Based on new estimates, about one out of every eight women in England and Wales faced sexual assault, domestic abuse or stalking over the past year.
These figures were released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) based on data from its Crime Survey, covering the year up to March 2025.
According to the survey, around 5.2 million people aged 16 and above which is 10.6% of the population are believed to have experienced either sexual assault, domestic abuse or stalking.
As per BBC, the rate was higher for women with 12.8% affected, compared to 8.4% men.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the new dataset was produced as part of the government's "mission to tackle the national emergency" of VAWG.
"That is why we have already started to put domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms, invested in major new perpetrator programmes, and why we are publishing a transformative cross-government VAWG strategy in September, because everybody has a right to feel safe on our streets," she said.
In the previous year, an estimated 5.4 million people (11.3%) experienced sexual assault, domestic abuse or stalking.
However, the ONS adviced not to directly compare this number with newer data because the methods to create these estimates are still being developed and could change.
