Experience of violence

Some people may find the contents of this section confronting or distressing. Support services are available:

call 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT
call 13 11 14 or visit Lifeline

Metrics

Proportion of people who experienced physical violence in the last 12 months
Proportion of people who experienced violence by an intimate partner in the last 12 months

Why this matters

A counterpart to feeling safe is being free from violence.

Violence is where a person is harmed by another person. This takes on various forms, including but not limited to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, and neglect.

Progress

Physical violence

In 2021-22, the Personal Safety Survey found an estimated 6.1% of men (579,400) and 2.9% of women (283,400) experienced physical violence in the last 12 months.

For men and women this is a decrease from 2005:

men – from 10.4% in 2005 to 6.1% in 2021-22
women – from 4.7% in 2005 to 2.9% in 2021-22.

The impact of COVID‑19 lockdowns should be taken into consideration when analysing changes to rates of violence.

Proportion of people who experienced physical violence in the last 12 months by sex
	Women (%)	Men (%)
2005	4.7	10.4
2012	4.6	8.5
2016	3.5	5.4
2021-22(a)	2.9	6.1

Proportion of people who experienced physical violence in the last 12 months by sex

["","Women","Men"]

[["2005","2012","2016","2021-22(a)"],[[4.7000000000000002],[4.5999999999999996],[3.5],[2.8999999999999999]],[[10.4],[8.5],[5.4000000000000004],[6.0999999999999996]]]

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The 2021-22 Personal Safety Survey was conducted between March 2021 and May 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout this time, government policies were in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19, including stay-at-home orders, border control measures, limits on gatherings, and social distancing rules. The survey results should be understood and interpreted within the broader context of the wide-ranging changes to everyday life during the pandemic.

Data Source

ABS Personal Safety, Australia (Table 3.1)

The ABS Crime Victimisation Survey also collects information about peoples’ experience of violence. Due to differences in methodology between the Personal Safety Survey and Crime Victimisation Survey, results from the Crime Victimisation Survey should be considered a supplementary data source only.

According to the ABS Crime Victimisation, Australia publication, between 2008-09 and 2022-23, the rate of physical assault and/or face-to-face threatened assault decreased from 6.0% to 3.5%, including:

a decrease from 7.3% to 3.6% for males
a decrease from 4.8% to 3.4% for females.

Proportion of people aged 15 years and over who experienced physical assault and/or face-to-face threatened assault in the last 12 months
	Males (%)	Females (%)	Persons (%)
2008–09	7.3	4.8	6.0
2009–10	6.3	4.6	5.5
2010–11	6.3	4.5	5.4
2011–12	6.9	4.6	5.7
2012–13	5.9	3.9	4.9
2013–14	5.0	3.9	4.5
2014–15	4.8	3.7	4.2
2015–16	4.8	4.3	4.5
2016–17	5.0	4.0	4.5
2017–18	5.0	4.1	4.6
2018–19	4.9	4.2	4.6
2019–20	4.5	4.2	4.3
2020–21	3.8	3.7	3.8
2021–22	4.1	3.4	3.7
2022–23	3.6	3.4	3.5

Proportion of people aged 15 years and over who experienced physical assault and/or face-to-face threatened assault in the last 12 months

["","Males","Females","Persons"]

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Data Source

ABS Crime Victimisation, Australia, 2022-23

Intimate partner violence

In 2021-22, an estimated 147,600 women (1.5%) experienced intimate partner violence in the last 12 months. This was a decrease since 2005.

Proportion of people aged 18 years and over who experienced intimate partner violence in the last 12 months
	2005	2012	2016	2021-22
Women	2.3%	2.1%	2.3%	1.5%
Men	0.8%	0.9%	1.3%	(a)

Intimate partner violence statistics in 2021-22 for men has a high relative standard error and is considered too unreliable to measure changes over time.

Emotional abuse by a partner

The Personal Safety Survey 2021-22 also found that females (3.9%) were more likely than males (2.5%) to have experienced emotional abuse by a cohabiting partner, both rates having decreased since 2016 (from 4.8% and 4.2%).

Disaggregation

Further information about experiences of violence is available in the ABS Personal Safety Survey 2021-22 and ABS Partner Violence 2021-22.

Disaggregation available includes:

Age
Sex
Sexual orientation
Disability status
Family and housing characteristics
Socioeconomic characteristics
Capital city/balance of state
Remoteness areas
Country of birth
Main language spoken at home
Self-assessed health status.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Crime Victimisation, Australia includes complementary statistics about people who experienced physical/threatened/sexual assault. Due to differences in methodology between the Crime Victimisation Survey and the Personal Safety Survey, the Crime Victimisation Survey should be considered a supplementary data source only.