How Safe Is It to Be a Woman? The Worldwide Reality
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Violence against women worldwide is a vast human-rights and public-health crisis, not a series of isolated incidents. The latest WHO global estimates indicate that 840 million women aged 15 or older—31.6%, or almost one in three—have experienced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner, non-partner sexual violence, or both. That headline is devastating, but it is not the whole picture: it excludes sexual harassment, many forms of psychological and economic abuse, and violence experienced before age 15. Reliable understanding therefore depends on more than repeating one number. It requires asking what each statistic measures, who is left out, why many survivors never report and how inequality shapes risk. This guide brings those strands together and explains what governments, institutions, communities and individuals can do.
Support note: If you are affected by abuse, consider contacting a trusted person or a specialist domestic-violence or sexual-assault service where you live. There is no single helpline that works worldwide, and seeking support should happen in the way that feels safest for you.
Key takeaways
- Almost one in three women aged 15 or older have experienced physical or sexual intimate-partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both during their lifetime.
- In 2024, an estimated 50,000 women and girls were intentionally killed by an intimate partner or another family member—about 137 every day.
- There is no reliable universal daily total for rape, catcalling or street harassment. Available studies use different definitions, populations and reporting systems.
- Official complaints capture only part of the harm because survivors may face danger, stigma, financial dependence or institutional barriers when seeking help.
- Violence is preventable. Lasting progress combines survivor-centred services, enforced laws, economic equality, safer environments, education and changes to harmful gender norms.
Violence against women worldwide: what the strongest statistics show
WHO’s Violence Against Women Prevalence Estimates, 2023, published in November 2025, draws on surveys and studies conducted between 2000 and 2023 across 168 countries and areas. The title refers to the estimate year, not publication.
The figures below measure different populations, time periods and forms of harm. Several overlap, so they must not be added together.
| Measure | Latest global estimate | Essential context |
|---|---|---|
| Partner or sexual violence across a lifetime | 840 million women aged 15 or older; 31.6% | Covers physical or sexual intimate-partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both. It excludes sexual harassment and many non-physical forms of abuse. |
| Lifetime intimate-partner violence | 24.7% of ever-partnered women aged 15 or older | Covers physical or sexual violence by a current or former male intimate partner. It is narrower than domestic abuse. |
| Intimate-partner violence in the previous year | 316 million women aged 15 or older; 11% | Counts women affected within 12 months, not the number of assaults or newly affected women. |
| Lifetime non-partner sexual violence | 263 million women aged 15 or older; approximately 8% | Covers sexual violence by someone other than a partner since age 15. It is broader than rape and excludes partner sexual violence. |
| Partner or family-member killings in 2024 | Approximately 50,000 women and girls; 137 per day | Covers intentional killings by intimate partners or relatives, not every femicide or every killing of a woman. |
| Sexual violence and harassment at work | 8.2% of women in employment during their working lives | Covers work-related experiences over a working lifetime, not one calendar year. |
The WHO prevalence report and its updated fact sheet make an important limitation explicit: the true prevalence is likely to be higher because violence is stigmatised and difficult to measure.
What “one in three women” actually means
The one-in-three figure is a modelled prevalence estimate based largely on women’s confidential disclosures in population surveys. It is not the proportion who reported a crime to the police, and it does not mean exactly every third woman in every country has the same experience.
It does not cover catcalling, sexual harassment, stalking, economic control, many forms of psychological abuse or technology-facilitated harm. Girls younger than 15 are excluded too. It is an important minimum picture of specific forms of violence—not a complete count.
The main forms of violence and harassment women face
Violence can be committed by a partner, relative, colleague, acquaintance, stranger or online user, and the same woman may experience several forms.
Domestic and intimate-partner violence
Intimate-partner violence is harm caused by a current or former spouse or partner. Domestic violence is broader and may include abuse by other family or household members, depending on the legal or research definition being used.
Threats, isolation, stalking, monitoring, financial control and coercive control can restrict a woman’s choices and make leaving dangerous, even when these behaviours are absent from physical-or-sexual-violence statistics.
WHO estimates that 316 million women aged 15 or older experienced physical or sexual intimate-partner violence within the 12 months covered by its latest assessment. Violence can also start early: more than one in five ever-partnered girls aged 15–19 have already experienced physical or sexual violence from a partner.
At its most extreme, abuse is fatal. UN Women and UNODC estimated that intimate partners or other family members intentionally killed about 50,000 women and girls in 2024. The average of 137 per day—roughly one every ten minutes—comes from that annual estimate. The 2024 femicide brief stresses that this is only one measurable category of gender-related killing, not the complete global toll.
Sexual violence and the limits of worldwide rape statistics
Sexual violence includes rape, attempted rape, unwanted sexual touching and other non-consensual sexual acts. WHO estimates that 263 million women aged 15 or older have experienced sexual violence by a non-partner since age 15. Sexual violence committed by an intimate partner is counted separately within intimate-partner violence.
There is no scientifically defensible figure for how many rapes occur worldwide each day. Legal definitions vary, and some systems still define rape narrowly or fail to recognise rape within marriage. Police recording practices differ, while many survivors never make a formal report. National administrative data can show cases known to a particular system; they cannot be combined into a complete global prevalence total.
The absence of a universal figure reflects weak comparability, not rare harm.
Catcalling and street harassment
Catcalling and street harassment may include unwanted sexual comments, gestures, following, exposure or touching in public. Repeated harassment can affect how women travel, work, study and participate in public life.
A review of the leading global evidence sources shows no harmonised worldwide prevalence or daily catcalling total. Surveys use different definitions, age groups, locations and timeframes, so selected findings cannot represent every woman worldwide.
The legal gap is clearer. UN Women reported in 2025 that 151 countries had laws prohibiting sexual harassment in the workplace, but only 39 had laws prohibiting it in public spaces. Laws do not guarantee safety, yet the difference shows how often public harassment remains inadequately recognised.
Workplace harassment against women
The first ILO, Lloyd’s Register Foundation and Gallup global survey drew on interviews across 121 countries and territories. It found that 22.8% of people in employment had experienced physical, psychological or sexual violence and harassment during their working lives. Sexual violence and harassment affected 8.2% of women and 5% of men. These are working-life figures, not annual rates, as the ILO global survey explains.
Harassment can damage health, restrict advancement and force women from jobs or sectors. Informal workers, migrants and people with insecure contracts may have few safe reporting routes.
Online harassment of women
Technology-facilitated violence includes cyberstalking, threats, doxing, impersonation, non-consensual sharing of intimate images and AI-generated sexual content. Partners may also misuse devices or location data to monitor and control.
UN Women reports that studies have produced prevalence estimates ranging from 16% to 58% of women. This is not one worldwide rate; it reflects different definitions, platforms, age groups and methods. The UN Women digital-abuse explainer highlights the need for comparable evidence.
Online and offline abuse form a continuum. Digital threats may accompany physical danger, while coordinated harassment can push women out of journalism, politics, activism and public debate.
Violence and discrimination against women reinforce each other
Violence does not occur separately from global gender inequality. Discriminatory laws, unequal economic resources, limited political power and everyday sexism can make abuse easier to perpetrate and harder to escape.
Three indicators illustrate the wider imbalance:
- The World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2026 assessment of 190 economies gave legal frameworks supporting women’s economic opportunity an average score of 67 out of 100. Supportive policies and institutions scored 47, while perceptions of enforcement averaged 53. Only 4% of women lived in economies close to full legal equality, and no economy provided completely equal economic opportunity in practice.
- The global gender pay gap remains approximately 20%, meaning women workers earn about 80% of men’s earnings on average. This is an aggregate comparison, not proof that every woman earns 20% less than a man doing identical work.
- Women held 27.5% of seats in national parliaments worldwide in early 2026, leaving political decisions far from equally shared.
These measures cannot be merged into one “inequality score”. The World Bank’s 2026 assessment, UN Women’s pay-equity explainer and political-participation data nevertheless show that rights, resources and decision-making power remain unequal.
That inequality affects safety. Someone without income, secure housing, childcare or legal status may face severe consequences for leaving an abuser or reporting a powerful colleague. Sexist jokes and victim-blaming can also normalise entitlement and weaken accountability.
Why official figures underestimate the true scale
Violence against women statistics come from several types of evidence. Each answers a different question.
| Data source | What it can show | What it commonly misses |
|---|---|---|
| Police, court and health records | Cases reaching an institution and how systems respond | Unreported abuse, rejected complaints, inconsistent recording and conduct not recognised in law |
| Population surveys | Experiences disclosed confidentially, including some unreported cases | People outside household samples, non-disclosure, unsafe interview conditions and forms of abuse not asked about |
| Modelled estimates | More comparable regional and global patterns where national data are uneven | Detail the underlying evidence cannot support; models still depend on data quality |
Survivors may fear retaliation, stigma, homelessness, lost income, deportation or losing access to their children. Some depend on the perpetrator for money, care or housing; others expect blame or institutional failure.
UN Women reports that fewer than 40% of women who experience violence seek any help; among those who do, fewer than 10% approach the police. These figures synthesise available multi-country data rather than representing a live, standardised reporting rate for every country. They still demonstrate why official complaints reveal only a fraction of the problem.
Surveys may miss women without stable housing, women in institutions, refugees and people living through conflict. Participants may lack privacy or avoid legal labels such as “rape”, even when behaviourally specific questions would identify sexual violence.
Why “per day” calculations can mislead
Daily comparisons are legitimate only when the calculation matches the measure. The estimate of 137 partner-or-family killings per day is a rounded average derived from approximately 50,000 killings in 2024.
By contrast, dividing 316 million women who experienced intimate-partner violence within a year by 365 produces about 866,000. That is not a daily assault rate. The annual figure counts women, one woman may have experienced repeated violence, and the data do not show on which days incidents occurred. Calling it “866,000 attacks every day” would be false.
The same caution applies to rape, catcalling and online abuse: incompatible surveys and police records cannot responsibly be converted into a single worldwide daily total.
Risk is widespread, but it is not evenly distributed
Global averages hide large differences. WHO identifies adolescent girls, older women, women with disabilities, transgender women and sex workers among groups facing heightened risks in particular contexts. Conflict and forced displacement can intensify exposure to violence and exploitation.
Race, ethnicity, caste, poverty, migration status, sexuality and isolation can also shape access to support. A disabled woman may rely on an abuser for care; a migrant may fear consequences for her residency or employment.
An intersectional approach asks whether prevention, surveys and services reach people facing several barriers at once.
Why violence against women persists
WHO identifies gender inequality as a root cause. Harmful norms, controlling behaviour, childhood exposure to violence, discriminatory laws, weak enforcement and impunity reinforce risk; poverty, conflict and weapons can intensify danger.
These are risk factors, not excuses. Stress, alcohol or unemployment does not remove a perpetrator’s responsibility. Prevention must change enabling conditions while preserving accountability.
Ending violence against women: what creates lasting change
The second edition of the WHO and UN Women RESPECT framework organises evidence-based prevention into seven strategies: relationship skills, women’s empowerment, services, poverty reduction, safe environments, prevention of child and adolescent abuse, and transformed attitudes and norms.
Governments and public institutions
- Enact and enforce survivor-centred laws covering domestic abuse, marital rape, stalking, sexual harassment and technology-facilitated violence.
- Fund accessible healthcare, refuges, legal assistance, social protection and long-term housing.
- Collect regular, confidential and inclusive survey data while publishing definitions and limitations.
- Train police, judges, health workers and social-service staff to respond without discrimination or victim-blaming.
- Include women’s organisations and survivors in policy design without demanding public disclosure.
Workplaces, schools and technology companies
Employers need confidential reporting routes, protection against retaliation, transparent pay structures and consequences that apply regardless of seniority. Schools can teach consent, respectful relationships, equality and safe bystander action in age-appropriate ways.
Technology companies should design for predictable misuse, make reporting accessible and respond quickly to threats, stalking and image-based abuse. Blocking individual accounts does not solve coordinated harassment or unsafe design.
Communities and individuals
Challenge degrading comments and harassment instead of normalising them. If it is safe, interrupt, check in with the targeted person or seek help. Support reputable women-led organisations according to what they say they need.
If someone discloses abuse, listen without interrogating them. Believe them, avoid asking why they stayed and ask what support they want. Do not pressure them to confront the perpetrator or report to the police. Help them contact an appropriate local service if they choose, and respect their privacy unless there is an immediate safeguarding emergency.
The goal is not to make individual women responsible for avoiding violence. It is to change perpetrators’ behaviour, institutional responses and the unequal conditions that restrict women’s choices.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between violence against women and gender-based violence?
Violence against women covers gender-based acts that cause or are likely to cause physical, sexual or mental harm to women, including threats and coercion. Gender-based violence is broader: it covers harm directed at someone because of gender or unequal gender power. Women and girls are disproportionately affected, but people of other genders can experience it too.
Why do global violence statistics differ between sources?
Sources may measure different ages, relationships, harms and timeframes. Police data count recorded cases; surveys estimate disclosed experiences; models combine evidence. Check the definition, population, geography and reference period before comparing figures.
Does the “one in three” statistic include sexual harassment?
No. The current WHO estimate covers physical or sexual intimate-partner violence and non-partner sexual violence among women aged 15 or older. It does not include sexual harassment, catcalling or every form of psychological, economic or online abuse.
Is global progress being made?
Progress varies by country and form of violence, but the worldwide trend is far too slow. WHO estimates that intimate-partner violence declined by an average of only 0.2% per year over the past two decades. Legal reform matters, but laws must be funded, implemented and enforced alongside prevention and survivor services.
Conclusion
The evidence on violence against women worldwide is devastating, yet its purpose is not to reduce women to statistics. It exposes harm hidden behind low reporting rates, clarifies where systems are failing and shows why violence, harassment and discrimination must be addressed together.
Almost one in three is not an inevitable fact of life. Governments can fund prevention and survivor-centred services. Employers and technology companies can be held accountable. Communities can reject harassment and victim-blaming, while individuals can support survivors without taking away their choices.
Choose one next step: share accurate information, support a trusted women-led organisation, challenge harmful behaviour or ask an institution what measurable action it is taking. Lasting change begins when society removes the conditions that allow violence.
<details> <summary><strong>Sources</strong></summary> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240116962" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">World Health Organization: Violence against women prevalence estimates, 2023</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">World Health Organization: Violence against women fact sheet</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/19-11-2025-lifetime-toll--840-million-women-faced-partner-or-sexual-violence" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">World Health Organization: Lifetime toll—840 million women faced partner or sexual violence</a></li> <li><a href="https://knowledge.unwomen.org/en/articles/facts-and-figures/facts-and-figures-ending-violence-against-women" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UN Women: Facts and figures—Ending violence against women</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2025/11/femicides-in-2024-global-estimates-of-intimate-partner-family-member-femicides" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UN Women and UNODC: Femicides in 2024—Global estimates of intimate partner and family member femicides</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.ilo.org/publications/major-publications/experiences-violence-and-harassment-work-global-first-survey" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">International Labour Organization: Experiences of violence and harassment at work—A global first survey