Photo: Harris Walker · CC BY 2.0Rocky Mount has more crime per resident than 96% of U.S. towns
It has more violent crime than 95% of U.S. towns, and more property crime than 94%. Add to that, a Safety Grade of D− follows from crimes Rocky Mount’s police reported over the years 2023 to 2025: #137 of 163 graded towns in North Carolina. Police counts work out at 7.7 violent crimes and 35.4 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents annually; in the rest of North Carolina they are 5.0 and 27.8. The crimes the grade counts held steady per resident from 2023 to 2025.
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 Rocky Mount
Among North Carolina towns, closer to the middle
North Carolina’s cities and towns report more crime than most states’, so Rocky Mount’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 16% of the 163 North Carolina towns we grade, against 4% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
Reported crime is falling
Crime reported per resident fell from 2023 to 2025 by more than ordinary year-to-year swings, on the grade’s own score. Trend ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Rocky Mount’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; property crime is the closer of the two to typical.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Rocky Mount | Rest of North Carolina | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 8.8 | 5.7 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 8.8 | 5.4 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 7.7 | 5.3 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 6.7 | 4.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Rocky Mount’s police reported 1,253 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 7.7 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.0 in the rest of North Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Rocky Mount per 1,000 residents
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.
And about 7 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Rocky Mount property | Rest of North Carolina property | Rocky Mount violent | Rest of North Carolina violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 27.7 | 28.9 | 8.8 | 5.7 |
| 2023 | 32.7 | 29.6 | 8.8 | 5.4 |
| 2024 | 39.8 | 28.7 | 7.7 | 5.3 |
| 2025 | 33.6 | 25.2 | 6.7 | 4.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident fell from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of North Carolina.
2,200 crimes reported in 2025
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
366 violent and 1,834 property, as reported to the FBI by Rocky Mount’s police.
42 people died in crashes on Rocky Mount’s roads in 2019–2023
Rocky Mount had 40 fatal crashes in five years, in which 42 people died; 5 were pedestrians and 2 were cyclists.
That is 15.5 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.
Rocky Mount and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Mount | D− | 7.7 | 35.4 |
| Dortches | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Dortches has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
North Carolina towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocky Mount | D− | 7.7 | 35.4 |
| Holly Springs | B+ | 1.0 | 8.6 |
| Wake Forest | B− | 1.3 | 12.9 |
| Mooresville | C | 2.2 | 20.7 |
| Wilson | D | 5.3 | 23.9 |
| Burlington | D | 8.0 | 31.3 |
The five graded North Carolina towns closest to Rocky Mount’s population (55,120), by grade.
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
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 Rocky Mount. A citywide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of the city to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Rocky Mount’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (54,581 in 2025); our figure for Rocky Mount is 55,120 (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 Rocky Mount
Is Rocky Mount, NC safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Rocky Mount reports more crime per resident than 96% of U.S. towns, a D− Safety Grade and #137 of 163 in North Carolina. Its police reported 7.7 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 Rocky Mount?
7.7 violent and 35.4 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of North Carolina reports 5.0 and 27.8; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
How many homicides were there in Rocky Mount in 2025?
Rocky Mount’s police reported 15 homicides to the FBI for 2025, 27.5 per 100,000 residents. Across U.S. cities and towns in the FBI’s tables the 2025 figure was 4.6.
Who polices Rocky Mount?
Rocky Mount’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Rocky Mount”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Rocky Mount.
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.