Photo: Chris Currivan · CC BY-SA 3.0What is recorded in Sunset Beach, and why there is no grade
Sunset Beach’s police reported to the FBI for 2024 and 2025 but not 2023, so there is no Safety Grade: the grade needs all three years, 2023–2025. The closest graded town is Shallotte, 9 miles away, at D.
For every 1,000 residents, about 13 property crimes reported
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 fewer than 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
The years Sunset Beach’s police reported
Show as a table
| Year | Sunset Beach | Rest of North Carolina | Sunset Beach | Rest of North Carolina |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | not reported | 28.9 | not reported | 5.7 |
| 2023 | not reported | 29.6 | not reported | 5.5 |
| 2024 | 9.7 | 28.8 | 1.1 | 5.3 |
| 2025 | 13.4 | 25.2 | 0.4 | 4.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
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.
64 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. 2025 figures come from FBI Crime Data Explorer, which publishes violent crime, homicides, robberies and property crime only.
2 violent and 62 property, as reported to the FBI by Sunset Beach’s police.
The nearest North Carolina towns with a Safety Grade
| Town | Grade | Distance | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shallotte | D | 9 mi | 2.9 | 44.4 |
| Boiling Spring Lakes | B− | 26 mi | 2.1 | 12.0 |
| Tabor City | C | 28 mi | 2.7 | 18.1 |
| Whiteville | D− | 32 mi | 8.7 | 85.4 |
| Leland | B+ | 34 mi | 1.1 | 7.4 |
| Carolina Beach | C− | 36 mi | 3.5 | 18.1 |
Straight-line distance from the center of Sunset Beach. Nearby towns can differ a lot from Sunset Beach.
Each town’s own police figures, per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Two people died in crashes on Sunset Beach’s roads in 2019–2023
Sunset Beach had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which two people died; 1 was a cyclist.
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 Sunset Beach’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Sunset Beach’s own rate (9.2) 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.
Sunset Beach and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calabash | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Calabash has no FBI figures of its own for 2023–2025.
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 Sunset Beach. 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 Sunset Beach’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (4,615 in 2025); our figure for Sunset Beach is 4,642 (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 Sunset Beach
Is Sunset Beach, NC safe?
There is no Safety Grade for Sunset Beach. The nearest North Carolina towns with a grade are Shallotte (D, 9 mi), Boiling Spring Lakes (B−, 26 mi), Tabor City (C, 28 mi).
Who polices Sunset Beach?
Sunset Beach’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Sunset Beach Police Department”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Sunset Beach.
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.