County crime profile · 2024 · large county · property-led
Union County, NC
At 238,267 residents, Union 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
1,240
Property offenses
202
Violent offenses
1,442
Total · 2024
Union County, NC reported 85 violent crimes per 100,000 in FBI UCR 2024
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Union County, NC agencies reported 202 violent and 1,240 property offenses. That equals about 85 violent and 520 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
202 violent offenses
85/100K violent rate
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Union County, NC
Position in the state cohort
Union County sits mid-pack among comparable North Carolina counties
At 84.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Union County ranks 57 of 77 — above 20 of the 76 other North Carolina counties whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test and carries a matched Census denominator. That is -32.3% 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.
Property-offense composition
Larceny-theft dominates the property total more than it does across the cohort
Larceny-theft is 71.9% of reported property offenses in Union County, against a cohort median of 58.4%. The remainder is burglary (245) and motor vehicle theft (104). Composition differences of this size usually track what kinds of places and property are present in a jurisdiction.
Offense mix
The reported mix leans further toward property offenses than the state cohort
Violent offenses are 14.0% of the 1,442 Part I offenses reported in Union County for 2024, against a median of 18.0% across comparable North Carolina counties — a gap of 4.0 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 close to where it started
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 86.5 per 100,000 in 2020 to 84.8 in 2024 (-1.9%). The highest observed value was 86.5 in 2020 and the lowest 65.1 in 2022. 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
1,240
Violent Crime
202
Data Year
2024
Crime Breakdown (2024) · property-led · large county
Category
Count
Property Crime
1,240
Burglary
245
Larceny-Theft
891
Motor Vehicle Theft
104
Arson
6
Violent Crime
202
Murder
2
Rape
53
Robbery
6
Aggravated Assault
141
Reporting Agency
Union County Sheriff's Office NIBRS-participating
Union County's crime figures on this page originate from Union 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 Union County, NC?▼
In 2024, Union County reported 202 violent crimes and 1,240 property crimes. The most common violent crime was aggravated assault, and the most common property crime was larceny-theft.
Is Union County safe?▼
Union County reported 1,442 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 Union County in population. Their populations run from 215,999 to 269,452, against 238,267 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.