A new estimate suggests one in eight women aged 16 or over were a victim of sexual assault, domestic abuse, or stalking last year. For men, the estimate is one in 12, making the overall average one in 10 for adults in England and Wales.
That adds up to more than three million women and around two million men aged over 16 suffering from sexual assault, domestic abuse or stalking. It is the first time an estimate has been made of the combined prevalence of those offences.
You can see the rates and numbers of sexual offences where you live using our interactive map below.
Separate Home Office figures show the number of sexual offences which were reported to police, including rape and sexual assault, increased by 11% last year to more than 209,000 crimes. That’s an increase of more than 20,000 sexual offences.
The highest numbers of offences were all recorded in big cities, including Birmingham, with 5,502 crimes, Leeds (3,687), Manchester (3,069), Bradford (2,931), and Bristol (2,547).
However, crime rates – meaning the number of crimes recorded in each area for every 1,000 people who live there – allow for a fairer comparison of areas with different population sizes.
They show Westminster has the highest sex crime rate, with 7.1 offences for every 1,000 residents. Those figures may be skewed by the high number of tourists and visitors to central London.
Blackpool in Lancashire has the next highest crime rate (6.8 crimes per 1,000 people), followed by Lincoln (6.0), Middlesbrough (5.7), and Hartlepool (5.6).
Meanwhile, Copeland in Cumbria has seen the biggest proportional rise in recorded sex crime, of 48%, followed by Ceredigion in Dyfed-Powys (47%), and South Gloucestershire (41%).
That may reflect greater public confidence in reporting sexual offences rather than an increase in crime.
Women’s Aid head of research and evaluation Sarah Davidge said this is a “poignant year” for data relating to violence against women and girls. She said publishing the figures is a step towards a better overview of such crimes.
The new estimate of the prevalence of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking will be used as the main way for the Government to track efforts on tackling violence against women and girls.
Ministers have promised to halve levels in a decade – to 2034 – and will set out more details on how the data will be used in its a strategy due to be published in September.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper 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.
“We have already started to put domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms and invested in major new perpetrator programmes.”