Crime in Wilmington, North Carolina
Major crime in Wilmington is 2.0 times the U.S. rate per resident: 23% higher for persons crimes and 2.1 times for property crimes. Expected major crimes are down 4.8% from a year earlier.
Modeled estimates per resident, not counts of incidents. How we calculated this
Index: crimes per resident compared with the U.S., where 100 is the U.S. rate and 200 is twice it.
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Drugs and alcohol stands out most, at 3.4 times the U.S. rate
Expected crimes per year in Wilmington for each type, and the index against the U.S. rate per resident.
Citywide indexWhere the middle half of residents live
Property crimes
Social disorder
How crime varies across Wilmington
The middle half of Wilmington residents live in neighborhoods with a major-crime index between 63 and 229; the typical (median) resident's is 149. The citywide figure (198) is higher than that because crime concentrates in a smaller set of areas.
- 0–5019.3%
- 50–10013.0%
- 100–20035.3%
- 200–40020.1%
- 400+12.3%
Share of residents by the index of their census block group, a neighborhood of roughly 600 to 3,000 people.
Highest on weekend daytimes
Major-crime index by time of week, against the U.S. rate for the same hours.
Major crime fell 4.8% in a year; across North Carolina it fell 9.0%
Change in expected crimes, with North Carolina as a whole in gray. The past year uses the reporting agencies' year-to-date FBI data; 2031 is the model's projection.
Wilmington against U.S. places with 100,000 to 250,000 residents
31 of the 268 other places of this size have a higher major-crime index than Wilmington; the middle of the group is 109. The 9 nearest in population:
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; residents in gray.
Wilmington has a higher major-crime index than all of its 8 nearest neighbors
The 8 nearest cities and towns we cover, by major-crime index. The closest, Kings Grant (4 mi), is 63% below Wilmington's rate.
Major-crime index per resident, U.S. = 100; distances between where residents live, in miles.
Questions about crime in Wilmington
What are the most common crimes in Wilmington?
By expected count, the most common persons and property crimes are other larceny (about 1,114 a year), shoplifting (about 1,042 a year) and theft from vehicle (about 933 a year). Compared with the U.S., drugs and alcohol stands out most: 3.4 times the U.S. rate per resident.
How we calculated this
Each police agency's crimes, as reported to the FBI, are spread across the census block groups it serves using population, jobs, points of interest and, where available, local incident records. Wilmington's figures add up its 89 block groups. The index compares crimes per resident with the U.S. rate.
- Wilmington's published incident records inform the estimate for every neighborhood.
- 70.6% of residents live in block groups whose estimate has high confidence (80% interval within about 5x).
- Rates are per resident, so places where many people work or visit but few live, such as downtowns, airports and stadiums, can read high.
- Disorderly conduct and trespassing are modeled, because the FBI records them only through arrests.
- Residents: 126,847. Model updated Oct 20, 2026. Release 2026-2026-10-20-2
Full method and validation·Data sources
CrimeMetric. "Crime in Wilmington, North Carolina." Vorp Labs, model updated Oct 20, 2026. https://crimemetric.com/nc/wilmington
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Major-crime index, U.S. = 100
- Kings Grant4 mi74
- Wrightsville Beach5 mi164
- Silver Lake5 mi79
- Murraysville6 mi34
- Myrtle Grove6 mi55
- Wrightsboro6 mi120
- Ogden7 mi29
- Leland7 mi66