Story highlights An average of 250,000 hate crime incidents took place per year between 2004-2015

About a third of victims between 2011 and 2015 said they were targeted because of their ethnicity or gender

Washington (CNN) A majority of hate crime incidents are not reported to police, according to the results of a new Department of Justice hate crime report released Thursday.

The report, which included data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics' National Crime Victimization Survey, also found that between 2004 to 2015, there was an average of 250,000 hate crime incidents each year.

Between 2011 and 2015, 54% of violent hate crimes went unreported, the report found. Most commonly, or 44% of the time, they were handled another way, such as through a non-law enforcement official. During that same period, 90% of hate crimes included some form of violent crime, with the majority including simple assault. In comparison, the report said just 25% of non-hate crimes involved some form of violent crime.

The report defined hate crimes as "those that manifest evidence of prejudice based on rage, gender or gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation or ethnicity."

Around a third of victims between 2011 and 2015 said they were targeted because of their ethnicity, and 29% cited their gender.

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