County crime profile · 2024 · large county · property-led
Wilkes County, NC
At 65,969 residents, Wilkes 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
429
Property offenses
121
Violent offenses
550
Total · 2024
Wilkes County, NC reported 183 violent crimes per 100,000 in FBI UCR 2024
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Wilkes County, NC agencies reported 121 violent and 429 property offenses. That equals about 183 violent and 650 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
121 violent offenses
183/100K violent rate
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for Wilkes County, NC
Position in the state cohort
Wilkes County sits mid-pack among comparable North Carolina counties
At 183.4 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Wilkes County ranks 23 of 77 — above 54 of the 76 other North Carolina counties whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test and carries a matched Census denominator. That is +50.9% 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 22.0% of the 550 Part I offenses reported in Wilkes County for 2024, against a median of 17.9% across comparable North Carolina counties — a gap of 4.1 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 lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 203.1 per 100,000 in 2020 to 183.4 in 2024 (-9.7%). The highest observed value was 203.1 in 2020 and the lowest 150.1 in 2021. 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
429
Violent Crime
121
Data Year
2024
Crime Breakdown (2024) · property-led · large county
Category
Count
Property Crime
429
Burglary
149
Larceny-Theft
222
Motor Vehicle Theft
58
Arson
4
Violent Crime
121
Murder
3
Rape
29
Robbery
3
Aggravated Assault
86
Reporting Agency
Wilkes County Sheriff's Office NIBRS-participating
Wilkes County's crime figures on this page originate from Wilkes 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 Wilkes County, NC?▼
In 2024, Wilkes County reported 121 violent crimes and 429 property crimes. The most common violent crime was aggravated assault, and the most common property crime was larceny-theft.
Is Wilkes County safe?▼
Wilkes County reported 550 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 Wilkes County in population. Their populations run from 60,992 to 67,686, against 65,969 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.