Hate crimes recorded by the police in Scotland, 2023-24

Hate crimes by aggravator (Table 3)

For the purposes of this analysis, we have included any crime where the specific aggravator being measured (such as race, sexual orientation etc.) has been assigned to the record. As such, any crime with multiple aggravators will be included in the figures for each of the aggravators associated with it. For example, if a crime was aggravated by race and sexual orientation, it will be included in the total number of crimes with a race aggravator and in the total number of crimes with a sexual orientation aggravator. This means the total number of crimes for each aggravator will sum to more than the total number of recorded hate crimes in Scotland.

In 2023-24, over three-fifths (63%) of hate crimes included a race aggravator. Just under a quarter (24%) included a sexual orientation aggravator, and around one in ten (10%) had a disability aggravator. Hate crimes with a religion aggravator made up 7% of all recorded, whilst those with a transgender identity aggravator made up 3%. As noted above, any individual crime can include multiple aggravators. In 2023-24, 6% of hate crimes included more than one aggravator.

There has been a decrease since 2014-15 in the number of recorded hate crimes that included a race aggravator (down 25% from 5,178 crimes to 3,907 crimes by 2023-24). There has also been a fall in those that included a religion aggravator (down 35% from 682 in 2014-15 to 440 in 2023-24). The number of crimes with a sexual orientation aggravator increased over the same period (up 34% from 1,110 in 2014-15 to 1,487 in 2023-24). The number of crimes with a disability aggravator has more than doubled (from 260 in 2014-15 to 633 in 2023-24), and the number of transgender identity aggravated hate crimes has more than tripled, albeit from a relatively smaller base (from 53 to 161).