Landmark report released: Violence against women prevalence estimates, 2023

Violence against women is a major human rights violation and a global public health concern of pandemic proportions. Violence negatively affects women’s physical, mental, sexual, and reproductive health and this can last even after the violence has ended. The report titled “Violence against women, 2023 estimates” produced by WHO on behalf of the UN Violence Against Women Inter-Agency Working Group on Estimation and Data (VAW-IAWGED), provides new estimates for two of the most common forms of violence against women: violence by an intimate male partner and non-partner sexual violence. 

The new report is the most comprehensive study on the prevalence of violence against women and includes data from 168 countries and areas for intimate partner violence and 140 for non-partner sexual violence. The data was obtained through a systematic and comprehensive review of available population-based prevalence data for women aged 15 years and older from the period 2000–2023 and through a formal country consultations process. The results presented in this report are the second available estimates for intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence in the Sustainable Development Goals reporting period 2015 - 2030. These new estimates supersede all previously published WHO/UN estimates and therefore should not be compared with previous estimates (i.e. 2018 and 2010). 

These estimates are a critical milestone to enhance the availability of data globally, drive political and public awareness, inform a more comprehensive and sustained response to ending violence against women, and monitor global, regional and national progress towards achieving the SDG target 5.2 on elimination of violence against women and girls.