County crime profile · 2024 · very large county · property-led
Wake County, NC
At 1,129,410 residents, Wake 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
1,034
Property offenses
277
Violent offenses
1,311
Total · 2024
Wake County, NC reported 25 violent crimes per 100,000 in FBI UCR 2024
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Wake County, NC agencies reported 277 violent and 1,034 property offenses. That equals about 25 violent and 92 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
277 violent offenses
25/100K violent rate
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Wake County, NC
Position in the state cohort
Wake County reported a lower violent-crime rate than most comparable North Carolina counties
At 24.5 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Wake County ranks 76 of 77 — above 1 of the 76 other North Carolina counties whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test and carries a matched Census denominator. That is -80.4% 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 higher
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 22.5 per 100,000 in 2020 to 24.5 in 2024 (+9.1%). The highest observed value was 24.5 in 2024 and the lowest 19.7 in 2022. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
Violent offenses make up an unusually large share of the reported mix
Violent offenses are 21.1% of the 1,311 Part I offenses reported in Wake County for 2024, against a median of 17.9% across comparable North Carolina counties — a gap of 3.2 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
1,034
Violent Crime
277
Data Year
2024
Crime Breakdown (2024) · property-led · very large county
Category
Count
Property Crime
1,034
Burglary
189
Larceny-Theft
626
Motor Vehicle Theft
219
Arson
8
Violent Crime
277
Murder
3
Rape
22
Robbery
19
Aggravated Assault
233
Reporting Agency
Wake County Sheriff's Office NIBRS-participating
Wake County's crime figures on this page originate from Wake 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 Wake County, NC?▼
In 2024, Wake County reported 277 violent crimes and 1,034 property crimes. The most common violent crime was aggravated assault, and the most common property crime was larceny-theft.
Is Wake County safe?▼
Wake County reported 1,311 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 Wake County in population. Their populations run from 238,267 to 541,299, against 1,129,410 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.