Nationwide, the number of reported hate crimes have increased by about 100% since 2015, rising from 5,843 to 11,679.
2015’s numbers marked a near low in reported crimes, the 3rd fewest since this data collection began in 1991. However, there’s a chance low numbers of any kind are due to underreporting rather than fewer hate crimes. For example, between 2010 and 2019, an estimated 56% of hate crimes were not reported to the police.
Reported hate crimes doubled from 2015 to 2024.
Reported hate crime incidents, 1991–2024
What is a hate crime?
While the word “hate” typically connotes strong feelings of anger or dislike, the legal definition is more specific: hate refers to bias against individuals or groups based on specific characteristics defined by the law, no matter the offender’s emotional state.
Federal laws identify hate crimes as crimes motivated by a victim’s perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. Many states have their own hate crime laws covering similar bias categories.
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Hate crimes include violent acts against both people and property: assault, murder, arson, vandalism, or threats of or conspiracy to commit these crimes. The FBI classifies assault and murder as crimes against persons, and arson or vandalism as crimes against property.
By contrast, “bias incidents” or “hate incidents,” which are acts of prejudice that are not crimes, and do not involve violence, threats, or property damage.
Both misdemeanors and felonies can be considered hate crimes depending on the details of the underlying crime, state laws, and the details of the case.
Is a hate crime a felony?
Is a hate crime a felony?
Federal law automatically classifies a violation of all hate crime statutes as a misdemeanor. An “aggravated factor” that could elevate the crime from a misdemeanor to a felony includes using a weapon, actions that result in bodily harm, sexual abuse, kidnapping, attempted murder, or murder.
Statutes that define when misdemeanors can be elevated to felonies include:
- Federally protected activities, which includes employment, public education, jury duty, travel, or the enjoyment of public accommodations
- Church Arson Prevention Act
- The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act
- Criminal Interference with Right to Fair Housing
Is hate speech considered a hate crime?
Is hate speech considered a hate crime?
Hate speech can be offensive and hurtful to those who experience it, but it’s not usually considered a crime. Speech is protected under the First Amendment until it becomes illegal conduct, such as threats of violence or incitement to break the law.
Hate crime data collection
Although hate crimes were outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1968, it was not until 1990 that Congress passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act, which required the FBI to collect data about crimes that involve prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.
Since then, several other legal statutes have altered the definition of a hate crime, leading the FBI to widen its scope for hate crime data collection. The most wide-reaching change came in 2009, when the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act applied federal hate crime law to crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived disability, all sexual orientations, gender, and gender identity. It also removed the requirement that a victim be carrying out a federally protected activity.
What are the most common hate crimes?
The FBI classifies hate crimes into three categories: crimes against persons, property, or society. In 2024, 79% of hate crimes were against a person, 40% were against property, and 2% were against society.
Within these three broad categories are specific crimes. Intimidation was the most common hate crime in 2024 at 38%, followed by destruction, damage or vandalism of property (29%), simple assault (26%) and aggravated assault (14%). All other crimes made up the remaining 13%.
Crimes against people account for 79% of all hate motivated offenses.
Hate crime offenses by type, percent of total, 2024
What are the top hate crime motivations? How have they changed over time?
In 2024, hate crimes were most frequently motivated by biases toward race/ethnicity/ancestry (53% of reported hate crimes), religion (25%) or sexual orientation (18%). Over 3% of hate crimes had multiple bias categories.
Crimes motivated by race, ethnicity, or ancestry decreased from 2023 to 2024, but they were 87% higher than what they were 10 years prior.
In 2024, over half of hate crimes were motivated by race, ethnicity, or ancestry.
Reported hate crime incidents by category, 2015–2024
The FBI also tracks more specific biases within each category. The most prevalent biases in 2024 were anti-Black, anti-Jewish, and anti-gay male. Between 2015 and 2024, anti-Black hate crimes increased by 81%. Anti-Jewish hate crimes increased 212%, and crimes against gay males increased 68%.
Anti-Black hate crimes increased 81% and anti-Jewish crimes have tripled since 2015.
Three most common hate crimes (detailed) reported to the FBI, 1991–2024
Biases against race, ethnicity, or ancestry
Hate crimes against Black or African American people accounted for more than half of all race, ethnicity, or ancestry hate crimes in 2024.
Within this category, hate crimes against Black or African American people rose the most when comparing 2015 to 2024 (up by 1,459 crimes), followed by Hispanic or Latino people (+554), and Asian people (+287).
Since 2015, the largest increase of hate crimes by race/ethnicity were anti-Black.
Reported hate crimes by race/ethnicity/ancestry, 2015 and 2024
Religion
Religion-based hate crimes were the second most common, increasing 136% from 2015 to 2024 and accounting for 25% of all reported hate crimes in 2024.
Out of 2,982 reported religion hate crimes, 2,080 were anti-Jewish — more than double all other religiously motivated crimes combined. In ten years, anti-Jewish hate crimes more than tripled.
Anti-Islamic (or Muslim) crimes were the second-most common religion-based hate crime, accounting for 9% of the total.
Anti-Jewish biases accounted for 70% of religion-based hate crimes in 2024.
Reported hate crimes by religion, 2015 and 2024
Sexual orientation and gender identity
Together, sexual orientation and gender identity biased crimes accounted for 23% of total hate crimes in 2024. The primary biases were anti-gay male (49%), anti-transgender (17%), and anti-LBGTQ+ as a whole (34%).
Anti-LBGTQ+ biases, as a whole, account for all but 1% of sexual orientation- and gender-identity-motivated hate crimes, and they’ve risen by 110% since 2015.
The FBI first collected data on gender-identity motivated hate crimes in 2012. Anti-transgender crimes accounted for 378 of 521 reported gender identity hate crimes in 2024, up 55% since 2020. (Due to the newness of the category to FBI tracking, we're highlighting the 5-year change rather than a decade.)
Anti-LBGTQ+ hate crimes have more than doubled since 2015.
Hate crimes related to sexual orientation and gender identity, 1991–2024
How do you report a hate crime?
If you believe you’re the victim of a hate crime or that you witnessed one file a report with the FBI at tips.fbi.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324). Non-crime incidents can be reported to the Civil Rights Division at civilrights.justice.gov.
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Page sources and methodology
All of the data on the page was sourced directly from government agencies. The analysis and final review was performed by USAFacts.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
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