Photo: Gerry Dincher from Hope Mills, NC · CC BY-SA 2.0Southern Pines has more crime per resident than 78% of U.S. towns
Of the 3 towns on its borders with figures, 2 record less crime per resident. Police counts work out at 3.5 violent crimes and 19.7 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents annually; in the rest of North Carolina they are 5.0 and 27.9. Graded on crimes Southern Pines’ police reported from 2023 to 2025, it scores C− for safety: #76 of 163 graded towns in North Carolina. Per resident, the graded crimes were up 18% 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 Southern Pines
2 of the 3 graded towns next door report less crime
Of the 4 North Carolina towns on Southern Pines’ borders, 3 have a Safety Grade: Whispering Pines (A+), Pinehurst (A), Aberdeen (C−). Carthage has no FBI figures of its 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 Southern Pines’ place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 53% of the 163 North Carolina towns we grade, against 22% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A college town
Southern Pines is home to Sandhills Community College, with 2,414 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 5% of residents are enrolled in college (Census). Students who live in town count as residents, so they are part of the per-resident rate. How to read it ↓
Reported crime is rising
Crime reported per resident rose 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 Southern Pines’ 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. Its violent rate (3.5) is below the FBI’s national estimate (3.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
Reported crime per resident, 2023 to 2025
Show as a table
| Year | Southern Pines property | Rest of North Carolina property | Southern Pines violent | Rest of North Carolina violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 19.9 | 28.9 | 2.4 | 5.8 |
| 2023 | 18.0 | 29.7 | 3.0 | 5.5 |
| 2024 | 20.3 | 28.9 | 3.7 | 5.3 |
| 2025 | 20.9 | 25.2 | 3.8 | 4.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident rose from 2023 to 2025, by more than ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of North Carolina.
Crime in Southern Pines 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 4 violent crimes, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Southern Pines | Rest of North Carolina | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2.4 | 5.8 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 3.0 | 5.5 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 3.7 | 5.3 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 3.8 | 4.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Southern Pines’ police reported 180 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 3.5 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.0 in the rest of North Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
429 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.
66 violent and 363 property, as reported to the FBI by Southern Pines’ police.
Nine people died in crashes on Southern Pines’s roads in 2019–2023
Southern Pines had 8 fatal crashes in five years, in which nine people died; 1 was a pedestrian and 1 was a cyclist.
That is about what is typical for North Carolina towns of 5,000–25,000 people: at their median rate (7.4 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Southern Pines’s size would see about 6 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Southern Pines’s own rate (11.0) 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.
Southern Pines and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Pines | C− | 3.5 | 19.7 |
| Aberdeen | C− | 2.5 | 31.6 |
| Carthage | — | — | — |
| Pinehurst | A | 0.5 | 3.0 |
| Whispering Pines | A+ | 0.1 | 2.7 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Carthage has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
North Carolina towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Pines | C− | 3.5 | 19.7 |
| Davidson | A | 0.3 | 3.6 |
| Stallings | A− | 0.6 | 7.1 |
| Havelock | C+ | 1.8 | 14.1 |
| Belmont | C− | 3.1 | 26.2 |
| Lenoir | C− | 2.7 | 30.5 |
The five graded North Carolina towns closest to Southern Pines’ population (17,357), 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 Southern Pines. 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 Southern Pines’ residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (17,329 in 2025); our figure for Southern Pines is 17,357 (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 Southern Pines
Is Southern Pines, NC safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Southern Pines reports more crime per resident than 78% of U.S. towns, a C− Safety Grade and #76 of 163 in North Carolina. Its police reported 3.5 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 Southern Pines?
3.5 violent and 19.7 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 Southern Pines safer than Aberdeen?
Aberdeen reports more crime per resident than Southern Pines: Aberdeen grades C− for safety and Southern Pines C−. Aberdeen’s police reported 2.5 violent and 31.6 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Who polices Southern Pines?
Southern Pines’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Southern Pines”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Neighbors looking out for each other in Southern Pines.
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.