Rolesville ranked safest city in North Carolina, Wake County town celebrates top spot

Rolesville’s low crime numbers put the Wake County town at No. 1 in North Carolina, but the ranking lands in a place that is growing fast enough to change what safety looks like day to day. The town had 9,475 residents in the 2020 census and an estimated 11,854 in 2024, a surge that has made the Raleigh suburb one of the fastest-growing communities in the state.

SafeWise ranked Rolesville first in its 2026 Safest Cities report, citing 0.3 violent crimes and 4.5 property crimes per 1,000 people. The company said its list is based on recent FBI crime data adjusted for population. In the same report, North Carolina’s violent crime rate was listed at 5.49 incidents per 1,000 people and property crime at 29.87 per 1,000, both above national averages. SafeWise also said several of the state’s safest cities have seen property crime decline for four straight years.

Town leaders celebrated the top spot, saying Rolesville earned it by keeping violent crime 53% lower than the national average and overall crime 48% lower than the national average. The message is a welcome one for a town that has spent years balancing growth with the kind of public safety residents expect from a community once rooted in agriculture and tobacco.

Rolesville says it was established in 1837 and is the second oldest town in Wake County behind Raleigh. That history now sits beside a much newer reality: subdivision growth, more cars on local roads and a larger daily load on police and town services as the population climbs. The ranking does not erase those pressures, but it does show that, for now, crime has stayed unusually low even as the town expands.

The Rolesville Police Department says it has 23 full-time sworn and non-sworn personnel and two part-time sworn personnel. The department says its mission centers on partnerships, training, technology and community engagement, an approach that appears to have helped the town hold down violent crime while welcoming thousands of new residents into one of Wake County’s busiest growth corridors.