Stats and Facts

Did you know statistically?

• 51% of Canadian women have experienced at least one; incident of sexual or physical abuse. (1)
• 1 in 4 Canadian women will be sexually assaulted during her lifetime. (2)
• 69% of women are sexually assaulted by men know to them. (3)
• Every year in Canada, up to 360,000 children are exposed to domestic violence (4)
• 60% of sexual assaults occur in a private home of that 38% in the victim’s home. (5)
• 4 out of 5 female undergraduates recently surveyed at a Canadian university said they had been victims of physical or sexual violence in a dating relationship. (6)
• 60% of Canadian college-aged males said they would commit sexual assault if they were certain they would not get caught. (7)
• 82% of female psychiatric in patients reported a history of physical or sexual abuse. (8)
• Every minute of every day a Canadian woman or child is being sexually assaulted. (9)
• A current or former partner murders 1 to 2 women each week in Canada. (10)
• In 2006, over 38,000 incidents of spousal violence were reported to police across Canada. This represents approximately 15% of all police related violent incidents. (11)
• Aboriginal women are 3 times more likely to experience spousal violence than non-Aboriginal women. (12)

Resources

1. Statistics Canada, “The Violence Against Women Survey”, The Daily, November 18, 1993
2. Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women “Changing the Landscape: Ending Violence”, Achieving Equality, Ottawa, 1993.
3. J. Brickman and J. Briere, “Incidence of Rape and Sexual Assault in an Urban Canadian Population”, The International Journal of Women’s Studies, Vol. 7, no. 3, 1984
4. Behind Closed Doors, The Impact of Domestic Violence on Children
5. Lenskyj, 1992
6. W. DeKeseredy and K. Kelly, “The Incidence and Prevalence of Woman Abuse in Canadian University and College Dating Relationships: Results for a National Survey,” Ottawa: Health Canada, 1993
7. D. Kinnon, “Report on Sexual Assault in Canada,” Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, Ottawa, 1981
8. Step It Up Ontario! – Stop criminalizing and psychiatrizing women, 2007
9. Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women
10. Dauvergne, M. (2002) Homicide in Canada
11. Statistics Canada, The Family Violence in Canada, A Statistical Profile, 2008
12. Measuring Violence Against Women: Statistical Trends 2006 (Statistics Canada, 2006)

More facts and stats can be found on The Canadian Women’s Foundation’s Fact Sheet.