Hate crimes jumped nearly 12% in 2021, new FBI figures show

Hate crimes in the United States increased by 11.6% in 2021 from the previous year, according to revised figures released by the FBI on Monday.

The statistics showed that 12,411 people were reportedly victims of hate crimes in 2021, with 64.5% targeted because of their race or ethnicity, 15.9% targeted for their sexual orientation and 14.1% for their religion. The number of hate crimes reported increased from 8,120 in 2020 to 9,065 in 2021 — some crimes had multiple victims.

In 2020, reports of hate crimes increased less than 3% from the previous year.

The new numbers come more than three months after the FBI released initial 2021 data which indicated a slight decrease in the number of hate crimes. Officials said that report was flawed due to low participation rates by law enforcement agencies across the country that were not using a new reporting system known as the National Incident-Based Reporting System.

The initial figures also did not include data from New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — the nation's three biggest cities by population.

Analysts then went back and had more than 3,000 agencies that hadn’t originally submitted statistics hand in data so the FBI could have a more fuller picture of hate crimes.

The figures released Monday include numbers from New York and Los Angeles. Chicago submitted data for a portion of the year, a senior FBI official told reporters in a background briefing.

The official said the top five hate crimes in 2021 were motivated by feelings against African Americans, whites, gay men, Jews and Asian Americans. The incidents ranged from intimidation and assault to rape and murder.

The same official said that 14,859 law enforcement agencies across the country are now enrolled in the National Incident-Based Reporting System, representing 79% of police agencies and covering 91% of the U.S. population.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, the No. 3 official at the Justice Department, said, "We are continuing to work with state and local law enforcement agencies across the country to increase the reporting of hate crime statistics to the FBI."

“Preventing, investigating and prosecuting hate crimes are top priorities for the Justice Department, and reporting is key to each of those priorities," Gupta said in a statement.