Two groups experienced dramatic spikes in hate crimes during 2025, with anti-Latino incidents reaching a historic peak and violence targeting Sikhs exploding by thousands of percent, according to preliminary FBI data reviewed by experts.
Anti-Latino hate crimes surged 18% to 1,014 incidents last year, marking the first time this category entered the top three most targeted groups in the 34 years the FBI has tracked such data. The surge came during a period of heightened immigration enforcement and inflammatory political rhetoric about immigrants.
The jump in anti-Sikh hate crimes was even more dramatic in percentage terms. The incidents rose from 6 in 2015 to 228 last year, though researchers cautioned that anti-Sikh hate crimes had only recently been introduced as a distinct tracking category. Still, the trajectory reflects a disturbing pattern of escalating violence.
These increases stand in sharp relief against the overall trend: hate-crime incidents nationwide fell 11% compared with 2024. The divergence highlights how certain groups become flash points for violence regardless of broader movements in crime statistics.
Levin said such spikes usually happen during periods when a particular community is repeatedly portrayed in public discourse through stereotypes that fuel fear and distrust.
That helps explain why, even though the overall number of hate crimes in the U.S. fell by 11% last year, violence targeting Latino and Sikh communities continued to rise.
According to the preliminary analysis, anti-Latino incidents climbed to 1,014, entering the top three most frequently reported categories for the first time in more than three decades of FBI records, while attacks against Sikhs reached 228 cases.
Researchers cautioned that the figures are still preliminary, but said the trend suggests some groups remain especially vulnerable even when national totals are moving downward.
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