How did the annual number of race-related hate crimes in England and Wales change from 2020 to 2025?
Executive summary
Police-recorded race hate crimes in England and Wales rose between the year ending March 2024 and the year ending March 2025, reaching 82,490 offences in the latter period — a 6% increase from 77,901 the previous year (Home Office summary reported by ITV) [1]. Overall police-recorded hate crimes (excluding Metropolitan Police data because of recording changes) were 115,990 in the year ending March 2025, up 2% from the prior year [1].
1. What the official numbers show — a clear uptick in race hate crime
Home Office statistics published and reported in national outlets show race hate crimes increased from 77,901 in the year ending March 2024 to 82,490 in the year ending March 2025, a 6% rise, making racial offences the largest share of recorded hate crime in that period [1]. Multiple summaries of the Home Office release state that race-motivated offences accounted for about 71% of all police-recorded hate crimes in the year to March 2025 [2].
2. Overall hate crime context — small rise but reporting caveats
The total number of police-recorded hate crimes across England and Wales (excluding the Metropolitan Police because of a recording-method change) was 115,990 for the year ending March 2025, a 2% increase on the prior year [1]. The Home Office and reporting outlets caution comparability with earlier years is affected by the exclusion of Met data and by changes in recording, so year-on-year trends should be read with that qualification [3] [1].
3. Where race hate fits with religious and other categories
Race-motivated offences made up the bulk of recorded hate crime (around 71% or 82,490 incidents) while religiously motivated offences were reported separately and also rose overall — notably with a spike in anti-Muslim offences in August 2024 — contributing to the overall rise in hate crime noted for the year to March 2025 [1] [2]. Reporting also highlights that some religious categories moved differently (for example, reported anti-Jewish incidents fell in some datasets, but reporting was affected by the Met exclusion) [3] [2].
4. Why 2024–25 stands out — events and reporting dynamics
News coverage and the Home Office point to event-driven spikes: the Southport murders and subsequent misinformation and unrest in August 2024 corresponded with an identifiable increase in anti-Muslim reporting that fed into higher religious and race-hate figures for the year to March 2025 [2]. Media outlets emphasize that such incidents and the national conversation around them can both increase offending and increase reporting rates [2].
5. Data limitations and the Met Police complication
Analysts and journalists stress an important limitation: the Metropolitan Police changed its crime-recording system in February 2024, and its data were excluded from some Home Office comparisons, which means aggregate totals published for the year ending March 2025 are not directly comparable with earlier years and may understate or distort trends if taken at face value [3] [1]. Several reports explicitly caution that exclusion of Met data restricts straight year-on-year comparison [3] [2].
6. What these numbers do not say — gaps in available reporting
Available sources do not mention a full year-by-year table spanning 2020 through 2025 that would let readers see the annual trajectory for race hate crime for every single year, nor do they provide disaggregated victim or perpetrator demographics in the material provided here (not found in current reporting). The sources focus on the year to March 2025 and comparisons with the prior year, with specific event-related spikes highlighted [1] [2].
7. Competing interpretations and implicit agendas in coverage
Government-published figures were presented alongside commentary by ministers and officials framing the rise as evidence of growing fear among targeted communities, while some outlets emphasised methodological caveats and the role of single events in driving short-term spikes [3] [1] [2]. Readers should note the implicit agendas: official releases aim to characterise the scale and policy need, while local and issue-focused outlets highlight causes and human impacts — both use the same Home Office data but stress different narratives [1] [2].
8. Takeaway for readers asking “how did race hate crime change 2020–2025?”
Based on the available reporting of Home Office figures for the year ending March 2025, race hate crime increased to 82,490 offences — a 6% rise on the previous year — and remained the largest component of recorded hate crime in England and Wales [1]. However, comparability with earlier years (including 2020) is limited in the cited material because of changes to Metropolitan Police recording and the absence in these sources of a complete, directly comparable year-by-year series from 2020 through 2025 [3] [1].