Which U.S. states saw the largest year-over-year increase in reported hate crime rates in the FBI's 2023/2024 report?
Executive summary
The FBI’s 2023 hate-crime data show a nationwide total of roughly 11,862 reported incidents — a high-water mark in the series — but the publicly released materials and secondary reporting in the provided sources do not list a ranked table of U.S. states by year‑over‑year percent or absolute increases (available sources do not mention a state-by-state ranking) [1]. Reporting caveats are central: the FBI and several analysts warn that changes in the number of agencies submitting data and the UCR/NIBRS transition complicate direct year‑to‑year comparisons at state level [2] [3].
1. What the FBI’s 2023 national numbers say — and what they don’t
The FBI’s 2023 annual hate‑crime release reports 11,862 criminal incidents and 13,829 related offenses reported by participating law‑enforcement agencies, and notes 16,009 agencies participated in the hate‑crime collection, covering about 95.2% of the population [1]. The FBI also published an alternate dataset restricted to agencies with comparable multi‑month coverage that shows a slight decrease of 0.6% from 2022 to 2023 (10,687 to 10,627) — underscoring that national totals depend on which agency set you use and that that nuance applies even more strongly to state‑by‑state comparisons [2].
2. Why a clean state-by-state “biggest increase” is not in these sources
None of the supplied FBI press releases or the cited media/advocacy pieces include a state‑by‑state table that ranks which states had the largest year‑over‑year increases in reported hate‑crime rates; the sources focus on national totals, bias‑type breakdowns (race, religion, sexual orientation) and city or subgroup highlights [1] [4] [5]. Reuters and other outlets explicitly caution that increased reporting participation by agencies in 2023 may drive apparent increases rather than changes in underlying crime levels — a limitation that makes state ranking unreliable without access to the underlying CDE datasets or agency-by‑agency submission histories [3] [2].
3. Where analysts and advocacy groups looked instead
Advocacy organizations and researchers called attention to specific surges in categories and cities: the Anti‑Defamation League and others highlighted a large jump in reported anti‑Jewish incidents in 2023 (ADL cites 1,832 single‑bias anti‑Jewish incidents, a 63% increase from 2022) and city‑level multi‑city studies flagged record totals for some groups — but these are topic‑specific and not state rankings [4] [6]. The Community Relations Service summary also notes an increase of 228 incidents in 2023 overall and breaks down incidents by bias type, not by state [7].
4. Data gaps and methodological drivers you need to know
The FBI’s transition to NIBRS, the varying participation of local agencies, and the FBI’s own publication of two different comparison datasets (full submissions vs. agencies with matching months) are repeatedly flagged in the sources as reasons to be cautious about inferring real statewide trends from headline counts [2] [3] [8]. Reuters quotes an FBI official noting that more agencies reported in 2023 than in 2022, so apparent increases in some categories or geographies may reflect reporting changes rather than crime rises [3].
5. If you want accurate state‑level comparisons — what to do next
Available sources do not provide the requested state‑by‑state increases. To produce a defensible list you must analyze the FBI Crime Data Explorer (CDE) or the UCR hate‑crime raw tables (agency‑level incident counts for 2022 and 2023), control for agencies that did not report both years or that changed reporting months, and convert incident counts to rates per population. The FBI’s CDE is the logical source if you have access; none of the supplied materials contain the raw state breakdowns needed to answer the question [9] [2].
6. Competing interpretations and hidden agendas to watch
Advocacy groups emphasize sharp increases in particular bias categories (e.g., anti‑Jewish incidents) and spotlight city or multi‑city aggregates to press for policy changes and resources [4] [6]. At the same time, the FBI and some press outlets stress methodological caveats that can undercut claims about sudden underlying spikes [2] [3]. Both viewpoints are supported in the sources: advocacy organizations rely on the same FBI data but may downplay reporting‑coverage effects, while journalists and the FBI highlight data limitations that complicate state‑level trend claims [4] [3] [2].
Limitations: The supplied sources do not contain a state‑by‑state ranking or the CDE export required to calculate year‑over‑year state increases; I relied only on the set of documents you provided and cite them above [1] [2] [3] [4] [7]. If you want, I can outline the exact CDE queries and filtering steps you or a researcher would need to generate a valid state ranking.