Which U.S. states had the highest hate crime rates per 100,000 residents in the most recent FBI report (2023/2024)?

1. What the official 2023 data actually show (and what they don’t)

The FBI’s publications and Justice Department summaries report the national total of hate‑crime incidents in 2023 at about 11,862 incidents and note participation from roughly 16,009 agencies covering about 95% of the population ^{[1] [4]}. Those releases and advocacy group summaries give statewide incident counts and subject‑matter breakdowns (race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity), but none of the supplied documents provide a ready‑made ranking of states by hate‑crime incidents per 100,000 residents — the per‑capita rates would need to be calculated by combining state incident counts with population figures, which the search results do not include ^{[1] [3]}.

2. State totals available in these sources — counts, not rates

A state‑level tabulation is referenced by third‑party aggregators: for example, Statista’s itemizing of FBI data notes California reported the most hate‑crime offenses in 2023 (1,970 offenses) ^[3]. The Justice Department points readers to the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer (CDE) for state tables and downloadable files, indicating the raw counts exist there even if not shown in these snippets ^{[5] [4]}. The FBI’s public materials therefore support identifying the states with the largest absolute numbers, but your provided sources do not show a per‑100,000 residents ranking.

3. Why “per 100,000 residents” matters — and why it’s missing here

Absolute counts (California’s 1,970 incidents) favor populous states; per‑capita rates adjust for population and often change the ordering. The Justice Department and FBI explicitly steer researchers to the Crime Data Explorer to “dive deeper” and perform custom analyses, implying the per‑capita ranks are left to users who combine incident counts with population denominators ^{[5] [4]}. The supplied reporting and advocacy pieces emphasize totals and bias categories rather than providing a straightforward state‑by‑state per‑100,000 ranking ^{[6] [7]}.

4. Data limitations you should weigh before using a per‑capita ranking

Multiple sources warn the 2023 figures have reporting gaps and comparability problems: participation levels changed year‑to‑year, and the FBI cautions that increased agency participation in 2023 may affect trend interpretation ^{[1] [8]}. Advocacy analysts and civil‑rights groups also note underreporting and inconsistent local practices, meaning state rates could be skewed by differences in reporting rather than true differences in incidence ^{[9] [10]}. The FBI’s move toward NIBRS and voluntary participation by many agencies further complicates simple state‑to‑state comparisons ^{[2] [11]}.

5. How you can get an accurate state per‑100,000 ranking (actionable steps)

Use the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer (CDE) to download 2023 hate‑crime incident counts by state, then divide each state’s incident count by its 2023 population and multiply by 100,000 to produce per‑capita rates; the Justice Department page points users to the CDE for downloadable tables ^{[5] [4]}. If you want, I can perform that calculation for you if you provide or permit me to use a 2023 state population table — note that my reply must cite only the sources you provided, so I would need authoritative population numbers from your supplied results to include those citations.

6. Competing interpretations and political context to expect

Advocacy groups (ADL, HRC, AAI, SPLC) and news outlets uniformly highlighted the record counts and specific surges (notably anti‑Jewish and anti‑LGBTQ+ incidents), but they also differ on emphasis: some stress that better reporting drove part of the rise (FBI cautions), while others treat the numbers as evidence of real increases and call for policy responses ^{[1] [6] [9] [7]}. Expect partisan actors to cite either the raw counts or the FBI’s caveats selectively — the provided materials show both narratives exist ^{[8] [9]}.

If you want, I can: (A) calculate per‑100,000 rates using state incident counts from the FBI/CDE plus 2023 state population figures (you’d need to allow use of external population data or supply it), or (B) pull the state incident counts from the FBI CDE (if you supply that export). Available sources do not include a completed, cited ranking of states by hate‑crime rate per 100,000 residents in 2023 ^{[3] [5]}.