1 in 3 women globally experience sexual violence

Description

Context: One in 3 women – about 736 million individuals – are subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner in their lifetimes, a number that has remained largely unchanged over the past decade.

Details:

This violence starts early – 1 in 4 young women (aged 15-24 years) who have been in a relationship will have already experienced violence by an intimate partner by the time they reach their mid-twenties.
Violence disproportionately affects women living in low- and lower-middle-income countries. An estimated 37% of women living in the poorest countries have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence in their life, with some of these countries having a prevalence as high as 1 in 2.
The regions of Oceania, Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have the highest prevalence rates of intimate partner violence among women aged 15-49,ranging from 33% to 51%.The lowest rates are found in Europe (16%-23%), Central Asia (18%), Eastern Asia (20%) and South-Eastern Asia (21%).
Younger women are at highest risk for recent violence. Among those who have been in a relationship, the highest rates (16%) of intimate partner violence in the past 12 months occurred among young women aged between 15 and 24.

About the report:

The report, ‘Global, regional and national estimates for intimate partner violence against women and global and regional estimates for non-partner sexual violence against women’ was prepared by WHO and the UNDP-UNFPA-UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP )for the United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group on Violence Against Women Estimation and Data.
The report presents data from the largest ever study of the prevalence of violence against women, conducted by WHO on behalf of a special working group of the United Nations. Based on data from 2000 to 2018, it updates previous estimates released in 2013.
The estimates presented in the report are based on data from 161 countries and areas for intimate partner violence and 137 for non-partner sexual violence, obtained through a comprehensive review of all available prevalence data from studies conducted between 2000 and 2018.