Hate crimes against Muslims and Catholics declined, while other identifiable groups were more frequently targeted in 2016, according to latest Statistics Canada data.

According to a StatsCan report published Tuesday, police reported 1,409 hate crimes in Canada in 2016, 47 more than in 2015.

The three per cent increase in hate crimes was a result of “more incidents targeting South Asians and Arabs or West Asians, the Jewish population, and people based on their sexual orientation,” StatsCan said.

However, police reported 20 fewer hate crimes against Muslims in 2016, for a total of 139.

Most of that decline was in Quebec, with16 fewer reported anti-Muslim hate crimes in the province that year.

StatsCan says the decline follows “a notable increase in hate crimes against the Muslim population” in 2015. That year, there was a 61 per cent increase in hate crimes targeting Muslims, with 159 reported incidents.

The latest StatsCan report also notes:

In 2016, 48 per cent of all police-reported hate crimes were motivated by hatred of a race or ethnicity.

The increase was largely due to 24 more hate crimes targeting South Asians and 20 more incidents targeting Arabs or West Asians.

Hate crimes targeting sexual orientation accounted for 13per cent of all police-reported hate crimes in 2016.

In 2016, 43 per cent of hate crimes were violent, compared with 38 per cent in 2015.

Hate crimes represented fewer than 0.1 per cent of the nearly 1.9 million crimes reported by police services across the country in 2016.