New York, Feb 23 (IANS): A total of 1,005 hate crimes related to religion were reported in 2021 in the US with Sikhs being the most targeted religious groups, according to statistics revealed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Incidents related to religion comprised 14.2 per cent of incidents, the Hate Crime Statistics revealed.

The largest categories of religion-based crime included anti-Jewish incidents at 31.9 per cent followed by anti-Sikh incidents at 21.3 per cent.

While anti-Muslims accounted for 9.5 per cent of religion-based hate crimes, anti-Catholic incidents accounted for 6.1 per cent.

Overall, law enforcement agencies reported 7,262 total incidents and 9,024 victims, demonstrating that hate crimes remain a concern for communities across the country.

The overall number of agencies reporting decreased to 11,834, from 15,138 in 2021, so data cannot reliably be compared across years.

According to the 2021 data, 64.8 per cent of victims were targeted because of the offenders' bias toward race/ethnicity/ancestry, which continues to be the largest bias motivation category.

Anti-Black or African-American hate crimes continued to be the largest bias incident category, with 63.2 per cent of all single-bias incidents in 2021.

Additionally, anti-Asian incidents represented 4.3 per cent of incidents reported in 2021, the statistics revealed.

Together, incidents related to sexual orientation and gender identity represented 19.7 per cent of all single-bias cases reported in 2022.