Is Chapel Hill safe?
Chapel Hill is safer than most places of its size. It ranks safer than 64% of US cities with 25,000+ residents on reported crime per person, based on FBI Crime Data Explorer figures for 2025.
MkaeSense Safety IndexOut of 100. Higher is safer. Ranked 460 of 1274 US cities with 25,000+ residents, where 1 is safest.
How Chapel Hill compares
Every dot is one of the 1274 US cities with 25,000+ residents. Further right means more thefts per person.
Chapel Hill's theft rate of 14.3 per 1,000 residents is higher than 65% of US cities with 25,000+ residents. The North Carolina average is 12.9 and the US average is 11.5.
Month by month
Reported offences each month, per 1,000 residents, compared with North Carolina and the national rate.
When and how often cases are solved
Break-in clock
Average share of each year's break-ins by month.
Cases cleared in 2025
Share of reported offences police marked as cleared, usually by an arrest or charge.
Nearby places
Safety Index for the closest places we cover. Higher is safer.
Protect your home in Chapel Hill
Picked for Chapel Hill's biggest gap against the US average: thefts.
Common questions
Is Chapel Hill a safe place to live?
Chapel Hill is safer than most places of its size. Its MkaeSense Safety Index is 64 out of 100, which means it ranks safer than 64% of US cities with 25,000+ residents on reported crime per person. Safety also varies a lot between neighbourhoods, so check the area you're looking at.
How common are break-ins in Chapel Hill?
Police recorded 139 break-ins in 2025, or 2.1 per 1,000 residents. The US rate was 2.0 per 1,000.
Is car theft a problem in Chapel Hill?
There were 87 vehicle thefts in 2025, 1.3 per 1,000 residents, against 2.0 per 1,000 nationally. That is higher than 48% of US cities with 25,000+ residents.
How is the Safety Index calculated?
We rank each place against others in the same country by its rate per person of violent crime (half the weight) and of property crime: break-ins, car theft and theft (the other half). The index is the share of places with a higher combined score. Where a police service did not report car thefts, its property crime is ranked on break-ins and theft only. It uses police-reported crime only, which depends on how often residents report. Full method, sources and a worked example.
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, offences reported by the Chapel Hill Police Department, January 2022 to June 2026. Theft means larceny-theft. Clearance figures are offences cleared in the same period. Rates per 1,000 residents and the Safety Index are MkaeSense calculations. Police-reported crime does not include crimes that were never reported. MkaeSense is not affiliated with any police service.