The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) just released its annual list of hate groups for the U.S. for 2022. Nationwide, they followed 1,225 groups last year. This is up from 733 last year and is the highest that they have ever tracked. Pennsylvania had 72 hate groups in 2022 which is up from 30 in 2021, a 140% increase. This was the largest increase of any state in the number of groups.
National Hate Group Numbers
| State | Hate Groups | Population | Groups per million | Change from 2021 |
| United States | 1225 | 334,897,559 | 3.66 | 492 |
| District of Columbia | 11 | 689,545 | 15.95 | -6 |
| Wyoming | 9 | 576,851 | 15.60 | 7 |
| Idaho | 21 | 1,839,106 | 11.42 | 15 |
| Montana | 12 | 1,084,225 | 11.07 | 8 |
| New Hampshire | 15 | 1,377,529 | 10.89 | 9 |
| North Dakota | 8 | 779,094 | 10.27 | 6 |
| South Dakota | 8 | 886,667 | 9.02 | 4 |
| Delaware | 7 | 989,948 | 7.07 | 3 |
| Maine | 9 | 1,362,359 | 6.61 | 5 |
| Rhode Island | 7 | 1,097,379 | 6.38 | 4 |
| Nebraska | 12 | 1,961,504 | 6.12 | 3 |
| South Carolina | 30 | 5,118,425 | 5.86 | 13 |
| Oregon | 24 | 4,237,256 | 5.66 | 14 |
| Pennsylvania | 72 | 13,002,700 | 5.54 | 42 |
| Utah | 18 | 3,271,616 | 5.50 | 16 |
Adjusting the numbers for population yields 3.66 groups per million in the U.S and 5.54 groups per million residents in Pennsylvania. Even with the increase in Pennsylvania, it only ranks 14th among the states in hate groups per million. It ranked 30th in 2021. The District of Columbia lost 6 hate groups but still had the highest rate in the U.S. at 15.95. Interestingly, in the top 20 states in groups per million, there is only one deep south state, South Carolina.
Pennsylvania Hate Groups
Twenty five of the 42 new hate groups in the state were chapters of the group Mom’s for Liberty. They have been campaigning to get LGBTQ and ‘critical race theory’ books banned from public schools and libraries. This still means that there are 17 new groups that the SPLC is following here.
One group of interest is Evergreen which is located in Bedford County. The SPLC lists them as white nationalist. The people in Bedford County I have spoken to have not heard of them. I called the SPLC and am waiting for a response about them.
The 140% increase in hate groups in Pennsylvania is surprising. The SPLC was late in coming out with their 2022 map this year. They usually release their numbers in March. They may have revised how they track these groups nationwide.