County crime profile · 2024 · very large county · property-led
Buncombe County, NC
At 269,452 residents, Buncombe County is a very large county in North Carolina. FBI UCR county totals below are read before any per-100,000 rate (Census denominator when matched).
Compiled by PlainCrime, Independent crime-data publisher
Data updated 2026-07-13
1,216
Property offenses
176
Violent offenses
1,392
Total · 2024
Buncombe County, NC reported 65 violent crimes per 100,000 in FBI UCR 2024
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Buncombe County, NC agencies reported 176 violent and 1,216 property offenses. That equals about 65 violent and 451 property crimes per 100,000 using a verified Census population join. Table 10 coverage is a voluntary subset of U.S. counties.
2024 UCR year
176 violent offenses
65/100K violent rate
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Buncombe County, NC
Position in the state cohort
Buncombe County reported a lower violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina counties
At 65.3 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Buncombe County ranks 65 of 77 — above 12 of the 76 other North Carolina counties whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test and carries a matched Census denominator. That is -47.8% against the cohort median of 125.2. Counties 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 80.2 per 100,000 in 2020 to 65.3 in 2024 (-18.5%). The highest observed value was 80.2 in 2020 and the lowest 52.7 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 12.6% of the 1,392 Part I offenses reported in Buncombe County for 2024, against a median of 18.0% across comparable North Carolina counties — a gap of 5.4 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.
On a very large county row, county figures aggregate every participating agency inside the county. Participation is voluntary. Per-100,000 rates use a separately matched 2020 U.S. Census county population, never a Table 10 field; unmatched counties stay count-only. A large county line encloses very different communities.
Property Crime
1,216
Violent Crime
176
Data Year
2024
Crime Breakdown (2024) · property-led · very large county
Category
Count
Property Crime
1,216
Burglary
420
Larceny-Theft
662
Motor Vehicle Theft
134
Arson
16
Violent Crime
176
Murder
2
Rape
8
Robbery
15
Aggravated Assault
151
Reporting Agency
Buncombe County Sheriff's Office NIBRS-participating
Buncombe County's crime figures on this page originate from Buncombe County Sheriff's Office's submission to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the crime rate in Buncombe County, NC?▼
In 2024, Buncombe County reported 176 violent crimes and 1,216 property crimes. The most common violent crime was aggravated assault, and the most common property crime was larceny-theft.
Is Buncombe County safe?▼
Buncombe County reported 1,392 total crimes in 2024.Property crime accounts for the majority of offenses. Compare with other counties in North Carolina on our state page for context.
Similar-Size Counties in North Carolina
A per-capita rate is easiest to read against places of similar scale, so these are the North Carolina counties closest to Buncombe County in population. Their populations run from 215,999 to 238,267, against 269,452 here. Or launch the
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two jurisdictions directly.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, Crime in the United States (CIUS) Table 10.
FBI Table 10 supplies county offense counts but no resident population. Where this page shows a per-100,000 rate, the denominator is a separately matched 2020 U.S. Census Bureau county population; unmatched county rows remain count-only. Statewide comparisons draw on the state UCR program. Verify with FBI.gov UCR and Census.gov QuickFacts.