Hate crimes in the US: What does the data show?

Hate crimes rose by 12% between 2020 and 2021, according to an updated 2021 dataset recently released by the FBI.

The new data provides a more accurate depiction of reported hate crimes in the US in 2021, with 3,025 more law enforcement agencies represented than in the original set. This increased the population represented by the crime data from 215 to 302 million people. Here are some of the key takeaways.

Hate crimes against Pacific Islander and Asian people has more than doubled

Most hate crime offenses were motivated by race, ethnicity, or ancestry in 2020 and 2021, accounting for 60% and 62% of all hate crimes respectively.

Hate crimes against Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders increased the most, rising from 15 in 2020 to 48 in 2021, a 220% increase. The second largest increase was among Asian people, with hate crimes rising from 330 in 2020 to 820 in 2021, a 148% increase. Arab Americans saw the third largest increase (54%).

Bar chart of increases in hate crime incidents based on race/ethnicity/ancestry from 2020-2021 where Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders experienced the greatest increase.

While anti-Black hate crimes decreased 1% between 2020 and 2021, it’s important to note that anti-Black bias was still the most-reported type of hate crime in 2021, representing 31% of all cases.

Intimidation was the most common hate crime

At 43%, intimidation was the most common reported hate crime in 2021, followed by simple assault (35%) and aggravated assault (20%). Murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, and rape together comprised less than one percent of all reported hate crimes.

Pie chart of reported hate crimes by offense type in 2021. Intimidation makes up 43%, simple assault 35%, aggravated assault 20%, and other 1%.

Hate crimes were commonly committed in people’s homes

Homes were the most-common location for hate crimes in 2021, with 3,080 incidents occurring in this setting. The second most-common location was a highway, road, alley, street, or sidewalk.

Bar chart of the top 10 most common locations for hate crimes in 2021. Residence/home was most common, followed by highway/road/alley/street/sidewalk.

As for racial backgrounds of known offenders, white Americans were the most common hate crimes perpetrators, at 52%, followed by Black Americans at 22%. For comparison, white Americans comprised 59% of the US population, and Black Americans made up 19%. The races of 16% of known offenders were unavailable.