Transgender hate crimes recorded by police forces in England, Scotland and Wales have risen by 81% in the last three years, according to the latest figures.

The staggering rise of transgender hate crime “are the real life consequences of a society where transphobia is everywhere,” a leading equality charity said. 

There were 1,944 crimes across 36 forces in the last financial year compared with 1,073 in 2016-17, according to data obtained by the BBC by freedom of information requests.

Two forces – West Yorkshire Police and South Yorkshire Police – saw reporting of transgender hate crimes more than treble over the three years period.

Suffolk Constabulary and Merseyside Police were the only forces which saw a drop in crimes over the same period.

A recent report by Stonewall found that two in five trans people had experienced a hate crime or incident in the last year. Underreporting is a major issue, the charity said, with four in five anti-LGBTQ hate crimes going unreported. 

Laura Russell, the charity’s director of campaigns, policy and research, said the “worrying statistics” show that trans people continue to face discrimination and abuse on a daily basis, just for being themselves.

“These statistics are the real life consequences of a society where transphobia is everywhere – from the front pages of newspapers, to social media, and on our streets.

“We need people to realise how severe the situation is for trans people, and to be active in standing up as a visible ally to trans people, in whatever way they can.” 

She said it was important that hate crimes are reporting even if they are small, and that Stonewall was working with police services and criminal justice agencies across Britain to ensure LGBT people feel more comfortable reporting abuse.

She added: “We’re pleased that the government has commissioned a review of hate crime laws, because we want to see the law reformed so that crimes based on sexual orientation, gender identity or disability are treated equally to those based on race and faith.

“This will help improve the confidence in the way the criminal justice system deals with LGBT hate crime.’

A Home Office spokesperson said abuse or violence directed at someone on the basis of their transgender identity is “never acceptable”.

“That’s why we are committed to tackling hate crime in all its forms, including abuse targeted at transgender people, through the government’s hate crime Action Plan,” the spokesperson said.

“We work closely with stakeholders to tackle hate crime, including funding community-led projects aimed at tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime.”