Demographics
Domestic Abuse Statistics England & Wales
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DescriptionONS domestic abuse statistics for England and Wales 2025: prevalence, police recorded crime, victim characteristics, and ethnicity breakdowns. November 2025 release.
If you need help right now
Prevalence — Annual and Lifetime
The Reporting Gap
Ethnicity and Domestic Abuse
About the Data
Domestic Abuse Statistics England & Wales | Ethnicity Data 2025
If you are in immediate danger, call 999.
National Domestic Abuse Helpline:
0808 2000 247
(24/7, free, confidential)
Refuge:
www.refuge.org.uk
Women's Aid:
www.womensaid.org.uk
Sistah Space
(specialist support for African and Caribbean women and girls):
www.sistahspace.org
Imkaan
(specialist organisation addressing violence against Black and minoritised women):
www.imkaan.org.uk
Source:
All figures on this page are drawn from the ONS domestic abuse release published
26 November 2025
, covering the year ending March 2024. Primary sources are the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and Home Office police recorded crime data. The CSEW is the principal measure of domestic abuse prevalence because it captures abuse that is never reported to the police.
An estimated 2.1 million adults aged 16 to 74 experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2024. Women are approximately twice as likely as men to experience domestic abuse in any given year. Lifetime figures — measuring experience since age 16 — are substantially higher, reflecting the cumulative and often repeated nature of abuse.
Police recorded 1.4 million domestic abuse-related crimes in the year ending March 2024 — but the CSEW estimates 2.1 million adults experienced abuse in the same period. This gap illustrates that a significant proportion of domestic abuse is never reported to the police. The true gap is likely larger still: the CSEW itself undercounts by excluding people in communal establishments, the homeless, and those aged 75 and over.
Interpreting police figures:
Increases in police recorded domestic abuse figures over time may reflect improved recording practices rather than increased incidence. The introduction of the domestic abuse flag and changes to the Home Office Counting Rules affect comparability across years. The CSEW is the preferred measure of trends in prevalence.
The ONS publishes domestic abuse prevalence by broad ethnic group in the victim characteristics bulletin. However, sub-group sample sizes are small and estimates carry wide confidence intervals. These figures measure the ethnicity of the victim only — they say nothing about the ethnicity of the perpetrator or the ethnic composition of the couple.
What the data shows:
Mixed ethnicity adults have the highest reported prevalence in the latest available CSEW data. Black or Black British adults show a prevalence rate broadly similar to the national average, but the sub-sample is small and the ONS advises caution. The Ethnicity Facts and Figures page on domestic abuse victims (GOV.UK) provides the most accessible official summary.
Barriers to reporting for minority ethnic victims:
Black and other minority ethnic victims may face distinct barriers to reporting and help-seeking — including distrust of the police, immigration concerns, language barriers, cultural stigma, and racism within services. These barriers may mean that survey prevalence figures undercount the true rate for some groups.
What the data does not show:
No public national dataset directly measures domestic abuse rates by couple ethnicity or by the ethnic pairing of victim and perpetrator. Ethnicity prevalence figures must not be used to make claims about inter-ethnic relationships or to attribute blame to any ethnic group.
Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW):
A large-scale household victimisation survey conducted by the ONS. It asks respondents about their experiences of crime, including domestic abuse, regardless of whether those experiences were reported to the police. It covers adults aged 16 to 74 in private households in England and Wales. It does not cover Northern Ireland or Scotland, which have separate statistical releases.
Terminology:
The ONS uses "domestic abuse" as the standard national statistical term, defined to include physical, emotional, economic, and sexual abuse, as well as stalking and coercive control. The term "domestic violence" is widely used in public discourse but is not the primary term used in official UK national statistics.
Year ending March 2024:
The November 2025 ONS release covers the year ending March 2024. Comparisons with years before 2023/24 should be treated cautiously due to changes in survey questions and methodology introduced in that period.
Sources:
View full methodology →
labelCSEW estimated victims
labelPolice recorded crimes
labelWomen
labelMen
labelDomestic Abuse
labelAnnual prevalence (%)
labelLifetime prevalence — since age 16 (%)
2.1m
1.4m
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ONS domestic abuse statistics for England and Wales 2025: prevalence, police recorded crime, victim characteristics, and ethnicity breakdowns.
UK Black Demographics
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ONS domestic abuse statistics: prevalence, police recorded crime, victim characteristics by ethnicity. November 2025 release.
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Domestic Abuse Statistics — England and Wales
ONS domestic abuse data for England and Wales — prevalence, police recorded crime, victim characteristics, and ethnicity breakdowns.
keywords
domestic abuse statistics UK
domestic violence ethnicity UK
ONS domestic abuse 2025
Black domestic abuse UK
domestic violence England Wales
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ONS / Home Office
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2025
Data from the ONS domestic abuse release, November 2025 — covering prevalence, police recorded crime, victim characteristics, and what the data does and does not tell us about ethnicity.
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Adults experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2024
CSEW / ONS Nov 2025
6.2%
Women experienced domestic abuse in the last year
3.0%
Men experienced domestic abuse in the last year
Domestic abuse-related crimes recorded by police
Home Office / ONS Nov 2025
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annual
lifetime
Domestic Abuse Prevalence — Annual vs Lifetime, by Sex (%, year ending March 2024)
CSEW — ONS Domestic abuse victim characteristics, November 2025
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CSEW Estimated Victims vs Police Recorded Crimes (millions, year ending March 2024)
ONS — Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview, November 2025
as the standard national statistical term, defined to include physical, emotional, economic, and sexual abuse, as well as stalking and coercive control. The term