County crime profile · 2024 · large county · property-led
Cleveland County, NC
At 99,519 residents, Cleveland County is a 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
488
Property offenses
146
Violent offenses
634
Total · 2024
Cleveland County, NC reported 147 violent crimes per 100,000 in FBI UCR 2024
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Cleveland County, NC agencies reported 146 violent and 488 property offenses. That equals about 147 violent and 490 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
146 violent offenses
147/100K violent rate
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Cleveland County, NC
Position in the state cohort
Cleveland County sits mid-pack among comparable North Carolina counties
At 146.7 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Cleveland County ranks 30 of 77 — above 47 of the 76 other North Carolina counties whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test and carries a matched Census denominator. That is +20.7% against the cohort median of 121.5. Counties 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 23.0% of the 634 Part I offenses reported in Cleveland County for 2024, against a median of 17.9% across comparable North Carolina counties — a gap of 5.1 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 138.7 per 100,000 in 2020 to 146.7 in 2024 (+5.8%). The highest observed value was 182.9 in 2022 and the lowest 138.7 in 2020. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
On a 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
488
Violent Crime
146
Data Year
2024
Crime Breakdown (2024) · property-led · large county
Category
Count
Property Crime
488
Burglary
162
Larceny-Theft
263
Motor Vehicle Theft
63
Arson
4
Violent Crime
146
Murder
3
Rape
17
Robbery
14
Aggravated Assault
112
Reporting Agency
Cleveland County Sheriff's Office NIBRS-participating
Cleveland County's crime figures on this page originate from Cleveland 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 Cleveland County, NC?▼
In 2024, Cleveland County reported 146 violent crimes and 488 property crimes. The most common violent crime was aggravated assault, and the most common property crime was larceny-theft.
Is Cleveland County safe?▼
Cleveland County reported 634 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 Cleveland County in population. Their populations run from 86,810 to 100,720, against 99,519 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.