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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.
So we wanted to get the facts straight and dug into the FBI crime data in order to identify the places with the most murders and the highest murder rates per capita in North Carolina.
The result is the Murder Capitals of the Tar Heel State for 2021:
- Henderson (Photos)
- Rocky Mount (Photos)
- Greensboro (Photos)
- High Point (Photos)
- Oxford (Photos)
- Burlington (Photos)
- Waynesville (Photos)
- Durham (Photos)
- Roanoke Rapids (Photos)
- Eden (Photos)
The city with highest murder rate in North Carolina? That would be Henderson with 53.8 murders per 100,000 people.
While the city with highest number of murders period? Charlotte-Mecklenburg with 103.
Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town ranked. There were 'only' 55 cities in North Carolina where a city reported a murder to the FBI, meaning 36 places had no murder.
For more reading on the Tar Heel State check out:
- Best Places To Live In North Carolina
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The 10 Murder Capitals Of North Carolina For 2021
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 didn't want to rely on speculation and opinion. Instead, we looked at 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 that may happen in each city per year.
We only looked 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 55 cities to rank.
Finally, we averaged the two scores into an index:
- The raw number of murders in each city
- The murders per person
We felt as if a small place with 2,500 people and two murders makes it a lot more dangerous than a city of 25,000 people with three murders. Any ties went to the larger city. You can download the data here.
We must note that this report is not an analysis of the effectiveness of local police departments. It simply states where murders occurred most frequently on an absolute and rate basis.
There You Have It - The Places With The Most Murders In North Carolina For 2021
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.
For more north carolina reading, check out:
- Best Places To Raise A Family In North Carolina
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- Worst Places To Live In North Carolina
