England and Wales Record 146,825 Police-Recorded Hate Crimes
October 9, 2026 — International Watch / Breaking News
The U.K. Home Office recorded 146,825 hate-crime offences in England and Wales in the year ending March 2026, a 7% increase from 137,560 the prior year. The official report, published October 8, says police recorded 107,926 race-related offences, up 9%, and 11,419 religion-related offences, up 13%.
Within the religious category, offences recorded as targeting Muslims rose 15% and those targeting Jewish people rose 10%. Excluding the Metropolitan Police Service, which the Home Office says is not directly comparable because of a recording-system change, 8,214 religious hate crimes were recorded—the highest annual figure in that comparison since records began in 2012.
These are police-recorded offences, not a count of every incident or a direct measure of how often all hate-motivated conduct occurs. Changes in reports and recording practices affect interpretation. The figures do not identify the motive or circumstances of any individual case; those require case-specific evidence.