Domestic abuse victims
Published
1. Main facts and figures
- in the year ending March 2023, 4.4% of people aged 16 or over in England and Wales reported experiencing domestic abuse in the 12 months before being surveyed
- people with a mixed ethnic background experienced the highest rates of domestic abuse (7.9%)
- Asian people experienced the lowest rates (2.0%)
- white women (6.0%) were more likely than white men (3.4%) to have experienced domestic abuse
2. Things you need to know
What the data measures
The data shows the percentage of people aged 16 or over who reported being victims of domestic abuse in the 12 months before being surveyed.
Domestic abuse includes non-sexual abuse, sexual assault and stalking. You can read more about the definition of domestic abuse used in the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
Percentages in the charts and tables are rounded to 1 decimal place.
Not included in the data
An error discovered in January 2023 resulted in missing data for key questions relating to partner abuse, as well as variables derived from that data. This error affected four months of data, from 1 October 2022 to 30 January 2023. As a result, estimates for the year ending March 2023 are based on eight months of interviews, and exclude the affected survey months. More details are available here.
Data based on fewer than 50 respondents is not shown. This is because the numbers are too small to make reliable generalisations.
The data does not include:
- the number of times someone reported being a victim, or the seriousness of any crime
- people living in communal establishments, such as care homes, university accommodation and prisons
- crimes against commercial or public sector bodies
The ethnic categories used in this data
Data is shown for the 18 ethnic groups used in the 2011 Census.
Methodology
Read the detailed methodology document (PDF opens in a new window or tab) for the data on this page.
Data before April 2022 only included responses from people aged between 16 and 74 years old. Data for the year ending March 2023 included responses from anyone aged over 16 years old. This means it cannot be directly compared with previous years.
The data is based on survey data. Find out more about:
- interpreting survey data, including how reliability is affected by the number of people surveyed
- how weighting is used to make survey data more representative of the whole group being studied
In the data file
Download the data for:
- confidence intervals for each ethnic group – find out more about how we use confidence intervals to determine how reliable estimates are
- the unweighted number of people surveyed
3. By ethnicity
| Ethnicity | Percentage | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| All | 4.4 | 16,686 |
| Asian | 2.0 | 1,101 |
| Bangladeshi | N/A* | 75 |
| Chinese | N/A* | 123 |
| Indian | 2.1 | 472 |
| Pakistani | 1.9 | 229 |
| Asian other | 1.3 | 202 |
| Black | 3.5 | 475 |
| Black African | 2.8 | 319 |
| Black Caribbean | 6.2 | 128 |
| Black other | N/A* | 28 |
| Mixed | 7.9 | 229 |
| Mixed White/Asian | 5.3 | 74 |
| Mixed White/Black African | N/A* | 32 |
| Mixed White/Black Caribbean | 20.6 | 63 |
| Mixed other | 3.2 | 60 |
| White | 4.7 | 14,691 |
| White British | 4.8 | 13,598 |
| White Irish | 5.4 | 144 |
| White Gypsy/Traveller | N/A* | 4 |
| White other | 4.2 | 945 |
| Other | N/A* | 174 |
| Arab | N/A* | 49 |
| Any other | N/A* | 125 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)
4. Data sources
Source
Crime Survey for England and Wales: victims of domestic abuse, year ending March 2023
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
Office for National Statistics
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
Crime survey data is used alongside police data on crime to give the government information about the extent and nature of crime in England and Wales.
The survey records all types of crimes experienced by people, including those crimes that may not have been reported to the police.
5. Download the data
measure, ethnicity, ethnicity type, time, time type, geography, geography type, geography code, gender, age, value, value type, lower and upper confidence intervals, sample size