Waxhaw Historic District · Photo: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD · CC BY-SA 3.0Waxhaw sees less crime per resident than 87% of U.S. towns
That puts it at A for safety, judged on crimes Waxhaw’s police reported from 2023 to 2025: #5 of 163 graded towns in North Carolina. What’s more, violent crime here is lower than in 83% of U.S. towns; property crime, lower than in 84%. Year on year, 0.5 violent crime and 4.2 incidents of property crime occur per 1,000 residents, compared with 5.1 and 28.0 in the rest of 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’s behind Waxhaw’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 lower than in most U.S. towns; property crime is the stronger of the two.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Waxhaw | Rest of North Carolina | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 0.8 | 5.8 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 0.6 | 5.5 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 0.6 | 5.3 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.5 | 4.4 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Waxhaw’s police reported 39 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 0.5 per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.1 in the rest of North Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Waxhaw 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 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Waxhaw property | Rest of North Carolina property | Waxhaw violent | Rest of North Carolina violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 7.3 | 29.0 | 0.8 | 5.8 |
| 2023 | 4.9 | 29.7 | 0.6 | 5.5 |
| 2024 | 4.2 | 28.9 | 0.6 | 5.3 |
| 2025 | 3.5 | 25.3 | 0.5 | 4.4 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
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.
94 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.
11 violent and 83 property, as reported to the FBI by Waxhaw’s police.
Four people died in crashes on Waxhaw’s roads in 2019–2023
Waxhaw had 4 fatal crashes in five years, in which four people died; 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 Waxhaw’s size would see about 8 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Waxhaw’s own rate (3.6) 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.
Waxhaw and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waxhaw | A | 0.5 | 4.2 |
| Mineral Springs | — | — | — |
| Wesley Chapel | — | — | — |
| Marvin | — | — | — |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. Mineral Springs, Wesley Chapel and Marvin have no FBI figures of their own for 2023–2025.
North Carolina towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waxhaw | A | 0.5 | 4.2 |
| Carrboro | C | 2.4 | 20.6 |
| Knightdale | C− | 2.3 | 26.4 |
| Mebane | D | 3.0 | 31.3 |
| Lexington | D | 4.9 | 29.4 |
| Shelby | D | 9.6 | 24.9 |
The five graded North Carolina towns closest to Waxhaw’s population (23,140), 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 Waxhaw. 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 Waxhaw’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (23,823 in 2025); our figure for Waxhaw is 23,140 (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 Waxhaw
Is Waxhaw, NC safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Waxhaw reports less crime per resident than 87% of U.S. towns, an A Safety Grade and #5 of 163 in North Carolina. Its police reported 0.5 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 5.1 in the rest of North Carolina and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Waxhaw?
0.5 violent and 4.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of North Carolina reports 5.1 and 28.0; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Waxhaw?
Waxhaw’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Waxhaw”. 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 Waxhaw.
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.