Almost one in 10 adults in England and Wales have experienced domestic abuse in the last year, a survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found. The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) found that 9.6% of people aged 16 and over had experienced domestic abuse in the last year – which equates to about 4.7 million people. This marked an increase compared with the year to September 2025, when the same survey found that 7.8% of adults – about 3.8 million people – had experienced domestic abuse.
Domestic abuse charities said the figures were concerning, as they indicated the government was “not on track to fulfil its pledge” to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. The increase was driven by a significant rise in intimate partner abuse, which had increased by almost 2% compared with the previous year; there was no significant difference in family abuse, which had only grown by 0.1%. The survey also found that 2.1% of people, equating to about 1 million, had experienced sexual victimisation, and 3.9%, or about 1.9 million, had experienced stalking.
These figures were based on new questions, so are not comparable with previous estimates. The ONS estimates that in total, 10.9% of people aged 16 years and over, or about 5.3 million adults, have experienced at least one of the three crimes of domestic abuse, sexual victimisation, and stalking. Prevalence was higher among female victims, at 12.8%, or about 3.2 million women.
But 8.9% of men – about 2.1 million – were also affected. Meghan Elkin, head of crime statistics at the ONS, said: “While minor survey changes and the usual uncertainty around gathering data on this sensitive topic are likely to have affected these estimates, our assessment is that the rise in domestic abuse includes real change. More data points are needed to further understand the uncertainty and what this tells us about trends in domestic abuse.” The statistics will be used as the main measure for monitoring the government’s ambition to halve violence against women and girls.
The CSEW is a face-to-face household survey based on more than 30,000 adult interviews annually. The data is released by financial year, with this year’s statistics relating to the year ending March 2026. Alice Russell-Harris, the public affairs lead at Refuge, said: “The government has pledged to halve violence against women and girls … by 2034, but latest domestic abuse data from the ONS tells a troubling story.” She added: “This figure reflects what we sadly know to be true at Refuge: domestic abuse is devastating an unacceptable number of lives.
While ONS has highlighted that changes in data collection, such as the introduction and implementation of new survey questions, may have contributed to this increase, what remains steadfast is our concern that the government is not on track to fulfil its pledge.” She called for “vital investment” before next week’s autumn budget, urging the government “to provide the vital investment required to meet rising demand”. She said the charity was particularly concerned about the rise of online harassment “and how new forms of abuse are being perpetrated in line with digital trends”. As government considered how to respond to these statistics, ministers should ensure their approach included investment in specialist responses, including in support services by and for the women that used them, and in the public services on the frontline of responding to domestic abuse, from policing and probation to health and education.
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