More than 5,000,000 victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking in the UK

Around one in 10 people have been victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking, the latest bleak figures reveal.

One in eight women and one in 12 men have reported being victims of these types of crimes despite the government promising a clamp down.

This is a total of 5.1 million people aged 16 and over in England and Wales, the Office for National Statistics said.

Heidi Riedel, CEO of Woman’s Trust, told Metro: ‘The overwhelming number of abuse survivors are female.

‘Survivors deserve better – and the government must do better if it’s serious about addressing not only the incidents of VAWG but also the impact.

‘What the numbers won’t include is people who either don’t yet recognise that what they are experiencing is domestic abuse, for example people in coercively controlling relationships or where their partner might be restricting access to finances, for example.’

Around 100 women are killed by men each year – often ones closest to them.

Ministers have promised to halve levels in a decade in its strategy to end violence against women and girls.

The latest figures are slightly lower than last year’s estimate of 5.4 million people.

But the ONS said these estimates are still in development and are subject to change, and caution should be taken when making comparisons.

Gemma Sherrington, CEO of Refuge, told Metro: ‘We are in an epidemic of violence against women and girls (VAWG), so sadly, the latest ONS estimates around the prevalence of domestic abuse come as no surprise.

‘We welcome improvements to data collection, but these figures are likely to represent the tip of the iceberg as VAWG remains severely under-reported.

‘The Government must take urgent action if it is to achieve its pledge to halve VAWG within the next decade.’

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said it is the first time combining reports of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking.

She said: ‘As part of our mission to tackle the national emergency of Violence Against Women and Girls, we have made sure that for the first time the figures are being recorded in a combined way, showing that one in eight women were victims of domestic abuse, stalking or sexual assault last year.

‘That is why we have already started to put domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms, invested in major new perpetrator programmes, and why we are publishing a transformative cross-government VAWG strategy in September, because everybody has a right to feel safe on our streets.’

The figures have been published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) using data collected as part of the Crime Survey for England and Wales.

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