolina cities
At 482.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Wilmington ranks 56 of 206 — above 150 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +83.2% 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 643.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 482.8 in 2024 (-24.9%). The highest observed value was 643.1 in 2020 and the lowest 482.8 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Wilmington'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.
On a large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
Wilmington's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 51.4 Census sq mi, Wilmington logged 85.6 property and 11.8 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Wilmington's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (71% of 5,001 offenses; mix index 5,281).
Violent offenses are only 12% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (51.4 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
-1.8%
491.5 → 482.8/100K
Property Crime Rate
-0.6%
3534.5 → 3514.8/100K
Property offenses lead Wilmington's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
vs NC
Property Crime
4,397
3514.8
1711
1929.5
Larceny-Theft
3,555
2841.7
-
-
Burglary
452
361.3
-
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
390
311.7
-
-
Arson
8
6.4
-
-
Violent Crime
604
482.8
352
364.6
Aggravated Assault
449
358.9
-
-
Robbery
91
72.7
-
-
Rape
57
45.6
-
-
Murder
7
5.6
-
-
Wilmington Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Wilmington 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
Wilmington Police Department
Reporting agency for Wilmington NIBRS-participating
Wilmington Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Wilmington's 5,001 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 Wilmington in population. Their populations run from 63,906 to 181,793, against 125,101 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Wilmington at 482.8/100K violent and 3,514.8/100K property - matched below outside North Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Wilmington reported 604 violent crimes and 4,397 property crimes, for a total of 5,001 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Wilmington?
From 2023 to 2024, Wilmington's violent crime rate decreased by 1.8%, and the property crime rate decreased by 0.6%.
What is the most common crime in Wilmington?
The most common crime type in Wilmington is larceny-theft, accounting for 71.1% of all reported crimes (3,555 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: Wilmington's rates come from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, CIUS Table 8, vintage 2024.
Incomplete reporters stay out of rate rankings. Cross-check population with Census ACS; state UCR programs for statewide context. Primary verify links: FBI.gov UCR, Census QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (large city): informational crime rates only - not legal, insurance, or personal-safety advice. Source: FBI UCR. Ask a qualified professional before acting.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Wilmington, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.