U.S. Hate Crimes At New Decade High

According to statistics released by the FBI, hate crimes have risen to their highest level in over a decade in the United States. Last year, there were 7,759 hate crime incidents, around 470 more than the total number reported in 2019 and, at an increase of 6 percent, showing a steeper growth than previous years.

The data shows that the majority of the reported hate crimes were motivated by race, ethnicity or ancestry bias (63.7 percent). Other motivating factors include religion (15.1 percent), sexual orientation (13.5 percent), gender identity (3.0 percent), disability (1.1 percent), and gender (0.9 percent). The statistics are a compilation of bias-motivated incidents submitted to the FBI by 15,588 law enforcement agencies.

Among hate crimes motivated by race, ethnicity and ancestry, Anti-Black hate crime was the most common at 2,755 out of 4,939 incidents. The number was up by almost 40 percent in a year that was marked by racial justice protests after the death of George Floyd. Offenses against Asians - often tied to the coronavirus pandemic - were also up from 161 in 2019 to 274 in 2020, meaning they increased by 70 percent while remaining a smaller type of incident.