Wilson, NC is among the highest-crime cities in the country, and earns an F PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 65% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Wilson, NC shows violent crime at 579.2 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,402.5 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 65% 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
579.2/100K violent
2402.5/100K property
+65% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Wilson, NC
Comparable rate records
Wilson's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the North Carolina cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Wilson's 579.2 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Clinton (566.3), Reidsville (596.5), Murfreesboro (558.7), Bryson City (602.0). 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
Wilson reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina cities
At 579.2 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Wilson ranks 41 of 206 — above 165 of the 205 other North Carolina cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +119.8% 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.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 19.4% of the 1,426 Part I offenses reported in Wilson for 2024, against a median of 11.4% across comparable North Carolina cities — a gap of 8.0 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 higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 549.7 per 100,000 in 2020 to 579.2 in 2024 (+5.4%). The highest observed value was 595.9 in 2021 and the lowest 513.5 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate Wilson'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.
Wilson's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 31.6 Census sq mi, Wilson logged 36.4 property and 8.8 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Wilson's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (63% of 1,426 offenses; mix index 4,387).
Violent offenses are 19% of the municipal total; property offenses still dominate the count.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (31.6 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
+10.5%
524.4 → 579.2/100K
Property Crime Rate
-10.8%
2693.8 → 2402.5/100K
Property offenses lead Wilson's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,149
2402.5
1711
Larceny-Theft
900
1881.9
-
Burglary
137
286.5
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
112
234.2
-
Arson
14
29.3
-
Violent Crime
277
579.2
352
Aggravated Assault
222
464.2
-
Robbery
30
62.7
-
Rape
13
27.2
-
Murder
12
25.1
-
Wilson Crime Trend (2020-2024)
Wilson 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
Wilson Police Department
Reporting agency for Wilson NIBRS-participating
Wilson Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Wilson's 1,426 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 Wilson in population. Their populations run from 36,564 to 55,872, against 47,825 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
Wilson at 579.2/100K violent and 2,402.5/100K property - matched below outside North Carolina (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
In 2024, Wilson reported 277 violent crimes and 1,149 property crimes, for a total of 1,426 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in Wilson?
From 2023 to 2024, Wilson's violent crime rate increased by 10.5%, and the property crime rate decreased by 10.8%.
What is the most common crime in Wilson?
The most common crime type in Wilson is larceny-theft, accounting for 63.1% of all reported crimes (900 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Wilson 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 Wilson, NC rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.