British Columbia saw a substantial spike in police-reported hate crimes in 2016.

According to data from Statistics Canada, there were 211 incidents in B.C. last year.

There were fewer than 170 in each of the two previous years.

"The increase was attributable to crimes against the East or Southeast Asian and South Asian populations, which doubled from 2015 to 2016," the report stated.

The only province to see a bigger increase in reported hate crimes was Quebec, where the total went from 270 in 2015 to 327 last year.

In 2016, there were 36 hate crimes in B.C. where the victim was targeted because of their sexual orientation. (CBC)

The victims

Hate crimes in B.C. against East or Southeast Asians increased from 15 in 2015 to 32 in 2016.

Incidents involving South Asians increased from 11 to 24 over the same period.

The most hate crimes reported in B.C. last year, however, were incidents that were motivated by the victim's sexual orientation.

That number climbed from 25 in 2015 to 36 in 2016.

National trends

There were 1,409 hate crimes reported in Canada in 2016, which was up slightly from the previous year.

"This represented less than 0.1 per cent of the 1,895,546 crimes (excluding traffic violations) that were reported by police services," the report stated.

Since Statistics Canada started in-depth tracking of hate crimes in 2009, the country has averaged 1,360 incidents per year.

In 2016, Canada saw the number of hate crimes against Muslims and Catholics decrease, while incidents involving South Asians, Arabs, West Asians and the Jewish population all increased.