The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Graham, NC
Graham is a city of 30,200 in Alamance County, about 5 miles southeast of downtown Burlington · Updated November 2026
Is Graham, NC safe?
Mostly, yes. Crime in Graham is low, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of A-, but most US neighborhoods are safer still: Graham has more crime than the neighborhoods where 61% of Americans live. Property crime grades better than violent crime here, A- against B+. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Graham run from A+ to D-, so check the map below.
A-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 771 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
39% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Graham as a whole, and 61% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Graham scores 771.
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 Graham, NC at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Graham, 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
What stands out in Graham
Robberies run high for an A-graded city. Graham has 0.42 robberies a year per 1,000 residents; for the typical resident of an A-graded US city, the figure is 0.13.
Car thefts happen in parking lots and garages far more often than nationally. In Graham, 46% of reported car thefts happen in parking lots and garages, against 23% nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Graham
Most of Graham grades well: 80% of residents live in areas graded A or B, and 10% in areas graded D or F. Grades across Graham run from A+ to D-; 45% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
80%10%10%
A or B 80%C 10%D or F 10%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Graham, the southeast side has the least crime and the northwest side the most.
Is crime going up in Graham?
Reported violent crime in Graham peaked in 2021 and has fallen 25% since, back near its 2019 level. Property crime is down 25% from 2019. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 3.4 to 3.5 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 25 to 19 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
GrahamUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police department that serves Graham. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Graham
Violent, US
Property, Graham
Property, US
2016
+56%
+4%
+34%
+15%
2017
-18%
+4%
+10%
+12%
2018
-12%
+0%
+3%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+34%
+4%
-14%
-8%
2021
+34%
+6%
-4%
-10%
2022
+25%
+5%
-18%
-6%
2023
+19%
+2%
-20%
-7%
2024
+1%
-4%
-25%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Graham
CrimeGrade™ estimates Graham has about 38 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about the same as the US as a whole and close to 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.
The largest share of crime reported in Graham is assault, about 47% of the total. It also makes up the largest share of what crime costs here.
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 Graham
Graham has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
In Graham, 61% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 52% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (61%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Parking lots and garages (46%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (52%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Vandalism
Homes (45%)
Morning (6 am to noon)
Aggravated assault
Homes (58%)
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 Graham compares with nearby cities
Of the 8 cities closest to Graham, 6 have less crime. Alamance and Elon have the least.
Two things set Graham apart: it has a Walk Grade of D- (7 of 100) on BestNeighborhood, against 21 for the US as a whole, and 5% of its residents in dense blocks, against 24% nationally. Places like that tend to report less theft and assault, yet assault runs higher here than that would suggest.
Walk GradeBestNeighborhood's grade for getting through daily life on foot, traced along real walking routes to shops, schools and parks. Walkable places tend to report more theft and assault. 94% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D- (7 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 86% of US city residents
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.58% where people liveUS: 78%Lower than for 84% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.7.8 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 75% of US city residents
Show all 6
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.5% of residentsUS: 24%Lower than for 75% of US city residents
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary, vandalism and arson.7.9% of homesUS: 7.1%Higher than for 71% of US city residents
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more theft and robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for Graham: F (1 of 100).under 1 trip an hourUS: noneLower than for 64% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Graham on shops, parks, home prices, getting around and more.
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 Graham
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Graham about $1,253 a year per household, about the same as the US figure of $1,205.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost comes to about $51 million a year, or $1,699 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$4.2 million
$138
Rape
$620,000
$21
Robbery
$390,000
$13
Assault
$5.2 million
$172
Burglary
$670,000
$22
Theft
$1.5 million
$51
Vehicle theft
$990,000
$33
Arson
$100,000
$3
Vandalism
$950,000
$32
Total
$15 million
$485
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 Graham 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. 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
Published research on what crime costs victims and communities
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 Graham, NC average a SchoolGrade of D: 43% of students test proficient, against 42% projected for schools like them. Overall, they underperform expectations. See schools in Graham on SchoolGrade
