The Chapel Hill metro area, the 97th-largest in the US, is home to 601,700 residents · Updated November 2026
How common is violent crime in the Chapel Hill area?
Violent crime in the Chapel Hill area runs higher than in most US neighborhoods: an A-, with more violent crime than the neighborhoods where 65% of Americans live. Assaults make up 90% of it, and most of those are simple assaults, which involve no weapon and no serious injury. The city of Chapel Hill itself grades A for violent crime.
A-
Violent crime CrimeGrade™
Safety score 784 of 1,000More violent crime than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
35% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more violent crime than the Chapel Hill area as a whole, and 65% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a violent crime safety score of 860, a CrimeGrade™ of A. The Chapel Hill area scores 784.
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 violent crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its violent crime with the people who spend time there, on one national scale, from green for the least to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy downtown or nightlife strip can show red while the homes around it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a solid 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
What stands out about violent crime in the Chapel Hill area
Crime per resident runs lower than the grade suggests. Few people come to the Chapel Hill area to work or shop: it has only 9.2 stores and restaurants for every 1,000 residents, against 10.5 nationally. With few visitors, its crime per resident looks lower than its CrimeGrade™ suggests. The CrimeGrade™ weighs each crime against the people, homes and parked cars actually here.
Where violent crime is lowest and highest in the Chapel Hill area
In the Chapel Hill area, 77% of residents live in areas graded A or B for violent crime, 8% in areas graded C and 15% in areas graded D or F. Violent crime grades across the Chapel Hill area run from A+ to F.
77%15%
A or B 77%C 8%D or F 15%
Share of residents, by the violent crime CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Neighborhoods of Chapel Hill
1Downing Creek, southeastSimple assaults run at less than half the rate in the rest of Chapel Hill.A+953
2Highgrove, Southern Village & University Commons, southSimple assaults run about 40% lower here than in the rest of Chapel Hill.A+928
3Meadowmont, eastClose to the rest of Chapel Hill on most crimes.A895
4Providence Glen & Lake Forest, northeastSimple assaults run about 50% higher here than in the rest of Chapel Hill.A870
6The Estates at Chapel Hil, northSimple assaults run about 50% higher here than in the rest of Chapel Hill.A867
Neighborhood areas of the city of Chapel Hill, ranked by violent crime 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 violent crime CrimeGrade™; beside each grade is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer), and the other numbers are residents.
Is violent crime going up in the Chapel Hill area?
Reported violent crime in the Chapel Hill area has fallen 10% since 2019. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 4.6 to 4.1 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7). Violent crime changed little from 2023 to 2024.
Violent 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
2016
+8%
+4%
2017
+9%
+4%
2018
-2%
+0%
2019
+0%
+0%
2020
+19%
+4%
2021
+7%
+6%
2022
+1%
+5%
2023
-6%
+2%
2024
-10%
-4%
Violent crime rates and types in the Chapel Hill area
CrimeGrade™ estimates the Chapel Hill area has about 14 reported violent crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about the same as the US as a whole and close to North Carolina.
All violent crime
Assaults
Robbery
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. Violent crime here includes simple assaults, which the FBI's violent crime rate leaves out.
Assault is the most common violent crime in the Chapel Hill area, about 90% of the total. Murder and rape are far rarer, but they account for 50% of the cost of violent crime here.
Each CrimeGrade™ here compares a violent crime with the people who spend time in an area, not only the people who live there. 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 violent 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, 53% of aggravated assaults happen at a home, against 53% nationally. Robberies happen most often at stores and businesses: 40% of them.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
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.
Violent crime in the Chapel Hill area and nearby metro areas
The Chapel Hill area has less violent crime than 6 of its 10 nearest metro areas.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from the Chapel Hill area. Beside each violent crime 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 violent crime than 63% of them.
Among the traits that tend to go with violent crime, one 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.
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
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery.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 violent crime costs the Chapel Hill area
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, violent crime costs the Chapel Hill area about $1.06 billion a year, or $1,755 per resident. The costs that reach a bill, such as medical care, lost work and the justice system, come to about $212 million, or $352 per resident.
Billed cost of violent crime per resident, per year
How the cost breaks down
Pain and suffering are about 80% of that full cost.
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$91 million
$151
Rape
$14 million
$23
Robbery
$17 million
$29
Assault
$89 million
$149
Total
$212 million
$352
How CrimeGrade™ works
The violent crime CrimeGrade™ covers murder, rape, robbery and assault, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most, on one scale for the whole country.
It weighs each violent crime against the people who spend time in an area, so a busy downtown is graded on its workers and visitors as well as its residents.
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.
