HOUSTON – Hate crime reports in Houston rose by 212% from 2017 to 2018 and a majority of those were racially motivated, according to the latest statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
There was a sharp increase — 138% — in hate crimes reported in the whole state as well, going up from 198 in 2017 to 457 in 2018.
Recommended Videos
This uptick isn't reflected at the national level with 7,120 hate crimes reported around the country in 2018 which is down very slightly from the 7,175 incidents reported the previous year.
RELATED: Hate crime report comparison among 10 biggest cities in U.S.
See the breakdown of the different types of hate crimes reported in Houston in 2017 and 2018. The two types of hate crimes that saw the biggest hike were racially motivated crimes and crimes targeting people or businesses over sexual orientation.
Overwhelmingly, the types of hate crimes most reported in Houston, Texas and the country were racially motivated. In Houston, 52% of the hate crimes in 2018 were committed with an intent to harm a person or business out of racial or ethnic bias. In Texas, that number goes up to 63% and at the national level, it's 57%.
Houston had a higher percentage of hate crimes related to sexual orientation than at the state and national levels with 24%. In Texas, sexual orientation formed the basis of a hate crime 12% of the time and at the national level, 17%.
Two fields in which there were no hate crimes reported in Houston were crimes committed targeting someone with a disability and crimes targeting someone of a specific gender.
Note: The national total comprises "single-bias" crimes. There were also 84 "multiple-bias" crimes reported which bring the national total to 7,120.
Compared to other types of crimes reported in Houston, the percentage of hate crimes reported is minuscule. See an FBI crime breakdown for other crimes in Houston for 2018 here.