FBI arson data · 2024
North Carolina Arson
1,331 arson offenses were reported by 841 North Carolina law-enforcement agencies in 2024 — 3.8% of the national total. The most was reported by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (164).
North Carolina agencies with the most reported arson
| Agency | Type | County | Arsons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department | City | Mecklenburg County | 164 |
| Greensboro Police Department | City | Guilford County | 90 |
| Winston-Salem Police Department | City | Forsyth County | 70 |
| Fayetteville Police Department | City | Cumberland County | 56 |
| Robeson County Sheriff's Office | County | Robeson County | 55 |
| High Point Police Department | City | Guilford County | 40 |
| Raleigh Police Department | City | Wake County | 36 |
| Durham Police Department | City | Durham County | 35 |
| Asheville Police Department | City | Buncombe County | 30 |
| Burlington Police Department | City | Alamance County | 26 |
| Rocky Mount Police Department | City | Nash County | 26 |
| Gastonia Police Department | City | Gaston County | 22 |
| Forsyth County Sheriff's Office | County | Forsyth County | 18 |
| Harnett County Sheriff's Office | County | Harnett County | 18 |
| Onslow County Sheriff's Office | County | Onslow County | 18 |
| Buncombe County Sheriff's Office | County | Buncombe County | 16 |
| Wilson Police Department | City | Wilson County | 14 |
| Kinston Police Department | City | Lenoir County | 13 |
| Greenville Police Department | City | Pitt County | 13 |
| Iredell County Sheriff's Office | County | Iredell County | 12 |
| Guilford County Sheriff's Office | County | Guilford County | 11 |
| Johnston County Sheriff's Office | County | Johnston County | 11 |
| Sampson County Sheriff's Office | County | Sampson County | 11 |
| Scotland County Sheriff's Office | County | Scotland County | 11 |
| Hoke County Sheriff's Office | County | Hoke County | 10 |
North Carolina arson by county
By the reporting agency's headquarters county — multi-jurisdiction agencies land in one county. Counties with no reported arson are not listed.
About this data
- Counts are arson offenses (fires), not arrests. Each figure is a fire that a law-enforcement agency determined or suspected was intentionally set. Arson arrests are a different, much smaller number — most arsons are never cleared — and are tracked separately in our Arrests dataset.
- The figures are de-duplicated across the FBI's two overlapping reporting streams — the legacy SRS summary system and NIBRS incident data. Most agencies appear in both, so naively summing the two streams, as some published totals do, roughly doubles the count. Each agency here is counted once, from its best available stream.
- Reported agencies only. The total covers agencies in the FBI's 2024 master files — about 96% of the FBI's own de-duplicated figure of 36,558, which comes from its live database and includes some later-arriving reports. Nothing here is estimated, so totals slightly undercount and are not strictly comparable across areas with different reporting coverage.
- Location is the reporting agency's headquarters county, not where the fire happened. Multi-jurisdiction agencies concentrate in one county — every NYPD-reported arson lands in New York County, for example — and county figures cover geolocated agencies only, so they sum to slightly less than the national total.
- Zero and missing mean different things. A zero means agencies in that county reported to the FBI and logged no arson; a county with no figure at all had no reporting agency headquartered there.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, 2024 SRS and NIBRS files, de-duplicated by agency. pumsdata is independent and not affiliated with the FBI. How our data works.
North Carolina arson — FAQ
How many arsons were reported in North Carolina in 2024?+
1,331 arson offenses were reported to the FBI by 841 North Carolina law-enforcement agencies in 2024; 196 of those agencies logged at least one arson. Actual arsons are somewhat higher, since not every agency reports.
Which agency reported the most arson in North Carolina?+
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, with 164 reported arson offenses in 2024 (headquartered in Mecklenburg County).
What share of U.S. arson happens in North Carolina?+
North Carolina's 1,331 reported arsons were 3.8% of the 34,990 reported nationwide in 2024. Reporting coverage varies by state, so shares are approximate.
Where does this data come from?+
The FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program's 2024 SRS and NIBRS files, de-duplicated by agency. Counts are arson offenses (fires), not arrests, from reporting agencies only. pumsdata is independent and not affiliated with the FBI.