Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2023
Released: 2025-03-25
In 2023, police services in Canada recorded a sharp rise in hate crimes, with 4,777 incidents reported, up 32% from 3,612 incidents in 2022. This marked the third sharp increase in four years. Overall, the number of police-reported hate crimes has more than doubled in the last four years.
Chart 1
Police-reported hate crimes, by type of motivation, Canada, 2013 to 2023
When accounting for population size, the rate of police-reported hate crime rose 29% in 2023 compared to 2022 (up to 12.0 incidents per 100,000 population), while the overall crime rate in Canada increased to a lesser extent, up 3%. In contrast, while the rate of police-reported hate crime more than doubled from 2019 to 2023 (+130%), the overall crime rate declined by 1% over the same period.
Understanding police-reported hate crime information
Police-reported data on hate crimes reflect only incidents that come to the attention of police and are subsequently classified as confirmed or suspected hate-motivated crimes. Many factors can influence the likelihood that a given crime is reported to the police and subsequently reflected in police-reported statistics. World events, large-scale social movements, as well as general awareness among local communities and the expertise of local police can play a role in whether and how a hate crime is reported. Victims of crime may also be influenced (in terms of their likelihood to report a crime to police) by, among other things, language barriers, level of trust or confidence in police and the justice system, and fear of further victimization or stigma by the very act of reporting a crime.
Police-reported data represent one dimension in the analysis of hate crime. Self-reported data provide another way of monitoring hate-motivated crimes. According to the most recent General Social Survey on Canadians' Safety (Victimization), Canadians were the victims of over 223,000 criminal incidents that they perceived as being motivated by hate in the 12 months that preceded the survey. More than one in five (22%) of these incidents were reported to the police.
Police-reported hate crime information
An interactive data visualization dashboard for police-reported hate crime statistics is available through the Police-reported Information Hub. The accompanying infographic, "Infographic: Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2023," is also available.
For additional information on police-reported hate crimes in Canada, see the data tables on hate crime motivation, violation type and geography.
This release and these products were made possible with funding support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Among the provinces in 2023, the highest police-reported hate crime rate was recorded in Nova Scotia (18.2 incidents per 100,000 population), which can be attributed, in part, to the establishment of a dedicated hate crimes unit in Halifax resulting in higher reporting and increased public awareness. The next highest rates were recorded in Ontario (15.6 incidents per 100,000), British Columbia (12.1 incidents per 100,000) and Prince Edward Island (12.1 incidents per 100,000). The lowest rate was recorded in Newfoundland and Labrador (3.3 incidents per 100,000).
Unlike police-reported crime in general, where rates tend to be higher in rural areas, police-reported hate crime rates were about 2.5 times higher in larger cities than in smaller towns (14.0 incidents per 100,000 population in census metropolitan areas versus 5.7 incidents per 100,000 in non-census metropolitan areas).
Chart 2
Police-reported hate crimes, by province, 2019 to 2023
Higher numbers of hate crimes targeting a religion (+67%, to 1,284 incidents) and a sexual orientation (+69%, to 860 incidents) accounted for most of the annual increase in police-reported hate crimes in 2023. Hate crimes targeting a race or an ethnicity, which remained the most common type of police-reported hate crime, also increased (+6%, to 2,128 incidents) from 2022 to 2023.
Most of the violations typically associated with hate crimes increased in 2023 when compared to the previous year, including public incitement of hatred (+65%, to 150 incidents), uttering threats (+53%, to 684 incidents), general mischief (+34%, to 1,826 incidents) and assaults (+20%, to 939 incidents). As in previous years, mischief (general mischief and mischief relating to property used by an identifiable group) accounted for the largest proportion (43%) of hate crime violations in 2023. Overall, 55% of police-reported hate crimes were non-violent violations.
Chart 3
Proportion of police-reported violent and non-violent hate crimes, by type of offence, Canada, 2023
Police-reported hate crimes targeting a religion are up in 2023, the second sharp increase in three years
There were 1,284 hate crimes targeting a religion in 2023, 516 more than in 2022. This marked a 67% increase from 2022, and a 45% increase from the previous high in 2021 (886 hate crimes). The increase from 2022 was largely the result of more police-reported hate crimes targeting the Jewish (+71%, to 900 incidents) and Muslim (+94%, to 211 incidents) populations.
The majority of hate crimes targeting a religion reported by police in 2023 were directed at the Jewish (70%) and Muslim (16%) populations.
Chart 4
Number of police-reported hate crimes motivated by religion, Canada, 2019 to 2023
Some Canadian police services (including those in Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver) suggested that ongoing conflict in the Middle East may have impacted hate crimes motivated by religion in 2023, particularly those targeting the Jewish and Muslim populations. Similar trends were also reported in other countries, including, for example, by the Department of Justice in the United States and the Home Office in the United Kingdom. Therefore, police-reported hate crime data were analyzed based on the month the crime was reported to police.
Relative to other months, there was a large increase in reported hate crimes targeting the Jewish and Muslim populations in October and November 2023, and the Jewish population in December 2023. The average number of monthly hate crimes reported in these three months compared with the previous nine months was 148 monthly incidents versus 51 for the Jewish population, and 30 monthly incidents versus 13 for the Muslim population. These data do not necessarily indicate when the crime occurred, only when it was made known to police. This information also does not indicate a direct or causal link between a given crime and a specific event or intent.
Police-reported hate crimes targeting a sexual orientation increase for third year in a row
The 860 hate crimes targeting a sexual orientation recorded in 2023 marked a 69% rise from the previous peak of 509 recorded in 2022. Just over half (52%) of these crimes specifically targeted the gay and lesbian populations in 2023. This proportion was lower than in previous years (typically the proportion was closer to three-quarters). In contrast, there were higher proportions of incidents targeting people of another sexual orientation that was not heterosexual, such as asexual or pansexual people (24%), or where the targeted sexual orientation was reported as unknown (22%). The remainder targeted the bisexual population (2%).
There was a particularly high number of hate crimes targeting a sexual orientation reported by police in June 2023. There were 224 such incidents that month, about 4 times higher than the average (58 incidents) for the other months of the year. A similar pattern was observed in 2022 and 2021 for hate crimes targeting sexual orientation but not for those with other motivations.
Of note, June typically coincides with the celebration of Pride Month and the beginning of Pride Season throughout Canada and the United States.
Police-reported hate crimes targeting gender identity or expression increase for third consecutive year
Hate crimes targeting a gender identity or expression increased in 2023 compared to the previous year (+37%, to 123 incidents). These crimes have more than doubled (+151%) since 2020. For the majority of these incidents where the specific motivation was known to police (58 out of 84), the hate crime targeted intersex, transgender men or women, agender or non-binary gender identities or expressions.
Victims of police-reported violent hate crime are most often men and boys, except for crimes targeting sex or gender
Among victims involved in police-reported violent hate crime incidents from 2018 to 2023, 62% were men and boys and 38% were women and girls (victim records are only collected for violent violations). Furthermore, the proportion of victims identified as men or boys was higher among hate crimes targeting sexual orientation (72%), race or ethnicity (63%) and religion (54%), compared with hate crimes targeting sex or gender, where 73% of victims were women or girls.
Police-reported hate crimes targeting a race or an ethnicity increase for fifth straight year
From 2022 to 2023, much of the rise in hate crimes targeting a race or an ethnicity (+6%) was the result of more reported crimes targeting the Arab and West Asian populations (+52%, to 262 incidents) and the South Asian population (+35%, to 265 incidents). Hate crimes targeting the South Asian population have increased four years in a row, rising 227% from 2019 to 2023.
The number of hate crimes targeting the Black population (784 incidents) remained the highest proportion of hates crimes targeting a given race or ethnicity, despite a 7% decrease from 2022.
The number of police-reported hate crimes targeting First Nations people, Métis and Inuit increased in 2023 compared to the previous year (+6%, to 70 incidents).
Chart 5
Number of police-reported hate crimes motivated by race or ethnicity, Canada, 2019 to 2023
Where the information is available, about 1 in 10 hate crime incidents involve a victim and accused living in the same city block
To compare the geographic proximity of victims and accused persons who were involved in police-reported hate crime incidents, a subset of incidents was created using an internal data linkage for the years 2009 to 2022. In total, there were 3,918 hate crime incidents with a valid linkage, representing 5,170 victims and 4,585 accused persons.
Among linked incidents, about 1 in 10 (423 incidents) involved at least one victim and one accused who lived within the same city block (or dissemination block, the smallest area for which census counts are available). Another 4 in 10 (1,700 incidents) involved individuals who lived within the same city.
Overall, 77% of incidents involved a victim and accused person living within the same census metropolitan area, and 96% in the same province. For the remaining 4% of incidents, there was no match within these levels of geography. This could include, for example, someone who committed a crime while they were travelling to another area, or who committed a crime online.
About half of those accused in an incident involving a hate crime had prior contact with police, and more than half had police contact afterward
A cohort of 3,198 individuals accused of at least one incident involving a hate crime was identified from 2013 to 2019. This cohort was then used to determine whether there was another official contact with police in the three years before or after the initial hate crime incident in the cohort period.
Among this cohort, 49% had been accused in at least one police-reported incident in the three years preceding their first hate crime. For those with prior police contact, 31% were accused in one prior incident, 39% were accused in two to five incidents, and 31% were accused in six or more incidents (figures do not add to 100% due to rounding).
Similarly, 54% of the individuals accused of a hate crime encountered police again within the three years following their initial hate crime violation. Among this cohort, 27% were accused in one subsequent incident, 39% were accused in two to five subsequent incidents, and 34% in six or more subsequent incidents.
Relative deprivation among hate crime victims and accused persons
The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation: User Guide, 2021 (CIMD) refers to an area-based measure of four associated dimensions of deprivation: residential instability, economic dependency, ethno-cultural composition, and situational vulnerability. Deprivation speaks to variables which have been associated with socioeconomic or systemic deprivation or marginalization. Relative deprivation for an area is measured on a scale of 1 to 5 from lower to higher relative deprivation. For more information on the CIMD, including strengths and limitations, see the Note to readers.
Victims and accused persons involved in police-reported hate crime incidents from 2009 to 2022 were associated with similar levels of deprivation across the four dimensions. However, relative to the general population, both victims and accused were at least twice as likely to experience the highest level of deprivation in terms of residential instability, and more likely to experience deprivation in ethno-cultural composition and situational vulnerability.
The residential instability component indicates areas with, for example, greater fluctuations in neighbourhood inhabitants, a higher proportion of dwellings that are rented rather than owned, and lower median household income. The ethno-cultural composition dimension indicates areas with, for example, higher proportions of individuals who were foreign born, recent immigrants, self-identified as racialized or lacked knowledge of either official language. Additionally, situational vulnerability speaks to variations in socio-demographic conditions in such things as housing and education.
In contrast, hate crime victims and accused were relatively similar to the general population in terms of economic dependency; that is to say, with similar proportions of the population not participating in the labour force or who are dependent on income other than employment income.
Importantly, this information does not necessarily reflect where the individual either committed the hate crime or was a victim of a hate crime. Rather it reflects their current residential address at the time of the incident.
Chart 6
Dimensions of deprivation among victims and accused involved in police-reported hate crime incidents, by quintile rank, Canada, 2009 to 2022
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Note to readers
Collecting police-reported hate crime information
Police-reported hate crime data are drawn from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey, a census of all criminal incidents known to police services in Canada. For more information on the UCR Survey, key terminology and definitions, see Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2021.
Hate crimes target the integral or visible parts of a person's identity, and a single incident can affect the wider community. A hate crime may be carried out against a person or property and may be motivated in whole or in part by race, colour, national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, language, sex, age, mental or physical disability, or any other similar factor. Additionally, as of 2021, there were four specific offences listed as hate propaganda or hate crimes in the Criminal Code of Canada: advocating or promoting genocide against an identifiable group; inciting hatred against an identifiable group in a public place that is likely to cause a breach of the peace; wilful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group; and mischief motivated by hate based on various factors in relation to certain property used primarily for worship or by an identifiable group. In 2022, an additional hate propaganda offence of wilful promotion of antisemitism by denying, condoning or downplaying the Holocaust was introduced in the Criminal Code.
Police data on hate crimes reflect only the incidents that come to the attention of police and are classified as hate crimes. Police determine whether a crime was motivated by hatred. They indicate the type of motivation based on information gathered during the investigation and common national guidelines for record classification. Hate crime counts include both confirmed and suspected hate crime incidents. Like other types of crime, counts of police-reported hate crime can be impacted by major social events, policing initiatives or awareness campaigns. Additionally, reporting may also be influenced by language barriers, issues of trust or confidence in the police, or fear of further victimization or stigma. For example, see Text box 1 and Text box 5 in Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2020. In this release, police data on hate crimes reflect the primary hate crime motivation in a criminal incident, as determined through police investigation. To better understand the complex nature of hate crimes and allow for increased analysis of intersectionality, existing hate crime motivation categories have been expanded and a secondary motivation category has been added to the UCR Survey. These changes were undertaken following extensive consultation with hate crime subject-matter experts and were made available for reporting purposes in October 2021. It can take a period of time for these data to be collected and disseminated, in part due to privacy and confidentiality concerns.
Where possible, police-reported crime information should be interpreted in a broader community context. For additional contextual information within and outside the criminal justice system, see the following resources: Crime and justice statistics; Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population; Centre for Municipal and Local Data; and Rural Canada statistics.
Additional police-reported hate crime data for 2023
For general demographic information on hate crime victims and accused persons—including gender, median age, level of injury sustained and relationship between the victim and accused—see tables 6 and 7 at the end of this release.
Additionally, for a general summary of hate crime clearance information and hate crimes with a cyber component, see the Daily release from 2024, which covered combined data for the years 2018 to 2022. Updated information with the inclusion of data for 2023 is available upon request.
Preliminary police-reported hate crime data for 2024
Preliminary results indicate that 3,614 hate crimes were reported to police in the first three quarters of 2024. For context, this is similar to the number of hate crimes reported in 2023 over the same period.
For more information, see the preliminary quarterly hate crime data table.
Ongoing preliminary quarterly data on police-reported hate crime are available throughout the year, with data for the fourth quarter of 2024 available in April 2025 and data for the first quarter of 2025 available in July 2025.
Official annual police-reported hate crime data for 2024 will be released alongside other police-reported crime data in summer 2025.
Identifying populations targeted in police-reported hate crimes
In this release, data on hate crimes targeting race or ethnicity are measured with the hate crime detailed motivation variable in the UCR Survey. The reporting categories are informed by the Employment Equity Act and may be grouped to simplify data collection and reporting and to ensure confidentiality when disseminating results. Therefore, the groupings in the race or ethnicity category, as it pertains to police-reported hate crimes, may differ from the more general definition of "visible minority" groups, below.
"Visible minority" refers to whether a person belongs to one of the visible minority groups defined by the Employment Equity Act. The Employment Equity Act defines visible minorities as "persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour." The visible minority population consists mainly of the following groups: South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin American, Arab, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean and Japanese.
In the context of police-reported hate crime data, it is not currently possible to disaggregate the categories for First Nations people, Métis or Inuit (or Indigenous peoples). Due to the historical and intergenerational trauma resulting from colonialism and related policies, as well as individual and systemic racism, many Indigenous people face deeply rooted social and economic challenges, including higher rates of criminal victimization, discrimination, representation in the criminal justice system, and lower levels of confidence in the police and other institutions. These and other factors can impact whether a hate crime comes to the attention of the police. For more information and context on victimization among Indigenous people, see for example, the following articles: "Violent victimization and perceptions of safety: Experiences of First Nations, Métis and Inuit women in Canada;" "Victimization of First Nations people, Métis and Inuit in Canada;" "Understanding the Impact of Historical Trauma Due to Colonization on the Health and Well-Being of Indigenous Young Peoples: A Systematic Scoping Review;" "Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report on the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls;" and "Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada."
In this release, data on police-reported hate crimes targeting sexual orientation are collected based on the following detailed motivation categories: bisexual, heterosexual, gay and lesbian, the 2SLGBTQ+ community, asexual, pansexual and another sexual orientation that is not heterosexual. Prior to October 2021, hate crimes targeting sex or gender were collected based on detailed motivation categories for: male, female, and other sex or gender (including transgender, agender, intersex). With the expansion of UCR hate crime motivation categories as of October 2021, the gender category includes: man or woman, transgender man or woman, transgender target not specified, and non-binary. It is possible that these categories could be disaggregated with future releases.
The option for police to code victims as "non-binary" in the UCR Survey was implemented in 2018. In the context of the UCR Survey, "non-binary" refers to a person who publicly expresses as neither exclusively man nor exclusively woman. Given that small counts of victims identified as gender diverse may exist, the UCR Survey data available to the public have been recoded with these victims distributed in the "men and boys" or "women and girls" categories based on the regional distribution of victims' gender. This recoding ensures the protection of the confidentiality and privacy of victims.
Police-reported data linkages for hate crime victims and accused
The information presented above on hate crime victims and accused persons is based on various subsets of information with varying time periods based on linked data availability at the time of this report. Detailed methodological information for these linkages is available upon request.
For geographic proximity, the linkage identified the closest geographic match by residential address based on postal code among all combinations of victims and accused involved in an incident. The information excluded 58% of incidents because there was no known victim or accused, and 5% of incidents due to missing address information.
The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation
The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (CIMD) is an area-based index which uses Census of Population microdata to measure four key dimensions of deprivation at the dissemination area (DA)-level: residential instability, economic dependency, situational vulnerability and ethno-cultural composition. The CIMD groups several variables into thematic components, reflected by component scores. These component scores are then divided into five equally sized groups (quintiles), categorized from 1 to 5. A value of 1 corresponds to areas that were the least deprived for that dimension, and a value of 5 corresponds to areas that were the most deprived.
The CIMD allows for an understanding of inequalities in various measures of health and social well-being. While it is a geographically-based index of deprivation and marginalization, it can also be used as a proxy for an individual. For detailed information on the CIMD see the User guide, 2021.
There are some important strengths and weaknesses to consider when interpreting the CIMD when applied as a proxy for an individual.
- Captures context effects: Area-level deprivation can influence individual behaviours and opportunities. Living in a deprived area can expose individuals to various stressors, social disadvantages, and potentially contribute to feelings of frustration, marginalization, or resentment, which some theories suggest could increase the risk of engaging in crime.
- Comparisons to national average: Comparing the CIMD scores of the DAs where victims and accused reside to the national average provides a possible benchmark for assessing whether these individuals tend to come from more deprived areas than the average Canadian.
- Ecological fallacy: there is the potential for an ecological fallacy when inferring characteristics about an individual from an area-based index. Not everyone who lives in a DA identified as being deprived is necessarily deprived. That said, where no comprehensive individual information is readily available, the index can provide coverage for the population and can add contextual information for analysis.
- Residential mobility: Individuals are linked to a DA based on their current residential address, however, individuals may not have lived in the same DA for their entire lives. Using their current address may not reflect their long-term context.
Tables available
Data tables 35-10-0066-01, 35-10-0067-01 and 35-10-0191-01 are available.
Products
An interactive data visualization dashboard, Police-reported Information Hub: Hate crime in Canada, is now available through the Police-reported Information Hub as part of the publication Statistics Canada – Data Visualization Products (71-607-X).
The infographic "Infographic: Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2023," which is part of the series Statistics Canada — Infographics (11-627-M), is now available.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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