Photo: Harrison Keely · CC BY 4.0Crime reported in Highlands, NC
Highlands’ police reported to the FBI for 2023 and 2024 but not 2025, so there is no Safety Grade: the grade needs all three years, 2023–2025.
For every 1,000 residents, about 17 property crimes reported
And no violent crimes, in 2024. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2024
Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2024
Crimes reported to police in 2024 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.
The years Highlands’ police reported
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents, against the rest of North Carolina. A year the department didn’t report in full is a gap, not a zero.
Show as a table
| Year | Highlands | Rest of North Carolina | Highlands | Rest of North Carolina |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 39.9 | 28.9 | 0.0 | 5.7 |
| 2023 | 38.7 | 29.6 | 0.9 | 5.5 |
| 2024 | 16.9 | 28.8 | 0.0 | 5.3 |
| 2025 | not reported | 25.2 | not reported | 4.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
19 crimes reported in 2024
0 violent and 19 property, as reported to the FBI by Highlands’ police.
2024 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
The nearest North Carolina towns with a Safety Grade
Each town’s own police figures, per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
| Town | Grade | Distance | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin | C− | 14 mi | 2.1 | 26.4 |
| Sylva | D− | 22 mi | 6.9 | 41.2 |
| Bryson City | C− | 29 mi | 5.5 | 13.3 |
| Brevard | B− | 30 mi | 1.6 | 11.1 |
| Waynesville | D | 32 mi | 4.9 | 30.6 |
| Hendersonville | C− | 46 mi | 3.0 | 29.5 |
Straight-line distance from the center of Highlands. Nearby towns can differ a lot from Highlands.
No one died in a crash on Highlands’s roads in 2019–2023
That is about what is typical for North Carolina towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (7.4 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Highlands’s size would see about 0 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Highlands’s own rate (0.0) 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.
Highlands and its neighbors
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|
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 Highlands. 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 Highlands’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (1,122 in 2024); our figure for Highlands is 1,127 (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 Highlands
Is Highlands, NC safe?
There is no Safety Grade for Highlands. Highlands’ police reported to the FBI for 2023 and 2024 but not 2025, so there is no Safety Grade: the grade needs all three years, 2023–2025. The nearest North Carolina towns with a grade are Franklin (C−, 14 mi), Sylva (D−, 22 mi), Bryson City (C−, 29 mi).
Who polices Highlands?
Highlands’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Highlands”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Neighbors looking out for each other in Highlands.
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, 2024, 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.