TL; DR: FBI data show that Hate crimes in the U.S. remain alarmingly high despite a slight decline since 2023. While race or ethnicity continues to drive most cases, religion-based hate crimes have more than doubled since 2020. Most occur in homes and on public streets, often targeting visible identity markers like skin colour or religion. For Indians, these patterns raise concerns over safety, inclusivity, and diaspora well-being.
Context:
A growing pattern of racially motivated attacks against individuals of Indian origin in the USA has sparked renewed concern over the safety of Indian students and communities. These incidents highlight persistent challenges surrounding hate crimes and underscore the urgent need for stronger measures to ensure protection and promote inclusivity.
Who compiles this data?
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program defines hate crime as an offence motivated wholly or partly by bias against race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity. Established under the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990, the UCR collects detailed data on victims, offenders, offences, bias motivation, and incident locations.
Where can I download clean & structured data about Hate Crimes in USA?
Clean, structured, and ready-to-use datasets related to year-wise hate crimes in the USA, featuring data on victim categories, offence types, offender demographics, bias motivations, and locations, can be downloaded from Dataful.
Key Insights
Hate crime incidents in US decrease slightly post peaking in 2023
Law enforcement agencies are required to specify at least one bias motivation for each reported hate crime offence type. A single-bias incident involves one or more offences driven by the same bias, while multiple-bias incidents include two or more motivating biases. Each case can involve several offences, biases and victims. Hate crime incidents peaked in 2023 with 11,862 total cases, slightly declining to 11,679 in 2024. Since 2000, when 8,063 incidents were recorded, the number of such reported incidents has risen by 45%. Over 97% of hate crimes continue to be single-bias incidents.
Victims of hate crimes include individuals, institutions, and society at large. The number of victims also declined marginally from a peak of 14,416 in 2023 to 14,243 in 2024. These trends indicate sustained elevated levels of hate-motivated violence across the United States.
Most Hate Crimes occur in Residences and on Public Streets or Sidewalks
The data on the locations of the hate crimes show that bias-motivated violence often invades personal and private spaces. A majority of them are committed at residences and public streets or sidewalks, where the victims can be targeted based on visible identity markers like skin colour, attire, religion, or ethnicity.
Between 2006 and 2024, nearly half of all hate crime incidents took place in residences or on public roads, highways, and sidewalks. Including incidents in schools, colleges, and universities, these three settings together account for roughly six out of every ten hate crimes reported in the United States.
Religion-motivated Hate Crimes have more than doubled since 2020
Among major bias motivations in single-bias hate crime incidents, ‘Race, Ethnicity, or Ancestry’ accounts for more than half of all cases, followed by ‘Religion’ and ‘Sexual Orientation’, which have averaged around 20% and 18% respectively since 2016. However, since 2020, race or ethnicity-based crimes have declined from 65% to 52% in 2024, while religion-based crimes have risen sharply from 15% to 25%, marking a growth of over 100%. Incidents motivated by sexual orientation also showed a modest increase, rising from 14% to 17% during the same period.
Why does this matter?
Hate crimes in the U.S. deeply concern India, as they endanger the safety of Indian students and professionals who contribute significantly to American society. These incidents strain people-to-people ties, raise anxiety among families in India, and challenge the shared democratic values that underpin the India–U.S. relationship built on trust and inclusivity.
Key numbers:
Hate Crime Incidents and Victims (2010 to 2024)
Incidents: ↑ 76% (from 6628 to 11679)
Victims: ↑ 73.5% (from 8208 to 14243)
Major locations of Hate Crimes (in %)
2010: Highways/roads- 17%; Residence/Home- 31%; Schools/Colleges- 11%
2024: Highways/roads- 19%; Residence/Home- 26%; Schools/Colleges- 11%
Major biases behind hate crimes (in %, only for single-bias incidents)
2010: Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry- 60%; Religion- 20%; Sexual Orientation- 19%
2024: Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry- 52%; Religion- 25%; Sexual Orientation- 17%
