The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Chapel Hill, NC
The Chapel Hill metro area, the 97th-largest in the US, is home to 601,700 residents · Updated November 2026
Is Chapel Hill, NC safe?
Mostly, yes. Crime in the Chapel Hill area is low, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of A-, but most US neighborhoods are safer still: the Chapel Hill area has more crime than the neighborhoods where 61% of Americans live. Violent crime grades A- and property crime B+. The city of Chapel Hill itself grades A. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within the Chapel Hill area run from A+ to F, so check the map or the safest and least safe places below.
A-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 773 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
39% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than the Chapel Hill area as a whole, and 61% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. The Chapel Hill area scores 773.
Crime is concentrated in a small share of places, so most neighborhoods score high on the 0 to 1,000 scale. That is why a score in the 800s can still mean more crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its crime with the people, homes and cars there, on one national scale, from green for the least crime to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy shopping center can show red while the homes beside it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a strong connection. Compare high speed internet in Chapel Hill, NC at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in the Chapel Hill area, and anyone thinking about buying or renting a home there.
Business and enterprise customers: this free map shows neighborhood areas. CrimeGrade™ business reports map crime at about 66-meter detail and estimate it for one address and type of business. See business reports
Robbery stands out among A-graded metro areas. For the typical resident of an A-graded US metro area, the figure is 0.34 robberies a year per 1,000 residents; the Chapel Hill area has 0.93.
Car thefts happen at homes far more often than nationally. In the Chapel Hill area, 63% of reported car thefts happen at homes, against 33% nationally.
The safest and most dangerous places in the Chapel Hill area
In the Chapel Hill area, 75% of residents live in areas graded A or B, 10% in areas graded C and 15% in areas graded D or F. Grades across the Chapel Hill area run from A+ to F; 42% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
75%10%15%
A or B 75%C 10%D or F 15%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhoods of Chapel Hill
1Downing Creek, southeastThefts run at a small fraction of the rate in the rest of Chapel Hill.A+942
2Highgrove, Southern Village & University Commons, southSimple assaults run about 40% lower here than in the rest of Chapel Hill.A893
3Meadowmont, eastCar thefts run about 40% higher here than in the rest of Chapel Hill.A851
4The Estates at Chapel Hil, northThefts run about 50% higher here than in the rest of Chapel Hill.A-835
5Providence Glen & Lake Forest, northeastCar thefts run about 80% higher here than in the rest of Chapel Hill.A-822
Neighborhood areas of the city of Chapel Hill, ranked by overall CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer). Each one combines several of the smaller areas on the map.
Cities and towns in the Chapel Hill metro area with at least 1,000 residents. Ranked by overall CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer), and the other numbers are residents.
Across the area, the Pittsboro and Siler City areas have the least crime and the Durham area the most.
Is crime going up in the Chapel Hill area?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in the Chapel Hill area is down 10%, while property crime has held about steady. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 4.6 to 4.1 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts stayed at about 27 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
Chapel Hill areaUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments across the Chapel Hill area. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Chapel Hill area
Violent, US
Property, Chapel Hill area
Property, US
2016
+8%
+4%
+3%
+15%
2017
+9%
+4%
+5%
+12%
2018
-2%
+0%
-5%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+19%
+4%
-1%
-8%
2021
+7%
+6%
-9%
-10%
2022
+1%
+5%
-10%
-6%
2023
-6%
+2%
+2%
-7%
2024
-10%
-4%
-1%
-15%
Crime rates and types in the Chapel Hill area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Chapel Hill area has about 47 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 25% more than the US as a whole and 15% more than North Carolina.
Overall crime
Violent crime
Property crime
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. These figures include simple assaults and vandalism, which the FBI's violent and property crime rates leave out.
Theft is the most common crime in the Chapel Hill area, about 41% of everything reported, but murder costs more, because each one does far more harm.
Each CrimeGrade™ compares a crime with what it affects: people for assaults and robbery, homes for burglary, parked cars for vehicle theft. Rates count crimes per 1,000 residents.
Select a crime's name to see its map above. CrimeGrade™ business reports map each crime at about 66-meter detail.
Where and when crime happens in the Chapel Hill area
These figures come from the reports of the police departments across the Chapel Hill area, 2022 to 2024.
In the Chapel Hill area, 63% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often at homes: 52% of them, against 34% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (63%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Homes (63%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Homes (52%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (52%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (40%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (53%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
How the Chapel Hill area compares with nearby metro areas
The Chapel Hill area has more crime than 6 of its 10 nearest metro areas. The Raleigh area and the Greenville area have the least crime nearby.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Chapel Hill area. Beside each overall CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with metro areas of similar size and density, the Chapel Hill area has more crime than 60% of them.
Night lighting, transit and empty homes in the Chapel Hill area
One thing sets the Chapel Hill area apart: it has 10 buses and trains an hour at the evening rush, where most Americans have none nearby. Places like that tend to report more robbery, and it runs high here.
Lit at nightSatellite images show which neighborhoods are lit at night, a sign of busy streets and businesses. Brightly lit places tend to report more theft and vandalism.70% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 85% of Americans in metro areas
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for the Chapel Hill area: D (13 of 100).10 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 78% of Americans in metro areas
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary.7.5% of homesUS: 7.1%Higher than for 77% of Americans in metro areas
Show all 4
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.13% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 68% of Americans in metro areas
These traits tend to go with more or less crime; none of them causes it on its own. Sources: Census job counts and housing figures, OpenStreetMap and Overture business listings, CrimeGrade™ parking estimates, NASA night-light imagery, US Forest Service tree cover, EPA transit data and BestNeighborhood's Walk Grade.
What crime costs the Chapel Hill area
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs the Chapel Hill area about $1,479 a year per household, 23% more than the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $354 million a year.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost rises to about $1.20 billion a year, or $1,995 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$91 million
$151
Rape
$14 million
$23
Robbery
$17 million
$29
Assault
$89 million
$149
Burglary
$19 million
$32
Theft
$60 million
$99
Vehicle theft
$36 million
$60
Arson
$1.5 million
$2
Vandalism
$25 million
$42
Total
$354 million
$588
How CrimeGrade™ works
A CrimeGrade™ shows how much crime an area has compared with the rest of the country, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most. Every neighborhood in the US is graded on the same scale, so a B in the Chapel Hill area means the same as a B anywhere else.
CrimeGrade™ starts from the crimes people report to police and measures each kind of crime against what it affects: people for assaults, homes for burglaries, parked cars for car thefts.
The rates on this page count crimes for every 1,000 people who live here, the way police departments report them.
Comparisons with US neighborhoods use the Census Bureau's block groups, small areas of about 1,400 residents, and count the people who live in each. These figures cover the whole Chapel Hill metro area. The figures count crimes reported to police; many crimes, shoplifting above all, never are. Behind the grades, CrimeGrade™ tested 21,607 factors from 125 data families. For business owners, paid CrimeGrade™ location reports estimate crime at a single address for each type of business.
Where the numbers come from
Crime reports that police departments file with the FBI
State crime records and city crime data, where they are published
These are estimates of reported crime for whole areas, not a record of what happened on any one street. CrimeGrade™ updates them once a year and provides them free and without guarantee. Check local sources before you rely on them for a decision.
Schools in the Chapel Hill area average a SchoolGrade of B-: 58% of students test proficient, against 46% projected for schools like them. Overall, they exceed expectations. See schools in the Chapel Hill area on SchoolGrade
