Pinehurst and Elon are the safest cities in North Carolina, and Cary, Fuquay-Varina, and Apex are in the top, according to a recent report by the National Council for Home Safety and Security.
But the rankings aren’t entirely comprehensive—some of North Carolina’s largest cities, including Raleigh and Durham, weren’t included in the data.
The council used data from the FBI’s latest Uniform Crime Reporting program, which compiles statistics from local law enforcement agencies in order to map out crime rates and trends across the country. Local law enforcement are not required to send their data to the FBI, however, which may explain why some major cities are not represented in the rankings.
Additionally, the FBI requires local law enforcement to provide a full twelve months of data in order to be included in its annual publication. Agencies that do not submit their data in time are omitted.
Although the FBI was unable to provide crime statistics for Raleigh and Durham, the State Bureau of Investigation did include that data in its 2016 report. That’s partly because its publication is released later in the year, which gives local law enforcement agencies more time to pass along their statistics. According to SBI figures, Raleigh saw 1,780 violent crimes in 2016, down from 1,909 in 2015. Durham’s overall crime rate dropped by 4 percent, yet Durham saw a slight rise in violent crimesー2,223 in 2016, compared to 2,182 in 2015.
The SBI also reported a 5.2 percent rise in violent crime across the entire state, while the rate of property crime fell by 1.4 percent.
From the FBI’s data—and not at all surprisingly—Lumberton may be the most dangerous city in the state. Residents there have a one-in-fifty-five chance of being the victim of a violent crime. Whereas in Lumberton, there are about eighteen violent crimes for every thousand people, in Holly Springs, there are only 0.27. Quite the difference.
