Hickory Municipal Building · Photo: Tylerg · CC BY-SA 3.0Hickory reports more crime per resident than 90% of U.S. towns
On crimes reported to the FBI by Hickory’s police in 2023–2025, it grades D for safety: #110 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 Hickory
2 of the 2 graded towns next door report less crime
Of the 7 North Carolina towns on Hickory’s borders, 2 have a Safety Grade: Granite Falls (C−), Newton (C−). St. Stephens, Mountain View and Northlakes are unincorporated communities (census-designated places) with no police department of their own. Long View and Conover have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025. Neighbors ↓
Among North Carolina towns, closer to the middle
North Carolina’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Hickory’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 33% of the 163 North Carolina towns we grade, against 10% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A job center
Hickory has 44,453 jobs based in town for 45,975 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Hickory’s 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 higher than in most U.S. towns; violent crime is the closer of the two to typical.
For every 1,000 residents, about 29 property crimes reported
And about 6 violent crimes, 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.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Hickory’s police reported 658 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 4.9 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.0 in the rest of North Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Show as a table
| Year | Hickory | Rest of North Carolina | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 5.3 | 5.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 5.0 | 5.5 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 4.1 | 5.3 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 5.6 | 4.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
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 | Hickory property | Rest of North Carolina property | Hickory violent | Rest of North Carolina violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 35.0 | 28.8 | 5.3 | 5.7 |
| 2023 | 30.1 | 29.6 | 5.0 | 5.5 |
| 2024 | 28.2 | 28.8 | 4.1 | 5.3 |
| 2025 | 28.9 | 25.2 | 5.6 | 4.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
1,568 crimes reported in 2025
256 violent and 1,312 property, as reported to the FBI by Hickory’s police.
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
34 people died in crashes on Hickory’s roads in 2019–2023
Hickory had 31 fatal crashes in five years, in which 34 people died; 7 were pedestrians. 1 died in crash on an Interstate.
That is 15.4 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for North Carolina towns of 25,000–100,000 people (7.9, 33 towns).
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.
Hickory and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hickory | D | 4.9 | 29.1 |
| St. Stephens | — | — | — |
| Mountain View | — | — | — |
| Long View | — | — | — |
| Conover | — | — | — |
| Northlakes | — | — | — |
| Newton | C− | 4.1 | 20.9 |
| Granite Falls | C− | 1.5 | 28.3 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. St. Stephens, Mountain View and Northlakes are unincorporated communities (census-designated places) with no police department of their own. Long View and Conover have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
North Carolina towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hickory | D | 4.9 | 29.1 |
| Fuquay-Varina | A− | 0.7 | 5.5 |
| Holly Springs | B+ | 1.0 | 8.6 |
| Wilson | D | 5.3 | 23.9 |
| Monroe | D | 6.7 | 30.5 |
| Garner | D | 4.3 | 40.1 |
The five graded North Carolina towns closest to Hickory’s population (45,975), by grade.
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 Hickory. 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 Hickory’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (45,436 in 2025); our figure for Hickory is 45,975 (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 Hickory
Is Hickory, NC safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Hickory reports more crime per resident than 90% of U.S. towns, a D Safety Grade and #110 of 163 in North Carolina. Its police reported 4.9 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.0 in the rest of North Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Hickory?
4.9 violent and 29.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of North Carolina reports 5.0 and 27.9; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Is crime going up or down in Hickory?
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 Hickory in 2025?
Hickory’s police reported 6 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 13.2 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Is Hickory safer than Newton?
Newton reports less crime per resident than Hickory: Newton grades C− for safety and Hickory D. Newton’s police reported 4.1 violent and 20.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Hickory?
Hickory’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Hickory”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Hickory.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
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.