Police-reported hate crimes up nationally, down in Sask.

While Statistics Canada says police-reported hate crimes increased across the country last year, Saskatchewan was the only region that saw a decrease during that time-span.

According to numbers released by Statistics Canada, there was a 47 per cent jump in the number of police-reported hate crimes from 2016 to 2017 nationally.

In Saskatchewan, the number of hate crimes dropped from 29 to 20. There were 13 incidents related to race/ethnicity, four linked to religion, one targeting sexual orientation and two for other motivations.

Incidents targeting Muslim, Jewish and black populations accounted for most of the national increases.

Hate crimes targeting black people accounted for 16 per cent of all hate crimes in Canada in 2017. They were the most common race-related hate crimes.

Incidents involving Muslims more than doubled between 2016 and 2017.

Hate crimes targeting the Jewish population increased for the second straight year.

The agency says the figure is an all-time high since comparable data became available in 2009.

Statistics Canada warned the increase could be due to more reporting rather than an increase in incidents.

-With files from The Canadian Press