Photo: Property of PLCMC · CC BY-SA 2.0Cornelius reports less crime per resident than 61% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Cornelius’ police in 2023–2025, it grades B for safety: #17 of 163 graded towns in North Carolina.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of NC” is every other North Carolina city and town in the FBI’s tables; the U.S. figure is the FBI’s national estimate as published, averaged over the three years. The FBI publishes no national homicide or robbery rate in our data, so those compare with all U.S. cities and towns in its tables.
What stands out about safety in Cornelius
1 of the 2 graded towns next door reports less crime
Of the 2 North Carolina towns on Cornelius’ borders, 2 have a Safety Grade: Davidson (A), Huntersville (B−). Neighbors ↓
Among North Carolina towns, higher
North Carolina’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Cornelius’ place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 90% of the 163 North Carolina towns we grade, against 61% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Cornelius’ grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Both violent and property crime are lower than in most U.S. towns; violent crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Cornelius’ police reported 126 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.2 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.1 in the rest of North Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Cornelius | Rest of North Carolina | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.3 | 5.8 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.4 | 5.5 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 1.0 | 5.3 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 1.3 | 4.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
For every 1,000 residents, about 10 property crimes reported
And about 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Crimes reported to police in 2025 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.
Reported crime is steady
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of North Carolina.
Show as a table
| Year | Cornelius property | Rest of North Carolina property | Cornelius violent | Rest of North Carolina violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 10.1 | 29.0 | 1.3 | 5.8 |
| 2023 | 8.7 | 29.8 | 1.4 | 5.5 |
| 2024 | 10.4 | 28.9 | 1.0 | 5.3 |
| 2025 | 9.5 | 25.3 | 1.3 | 4.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
379 crimes reported in 2025
44 violent and 335 property, as reported to the FBI by Cornelius’ police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
Two people died in crashes on Cornelius’s roads in 2019–2023
Cornelius had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which two people died; 1 was a pedestrian.
That is fewer than is typical for North Carolina towns of 25,000–100,000 people: at their median rate (7.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Cornelius’s size would see about 13 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Cornelius’s own rate (1.2) is context, not a ranking.
Deaths are counted where the crash happened, not where the people lived: a highway through town adds through-traffic deaths, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Town rates sit below state and U.S. rates because a third of fatal crashes happen outside any town. Road safety is described here and is not part of the Safety Grade. Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023.
Cornelius and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cornelius | B | 1.2 | 9.5 |
| Huntersville | B− | 1.5 | 13.0 |
| Davidson | A | 0.3 | 3.6 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- It’s reported crime. Only incidents reported to and recorded by police appear here. Many crimes are never reported to police.
- One number for all of Cornelius. A town-wide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of town to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Cornelius’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (35,117 in 2025); our figure for Cornelius is 35,094 (2025 Census estimate).
- Gaps are real gaps. A missing year means the department didn’t report a full year, not that nothing happened.
How the grade is calculated, for every town: How TownRatings grades safety →
Questions about safety in Cornelius
Is Cornelius, NC safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Cornelius reports less crime per resident than 61% of U.S. towns, a B Safety Grade and #17 of 163 in North Carolina. Its police reported 1.2 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.1 in the rest of North Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Cornelius?
1.2 violent and 9.5 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of North Carolina reports 5.1 and 28.0; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Cornelius?
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings.
How many homicides were there in Cornelius in 2025?
Cornelius’s police reported 1 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 2.8 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Is Cornelius safer than Huntersville?
Huntersville reports more crime per resident than Cornelius: Huntersville grades B− for safety and Cornelius B. Huntersville’s police reported 1.5 violent and 13.0 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Cornelius?
Cornelius’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Cornelius”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Cornelius.
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Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Crime: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer: offenses known to law enforcement by city, 2025, and state and national rates. Counts are crimes reported to police, not convictions. The Safety Grade is our own summary of that data, not an official rating. Road deaths: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023. This isn’t an official statement of public safety. In an emergency, call 911.