An estimated 4.2 million Australian adults (21 per cent or one in five) have experienced violence, emotional abuse or economic abuse by a partner, according to information from the 2021-22 Personal Safety Survey (PSS) released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Women were more likely than men to have experienced violence, emotional abuse, or economic abuse by a partner since the age of 15.
Will Milne, ABS head of crime and justice statistics, said: “The survey found that 27 per cent of women and 15 per cent of men had experienced violence or abuse by a partner.”
| Women | Men | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Partner violence or abuse(c) | Just over 1 in 4 women experienced partner violence or abuse (27 percent or 2.7 million women) | 1 in 7 men experienced partner violence or abuse (15 per cent or 1.5 million men) | |
| Partner violence | 1 in 6 women experienced partner violence (17 per cent or 1.7 million women) | 1 in 18 men experienced partner violence (5.5 per cent or 526,600 men) | |
| Partner emotional abuse | Almost 1 in 4 women experienced partner emotional abuse (23 per cent or 2.3 million women) | 1 in 7 men experienced partner emotional abuse (14 per cent or 1.3 million men) | |
| Partner economic abuse | 1 in 6 women experienced partner economic abuse (16 per cent or 1.6 million women) | 1 in 13 men experienced partner economic abuse (7.8 per cent or 745,000 men) | |
- Refer to media notes below for PSS definitions of violence, emotional abuse and economic abuse.
- Fractions provided are approximations, use proportions or estimates where greater precision is required.
- Where a person has experienced multiple forms of violence and abuse by a partner, they are counted separately for each type of violence or abuse they experienced but are counted only once in the aggregated total.
The survey found that financial stress was associated with experiencing partner violence and abuse for women.
“Women living in households with one or more cash flow problems were more likely to have experienced partner violence or abuse in the previous two years than those in households that didn’t have cash flow problems.”
| Cash flow problems (%) | No cash flow problems (%) | |
|---|---|---|
| Partner violence | 6.2 | 1.2 |
| Partner emotional abuse | 12.8 | 4.3 |
| Partner economic abuse | 9.3 | 2.2 |
The PSS collected detailed information about the characteristics and impacts of partner violence and abuse.
An estimated 791,100 women who experienced violence by a previous partner while living together were pregnant at some point during the relationship. Of these women, 42 per cent experienced violence during their pregnancy, including 17 per cent who experienced violence for the first time during their pregnancy.
Of the 1.9 million women who experienced emotional abuse by a previous partner, 73 per cent experienced anxiety or fear due to the emotional abuse. Of the 1.1 million men who experienced emotional abuse by a previous partner, 45 per cent experienced anxiety or fear due to emotional abuse.
“We would like to acknowledge the experiences of everyone affected by partner violence and abuse in Australia. We thank those who participated in the survey and shared their experiences to help inform government and service responses,” Mr Milne said.
If you or anyone you know is in need or crisis, please call 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or Lifeline (13 11 14).
Grab 1
Our data found that just over one in four women and one in seven men have experienced violence or abuse by a partner. That’s 2.7 million women and 1.5 million men. The types of experiences here, include physical or sexual violence, or emotional or economic abuse by a partner they lived with.
Grab 2
What we found was that women were more likely to experience partner violence or abuse than men, including physical, sexual violence, emotional abuse or economic abuse.
Grab 3
Our data showed a strong association between financial stress and partner violence and abuse. One of our key findings was that women facing cash flow problems were three times more likely to have experienced partner violence or abuse.
