Safest counties for violent crime rate in North Carolina

Top 25 of 100 counties with data.

Ranked by violent crime rate (FBI Crime Data Explorer (per-agency, 2018-2022 average), FBI CDE 2020-2024 avg), lowest first.

Safest counties for violent crime rate in North Carolina
Rank	County	Value
1	Mitchell	24.0 per 100k
2	Jones	64.4 per 100k
3	Caswell	67.3 per 100k
4	Yancey	68.6 per 100k
5	Hyde	68.8 per 100k
6	Madison	73.7 per 100k
7	Watauga	83.4 per 100k
8	Macon	103.0 per 100k
9	Chatham	104.9 per 100k
10	Polk	121.2 per 100k
11	Cabarrus	121.8 per 100k
12	Henderson	131.4 per 100k
13	Transylvania	131.5 per 100k
14	Nash	134.1 per 100k
15	Ashe	136.3 per 100k
16	Columbus	143.8 per 100k
17	Clay	145.7 per 100k
18	Avery	146.4 per 100k
19	Gates	146.9 per 100k
20	Lee	148.4 per 100k
21	Johnston	151.5 per 100k
22	Wake	153.0 per 100k
23	Caldwell	154.0 per 100k
24	Yadkin	155.0 per 100k
25	Moore	158.8 per 100k

How this ranking works

This page ranks North Carolina counties by violent crime rate, sorted so the safest places appear first. Click any county to see its housing, schools, crime, and demographics in detail.

For violent crime rate, a lower value is generally more favorable, so the top of the list is the lowest. Want to weigh violent crime rate against schools, taxes, commute, and more at once? Use the live map to build a custom match.

Data comes from public sources. Source attribution and the exact data vintage are shown above and on the full map of violent crime rate.

Safest Counties (Lowest Violent Crime) in North Carolina (2026)

Safest counties for violent crime rate in North Carolina

How this ranking works

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