Sussex is the ninth most dangerous county for racist crime in England and Wales, according to a survey.

In the survey recording the number of racist incidents according to the size of the local ethnic minority population, Sussex came ninth out of 42 counties.

According to the figures, 3.69 per cent of the population were targeted by racists and affected by crimes ranging from verbal abuse and harassment to serious assault.

The Observer newspaper launched the investigation after Home Office figures revealed a 107 per cent increase in reported racist incidents between April 1999 and April last year.

Sussex fared badly against counties with a similar ethnic population of 25,300.

In Derbyshire, which has an ethnic population of 24,300, 1.58 per cent were targeted by racists and in the West Midlands, with an ethnic population of 287,200, the figure was only 0.54 per cent.

Northumbria had the highest number of racist incidents with a figure of 7.88 per cent.

Sussex Police was severely criticised in a report looking at its investigation of the suspected racist murder of Jay Abatan in Brighton in 1999.

Essex officers said they were surprised Sussex had not taken on board lessons learned in the MacPherson report into the death of Stephen Lawrence in London.