Religious hate crimes are on the rise in England and Wales, in accordance with latest figures released by the Home Office this week.
Police recorded a complete of 115,990 hate crime offences within the yr to March 2025, up 2% from 113,166 the previous yr.
The figures exclude data from London’s Metropolitan Police because of changes in its recording methodology.
Data showed that religious hate crimes rose by 3% to 7,164 recorded incidents during the last yr – the best numbers on record.
This was considerably higher than the 4,527 religious hate crime incidents recorded within the 2020/21 period.
Of the full religious hate crime incidents recorded within the last yr, 502 were against Christians.
The majority were against Muslims (4,478) and Jews (2,873). Religious hate crimes against Muslims rose 19%, with a spike seen within the wake of the Southport murders and ensuing unrest, the Home Office said.
Other data published by the Home Office showed that race-related hate crimes rose by 6% over the identical period, while offences linked to sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity declined by 2%, 8% and 11% respectively.
Including Metropolitan Police data, police across England and Wales recorded a complete of 137,550 hate crimes.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the statistics “show that too many persons are living in fear due to who they’re, what they imagine, or where they arrive from”.
“I is not going to tolerate British people being targeted just because of their religion, race, or identity,” she said.
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