Nearly one in three women worldwide has experienced violence from a partner or sexual violence from someone else, a share that has barely changed since 2000, while child marriage and female genital mutilation are declining but not fast enough to end by 2030.
Updated October 13, 2026. Written from the sources listed below, not independently peer-reviewed.
Out of every 100 women and girls who were killed intentionally in 2024, how many were killed by an intimate partner or another family member?
840 million
Women who have experienced partner or sexual violence
Nearly 1 in 3 women: physical or sexual violence by a partner, sexual violence by a non-partner, or both, at least once in their lifetime. Modelled from survey data collected in 168 countries between 2000 and 2023.
Data year 2023. Source: World Health Organization, 2025
316 million
Women subjected to partner violence in the past 12 months
11% of ever-partnered women aged 15 and older experienced physical or sexual violence by a partner within a single year. Modelled estimate.
Data year 2023. Source: World Health Organization, 2025
About 50,000
Women and girls killed by a partner or family member
An average of 137 a day, and 60% of the 83,000 women and girls killed intentionally that year. Based on data from 117 countries or territories, with gaps imputed.
Data year 2024. Source: UNODC and UN Women, 2025
The two global values stated in UNICEF's 2023 analysis. The 2022 value uses the latest national survey for each country (2016–2022), covering 103 countries and 78% of the world's population; years in between are not plotted.
SDG target 5.2 calls for eliminating all forms of violence against all women and girls in public and private life by 2030. Partner violence has declined by an average of only 0.2% a year over the past two decades, and WHO judges it very unlikely that the target will be reached.
Past-year partner violence affected 18% of ever-partnered women in the least developed countries and 17% in sub-Saharan Africa, compared with 5% in Europe and Northern America. In Oceania, excluding Australia and New Zealand, the rate was 38%, more than three times the global average.
Source: World Health Organization, 2025About 12.5 million adolescent girls aged 15 to 19, or 16%, experienced physical or sexual violence from a partner in the past 12 months, above the 11% rate for women aged 15 and older.
Source: World Health Organization, 2025Africa had the highest rate of killings of women and girls by partners or family members in 2024, about 3 per 100,000 women and girls, followed by the Americas (1.5) and Oceania (1.4). Asia (0.7) and Europe (0.5) had the lowest rates.
Source: UNODC and UN Women, 2025In sub-Saharan Africa, where one in three young women married before age 18, all of the progress against child marriage has come among the richest families. Worldwide, girls from the richest households account for three times as many averted child marriages as girls from the poorest.
Source: UNICEF, 2023Each country is shaded by its latest available value, so you can see where the gap is widest. Hover or tap a country, search for one, or open the full table.
Loading country values…
Share of ever-partnered women aged 15 and older who experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or former partner in the previous 12 months (SDG indicator 5.2.1). Values are WHO-led modelled estimates for 2023, the latest year available for every country shown, based on surveys from 2000–2023; countries without survey data have no estimate, and because much violence goes unreported the figures are likely to be underestimates.
Source: WHO and UN Inter-Agency Working Group on Violence Against Women Estimation and Data, via UN SDG Global Database and Our World in Data. Latest year available per country; years differ.
Values load from Our World in Data. Simplified Natural Earth borders; they imply no position on disputed territories.
Instead of one “percent solved” score, DO GOOD rates three separate dimensions. A problem can have mature solutions that still reach too few people. These ratings are an editorial reading of the sources on this page, not a measured index.
Has the situation improved in the real world?
LowNearly one in three women has experienced partner or non-partner sexual violence, a share that has barely changed since 2000, and 316 million women experienced partner violence in the past year alone.
How mature and validated are the available solutions?
ModeratePrevention is now tested in randomised trials: a 2023 meta-analysis of 27 trials found that community and group-based programmes cut the odds of past-year partner violence by about a fifth on average. Effects varied widely, most trials were in sub-Saharan Africa, and costs have rarely been studied.
How widely are effective solutions actually used?
LowIn 2022 only 0.2% of global development aid went to programmes focused on preventing violence against women, and funding fell further in 2025 even as humanitarian crises increased the risks.
WHO's estimates draw on surveys carried out between 2000 and 2023 in 168 countries, but data remain thin for non-partner sexual violence, indigenous and migrant women, women with disabilities, and fragile and humanitarian settings, and all surveys are likely to underestimate violence.
Partner violence has declined by only about 0.2% a year over two decades, and partner and family femicide rates have stayed flat in the Americas while falling slowly in Europe. Child marriage and female genital mutilation are declining, but not fast enough to end them by 2030.
Violence against women and girls takes several forms: physical, sexual and psychological abuse by a current or former partner, sexual violence by other people, gender-related killings of women and girls, and harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM). WHO and its UN partners estimate that about 840 million women, nearly one in three, have experienced partner violence or non-partner sexual violence at least once, a share that has barely moved since 2000. This violence is linked to depression, post-traumatic stress, anxiety and suicide attempts, to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections including HIV, and, when it happens during pregnancy, to higher risks of miscarriage, stillbirth, preterm birth and low birth weight. In some countries its cost to police, justice, social and health services has been put at 1 to 6% of GDP.
Women in the least developed countries and in conflict-affected and climate-vulnerable settings are disproportionately affected, and adolescent girls report recent partner violence more often than women overall. WHO lists harmful gender norms, poverty and unemployment, child marriage, discriminatory laws and weak law enforcement among the conditions that raise risk. At its most extreme the violence is lethal: in 2024 about 50,000 women and girls were killed by a partner or relative. Harmful practices also remain common, with an estimated 12 million girls married before age 18 in 2022 and more than 230 million girls and women alive today living with the consequences of FGM. Stigma and fear keep much of this violence hidden, so surveys are likely to understate its true extent.
UN agencies track several distinct forms. Most global figures come from population-based national surveys in which women are asked about specific acts they have experienced, combined with statistical models that make estimates comparable across countries:
Intimate partner violence
Physical, sexual or psychological harm by a current or former husband or intimate partner. WHO's headline estimates count physical and/or sexual violence among women who have ever had a partner, both over their lifetime and in the past 12 months, and are used to track SDG target 5.2.
Non-partner sexual violence
Sexual violence by someone other than a partner, counted from age 15. WHO's 2023 round is the first to include national and regional estimates for it, and experts caution that stigma and fear make it significantly under-reported.
Femicide
Gender-related killings of women and girls. The global estimates from UNODC and UN Women cover only killings by intimate partners and other family members, because data on femicides outside the family are still too limited to estimate. Values for countries without data are imputed, so the totals show overall magnitude rather than precise counts.
Harmful practices
Child marriage, measured as the share of women aged 20 to 24 who were first married or in a union before age 18, and female genital mutilation. Both fall under SDG target 5.3, which calls for eliminating all harmful practices.
What works
Programmes such as SASA! in Uganda, Indashyikirwa in Rwanda and Stepping Stones and Creating Futures in South Africa work with whole communities, couples or peer groups to change the norms and power imbalances behind violence. A 2023 meta-analysis of 27 randomised trials in low- and middle-income countries found that this kind of programme reduced the odds of women experiencing partner violence in the past year by about a fifth on average (adjusted odds ratio 0.78).
Limits
Results varied widely between trials, 26 of the 30 included studies were in sub-Saharan Africa, and the median programme ran for about nine months, so it is unclear how well the effects transfer to other regions. The authors call for cost-effectiveness studies to inform policy.
What works
Health systems can set protocols and training standards so staff recognise violence and care for survivors, provide sexual, reproductive and mental health care, and coordinate referrals with justice, social and child protection services. WHO and its UN partners call on governments to strengthen survivor-centred health, legal and social services.
Limits
Services help only the women who can reach them and feel safe enough to seek help. They depend on cooperation between sectors that is often weak and on sustained funding.
What works
Laws on domestic and sexual violence give survivors legal routes to protection. Killings by partners are often preceded by warning signs such as earlier violence, threats and separation, and a firearm in the hands of an abusive partner significantly raises the odds of a killing, so UNODC and UN Women point to police risk assessments, protection orders that bar contact, and enforced protection measures.
Limits
Laws change little without enforcement and institutions that women trust. In a review of femicides in Albania, 90% of the women killed had previously experienced violence from the perpetrator and 25% had reported it to the police, showing missed chances to intervene.
What works
The share of young women married as children fell from 23% to 19% between 2012 and 2022, and UNICEF estimates that 68 million child marriages were averted over the past 25 years. Where progress happened, it tended to go together with economic development, poverty reduction and more girls in secondary school.
Limits
At the recent pace it would take at least 300 years to end child marriage, and progress would need to be 20 times faster to meet the SDG target. Gains have favoured wealthier families, and conflict and climate-related shocks are associated with rising rates.
What works
Attitudes and practice are changing: nearly two-thirds of people in countries where the practice is common support ending it, the share of girls subjected to it has fallen from one in two to one in three, and half of all gains since 1990 came in the past decade.
Limits
An estimated 4.5 million girls, many under the age of five, are at risk in 2026. UN agencies warn that community outreach could be scaled back without predictable funding, and that arguments for having doctors or health workers perform the procedure undermine progress.
Promising, but not proven at scale. The stage shows how far each approach has come; it is not a recommendation.
Albania set up the first femicide observatory in the Balkans using the UN statistical framework for gender-related killings, Lesotho piloted the same framework and identified 116 femicide victims from 2019 to 2022, and Chile built a validated national database of homicide and femicide cases. Such systems are still rare: the global estimate rests on data from 117 countries or territories.
WHO's 2023 round is the first to publish national and regional estimates of non-partner sexual violence, putting the lifetime total at 263 million women. Experts caution that the figures are significant underestimates, and WHO notes that large data gaps remain for this form of violence.
In one UK analysis of 41 domestic homicide reviews, technology had been used for coercive control or surveillance before the killing in 58.5% of cases. UNODC and UN Women call for risk assessment tools and police investigations to be revised so that such abuse is spotted early, and guidance on how to measure it is still being prepared.
Implementation gap
In 2022 only 0.2% of global development aid went to programmes focused on preventing violence against women, and funding fell further in 2025 even as crises increased the risks.
Implementation gap
Programmes that reduced violence in trials were usually delivered intensively in a limited number of communities by trained staff. Running them through schools, health and social services across a whole country, at a cost governments can sustain and without losing their effect, is still largely untested.
Knowledge gap
In the largest recent meta-analysis of community and group-based prevention, 26 of the 30 studies came from sub-Saharan Africa, three from Asia and one from Latin America, and results differed widely between settings. Evidence on costs is scarce.
Knowledge gap
Global femicide estimates draw on data from 117 countries or territories, with gaps filled by imputation, and trends can be tracked only for the Americas and Europe. Killings of women outside the family are not yet captured in the global figures.
Coordination gap
Survivors often need health care, protection, legal help, housing and income support at the same time. When health, police, justice and social services lack shared protocols and referral routes, survivors must repeat their story many times or fall through the gaps.
Coordination gap
UNICEF estimates that every tenfold increase in conflict deaths is associated with a 7% rise in child marriage prevalence, and climate-related shocks are also linked to increases. Protecting girls in crises depends on humanitarian and development actors planning together.
Unresolved questions, not vetted breakthroughs. Answering any of them would change what is possible.
Which mix of social norms, economic conditions, laws and services explains why lifetime rates have changed so little since 2000, and what sets apart the places where violence has declined?
Can governments deliver prevention programmes nationally, through existing schools, health and social services and at lower cost per person, and still reduce violence as much as in trials?
Most rigorous trials of community and group programmes come from sub-Saharan Africa. Do the same approaches work in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and high-income countries, and do reductions in violence persist years after a programme ends?
How does online abuse and digital surveillance interact with physical violence, how can it be measured consistently, and which platform rules, laws and policing practices actually reduce harm?
If you or someone you know is affected, look up the national helpline for domestic or sexual violence in your country, or ask a doctor, nurse or social services about specialist support nearby; many helplines are free and confidential. If someone is in immediate danger, call the local emergency number. If you worry that someone checks your phone or computer, search for help from a device they cannot access.
If someone confides in you, believe them, do not blame them, and let them decide what happens next. Offering to help them find a specialist service is usually more useful than acting on their behalf.
Local shelters, helplines and legal advice services often rely on donations and volunteers, and WHO calls for investment in women's rights organisations. Ask what they need, whether money, time or professional skills, before giving goods.
Speak up, when it is safe to do so, if jokes, comments or online posts excuse violence or blame the person who was harmed. Attitudes that justify violence and harmful gender norms are among the risk factors WHO identifies.
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World Health Organization (news release, 19 November 2025), published 2025
Launch of 'Violence against women prevalence estimates, 2023', produced by WHO and HRP for the UN Inter-Agency Working Group on Violence Against Women Estimation and Data from surveys collected in 2000–2023 in 168 countries. Source of the 840 million lifetime figure, 316 million (11%) past-year partner violence, the 0.2% average annual decline, 263 million women affected by non-partner sexual violence, 12.5 million (16%) adolescent girls, regional rates, the 0.2% share of development aid in 2022, the funding fall in 2025, data gaps, and WHO's call to strengthen survivor-centred services.
World Health Organization (18 June 2026), published 2026
WHO's summary of the 2023 estimates and of the evidence on consequences and risk factors. Source of the health consequences, risk factors, costs of 1–6% of GDP in some countries, the role of the health sector, and the assessment that SDG target 5.2 is very unlikely to be met by 2030.
UNODC and UN Women (November 2025), published 2025
The latest global femicide estimates, hosted by the UNODC-INEGI Centre of Excellence. Source of the 83,000 women and girls killed intentionally in 2024, about 50,000 (60%) killed by partners or family members, 137 a day, 11% of male homicides, regional rates, coverage of 117 countries or territories, trends in the Americas and Europe, the Albania, Lesotho and Chile case studies, the UK homicide review analysis on technology, and the evidence on warning signs and firearms.
UNICEF, published 2023
UNICEF's most recent full global analysis of child marriage trends, based on surveys from 103 countries. Source of the decline from 23% (2012) to 19% (2022), 12 million child marriages in 2022, 68 million averted over 25 years, the 300-year and 20-times-faster estimates, the wealth gap in progress, and the links with conflict and climate shocks.
UNICEF (joint statement of UNFPA, UNICEF, OHCHR, UN Women, WHO and UNESCO, 6 February 2026), published 2026
Statement for the 2026 International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM. Source of the 4.5 million girls at risk in 2026, more than 230 million survivors, the fall from one in two to one in three girls affected, public support for ending the practice, and the warnings on funding and on the procedure being performed by health workers.
Journal of Global Health (Leight, Cullen, Ranganathan and Yakubovich), published 2023
Peer-reviewed meta-analysis of 30 studies from 27 randomised controlled trials, including SASA! (Uganda), Indashyikirwa (Rwanda) and Stepping Stones and Creating Futures (South Africa). Source of the pooled reduction in past-year partner violence (adjusted odds ratio 0.78), the regional spread of the trials, the median programme length and the gap in cost-effectiveness evidence.