(CNN) — Anti-Asian hate crimes reported in the US decreased by 33% in 2022, following a rise in such incidents in previous years, newly released FBI data shows.

The data – released this month as part of the FBI’s annual hate crime statistics report – shows there were 499 reported incidents involving anti-Asian bias in 2022, compared to 746 in 2021.

Many American cities saw a troubling rise in crimes targeting Asian people after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, including New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Overall, hate crimes reported in the US have been steadily increasing for years, according to the FBI data. In 2022, US law enforcement agencies reported the highest number of hate crime incidents since the FBI began tracking them in 1991, the data shows.

Last year, more than 13,000 people were reportedly victims of hate crimes, the FBI said. Attacks targeting people based on their race, ethnicity or ancestry were the most common, followed by those based on religion and sexual orientation.

Hate crime incidents involving bias against Black people made up 52% of offenses motivated by race or ethnicity, according to the data.

Though the FBI’s annual report is considered the most comprehensive look at hate crime across the country, these statistics represent only a fraction of actual incidents for several reasons, including lack of reporting by individuals and gaps in government-level data collection.

Law enforcement agencies are not required to submit their data to the FBI and voluntary compliance varies from year to year. Even in local jurisdictions that do report data to the FBI, it is likely an undercount: fewer than half of hate crime victims report to police, according to the FBI’s National Crime Victimization Survey.

Law enforcement participation in the FBI’s report increased in 2022 compared to previous years, the agency said.

The-CNN-Wire
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