Do you live in one of the murder capitals of North Carolina?
We all watch the news with horror when we hear about a homicide that happens not that far away from us. While a murder just blocks or even a couple of towns away from your house would make anyone uneasy, in the long run, most likely, where you live is relatively safe.
To find the cities in North Carolina with the most murders and the highest murder rates per capita, we used Saturday Night Science to compare the FBI crime data on murders for the 63 cities in the Tar Heel State with over 5,000 residents.
What city has the highest murder rate in North Carolina? The city with the highest murder rate in North Carolina is Bessemer City with 88 murders per 100,000 people.
What is the city in North Carolina with highest number of murders? The city in North Carolina with the highest number of murders is Charlotte-Mecklenburg with 109 murders.
Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town in North Carolina ranked. There were ‘only’ 63 cities in North Carolina where a city reported a murder to the FBI, meaning 46 places had no murder.
88 per 100k · #1 highest murder rate in North Carolina
Bessemer City is a small suburban city in Gaston County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 5,340 at the 2010 census. The city is approximately 6 miles northwest of Gastonia and 25 miles west of Charlotte. It was settled in 1756 and founded in 1893.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
60 per 100k · #2 highest murder rate in North Carolina
Located in
Scotland County, North CarolinaLaurinburg is a city in and the county seat of Scotland County, North Carolina, United States. Located in southern North Carolina near the South Carolina border, Laurinburg is southwest of Fayetteville and is home to St. Andrews University. The Laurinburg Institute, a historically African-American school, is also located in Laurinburg. The population at the 2010 Census was 15,962 people.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
57 per 100k · #3 highest murder rate in North Carolina
Located in
Richmond County, North CarolinaRockingham is a city in Richmond County, North Carolina, United States named after the Marquis of Rockingham. The population was 9,558 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Richmond County. Rockingham is the home of Rockingham Speedway, formerly the North Carolina Speedway, which was a staple of the NASCAR schedule for nearly 40 years, before the race was discontinued in 2004.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
52 per 100k · #4 highest murder rate in North Carolina
Located in
Robeson County, North CarolinaLumberton is a city in Robeson County, North Carolina, United States. The population has grown to 21,542 in the 2010 census from 20,795 in the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Robeson County. Lumberton, located in southern North Carolina’s Inner Banks region, is located on the Lumber River. Founded in 1787 by John Willis, an officer in the American Revolution, Lumberton was originally a shipping point for lumber used by the Navy, which was sent downriver to Georgetown, South Carolina. Most of the town’s growth, however, began shortly after World War II.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
45 per 100k · #5 highest murder rate in North Carolina
Located in
Wayne County, North CarolinaGoldsboro is a city in Wayne County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 36,437 at the 2010 Census. It is the principal city of and is included in the Goldsboro, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. The nearby town of Waynesboro was founded in 1787 and Goldsboro was incorporated in 1847. It is the county seat of Wayne County. The city is situated in North Carolina’s Coastal Plain and is bordered on the south by the Neuse River and the west by the Little River, about 43 miles southwest of Greenville and 55 miles southeast of Raleigh, the state capital and 87 miles northwest of Wilmington in Southeastern North Carolina. Goldsboro is best known as home to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
42 per 100k · #6 highest murder rate in North Carolina
Located in
Beaufort County, North CarolinaWashington, commonly known as The Original Washington, or Little Washington, is a city in Beaufort County, North Carolina, United States, located on the northern bank of the Pamlico River. The population was 9,744 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Beaufort County. The closest major city is Greenville, approximately 20 miles to the west.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
39 per 100k · #7 highest murder rate in North Carolina
Ayden is a town in Pitt County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 4,932 at the 2010 Census. The town is a part of the Greenville Metropolitan Area of North Carolina’s Inner Banks region. The town holds an annual Collard Festival, is home to many local businesses, and currently resides as one of North Carolina’s smallest towns.
Data | Movers
35 per 100k · #8 highest murder rate in North Carolina
Located in
Harnett County, North CarolinaDunn is a city in Harnett County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 9,263 at the 2010 census, and an estimated 9,873 in 2016. It is the anchor city of the Dunn Micropolitan Area, population 114,678, which is a part of the greater Raleigh-Durham-Cary Combined Statistical Area as defined by the United States Census Bureau.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
32 per 100k · #9 highest murder rate in North Carolina
Located in
Gaston County, North CarolinaCherryville is a small city in northwestern Gaston County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 5,760 at the 2010 census. The New Year’s Shooters celebrate the area’s German heritage by beginning each year with a customary chant and the honorary shooting of muskets. Cherryville is located approximately 30 miles west of Charlotte and 13 miles northwest of Gastonia.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
30 per 100k · #10 highest murder rate in North Carolina
Located in
Rowan County, North CarolinaSalisbury SAULZ-ber-ee is a city in North Carolina and the county seat of Rowan County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 33,663 in the 2010 Census. Salisbury is the home to famed North Carolina soft drink, Cheerwine, regional supermarket Food Lion, and the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. It is one of only two cities in North Carolina to have gigabit capacity through its municipally-owned broadband system Fibrant. A press conference held September 3, 2015 at Catawba College announced Salisbury’s Fibrant system is now capable of 10 gigabit capacity town-wide; believed to be the only town owned system in the world with this capacity.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is North Carolina’s statewide median.
On the map
Where North Carolina’s murders happen
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we calculated the murder capitals of North Carolina
While there are surveys and public polls on what cities in a state are the most dangerous, we wanted to rely on something other than speculation and opinion. Instead, we used Saturday Night Science to compare the hard numbers from the FBI’s last year of reporting. Specifically, we analyzed the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, which summarizes the number of murders in each city annually.
We only looked at every single city in North Carolina for which FBI data was available for the most recent FBI Crime In The United States. That left us with 63 cities to rank.
We took the number of murders per capita as the ranking factor. The place with the most murders per capita based on the most recent data is Bessemer City. It is our eleventh time ranking the places with the most murders per capita in North Carolina. We updated the list for 2026.
The full plate
Murder Rates By City In North Carolina
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | Murders | Murders/100K |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bessemer City | 5,685 | 5 | 88 |
| 2 | Laurinburg | 14,994 | 9 | 60 |
| 3 | Rockingham | 8,786 | 5 | 57 |
| 4 | Lumberton | 19,087 | 10 | 52 |
| 5 | Goldsboro | 33,444 | 15 | 45 |
| 6 | Washington | 9,616 | 4 | 42 |
| 7 | Ayden | 5,126 | 2 | 39 |
| 8 | Dunn | 8,633 | 3 | 35 |
| 9 | Cherryville | 6,342 | 2 | 32 |
| 10 | Salisbury | 36,564 | 11 | 30 |
| 11 | Henderson | 14,791 | 4 | 27 |
| 12 | Wilson | 47,825 | 12 | 25 |
| 13 | Shelby | 22,028 | 5 | 23 |
| 14 | Kinston | 19,298 | 4 | 21 |
| 15 | Hillsborough | 9,788 | 2 | 20 |
| 16 | Waynesville | 10,813 | 2 | 18 |
| 17 | Tarboro | 10,920 | 2 | 18 |
| 18 | Thomasville | 27,525 | 5 | 18 |
| 19 | Kings Mountain | 12,045 | 2 | 17 |
| 20 | Dallas | 6,225 | 1 | 16 |
| 21 | Graham | 18,772 | 3 | 16 |
| 22 | Elizabeth City | 19,064 | 3 | 16 |
| 23 | Lexington | 19,899 | 3 | 15 |
| 24 | Carolina Beach | 6,917 | 1 | 14 |
| 25 | Greensboro | 304,306 | 43 | 14 |
| 26 | Rocky Mount | 54,223 | 7 | 13 |
| 27 | Asheville | 95,219 | 12 | 13 |
| 28 | Fayetteville | 209,945 | 26 | 12 |
| 29 | Durham | 300,208 | 37 | 12 |
| 30 | New Bern | 32,548 | 4 | 12 |
| 31 | Fletcher | 8,219 | 1 | 12 |
| 32 | Roxboro | 8,235 | 1 | 12 |
| 33 | Clinton | 8,300 | 1 | 12 |
| 34 | Winston-Salem | 254,041 | 29 | 11 |
| 35 | Oxford | 9,032 | 1 | 11 |
| 36 | Charlotte-Mecklenburg | 1,003,130 | 109 | 11 |
| 37 | Greenville | 90,871 | 9 | 10 |
| 38 | Kannapolis | 60,725 | 6 | 10 |
| 39 | Zebulon | 10,356 | 1 | 10 |
| 40 | Mount Airy | 10,590 | 1 | 9 |
| 41 | Smithfield | 12,852 | 1 | 8 |
| 42 | Monroe | 38,903 | 3 | 8 |
| 43 | Newton | 13,479 | 1 | 7 |
| 44 | Kernersville | 28,522 | 2 | 7 |
| 45 | Roanoke Rapids | 14,497 | 1 | 7 |
| 46 | Burlington | 60,906 | 4 | 7 |
| 47 | Hendersonville | 15,561 | 1 | 6 |
| 48 | Wilmington | 125,101 | 7 | 6 |
| 49 | Mount Holly | 18,581 | 1 | 5 |
| 50 | Concord | 111,922 | 6 | 5 |
| 51 | Raleigh | 488,085 | 25 | 5 |
| 52 | Carrboro | 21,045 | 1 | 5 |
| 53 | Gastonia | 85,112 | 4 | 5 |
| 54 | Mooresville | 54,823 | 2 | 4 |
| 55 | Wake Forest | 55,872 | 2 | 4 |
| 56 | Morrisville | 32,336 | 1 | 3 |
| 57 | Cornelius | 33,699 | 1 | 3 |
| 58 | Garner | 36,720 | 1 | 3 |
| 59 | High Point | 117,629 | 3 | 3 |
| 60 | Hickory | 44,682 | 1 | 2 |
| 61 | Cary | 181,793 | 3 | 2 |
| 62 | Chapel Hill | 63,906 | 1 | 2 |
| 63 | Huntersville | 65,752 | 1 | 2 |
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report. 63 North Carolina cities that reported a murder.
Summary
Summary: The Places With The Most Murders In North Carolina For 2026
If you’re looking at the places in North Carolina with the most murders, and where residents have the highest chances of being killed themselves, this is an accurate list. Again, these statistics are an indication of where crimes occur, not a statement about the effectiveness of the law enforcement in the areas they serve.
The cities with the highest murder per capita in North Carolina are Bessemer City, Laurinburg, Rockingham, Lumberton, Goldsboro, Washington, Ayden, Dunn, Cherryville, and Salisbury.
