Violence Against Women – Prevalence Estimates 2023 – Part 1 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1193

Violence Against Women – Prevalence Estimates 2023 – Part 1 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1193

Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1193 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here.

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Preamble

This 2-part blog post is based on WHO report titled ‘Violence against Women – Prevalence Estimates 2023. The report was released in November 2025. You may see the full report following this link. https://www.who.int/health-topics/violence-against-women#tab=tab_1 

Part 1 – The Global Landscape of Violence Against Women: Understanding the 2023 WHO Prevalence Estimates

Violence against women remains one of the most persistent, pervasive, and devastating human rights violations around the world. The 2025 WHO report “Violence Against Women Prevalence Estimates, 2023” presents the most comprehensive and methodologically robust global picture to date of intimate partner violence (IPV) and non-partner sexual violence (NPSV) experienced by women and girls aged 15 and above. It offers not just statistics but a disturbing reminder of the structural inequalities, sociocultural dynamics, and public health systems that continue to fail nearly one-third of the world’s women.

This report builds on decades of global efforts to measure violence against women, efforts which have improved over time but still struggle with gaps in data, measurement inconsistencies, underreporting, and significant cross-country variation. Nonetheless, the 2023 estimates represent an important milestone: improved modelling, expanded databases, and wider coverage across 163 to 170 countries. These estimates now represent over 90% of the world’s female population aged 15 years and older.

This first part shares key insights from the report, definitions, methodology, and global prevalence patterns, while exposing the realities faced by women across age groups and different regions.

What Forms of Violence Does the Report Measure?

The report focuses on two major forms of violence:

1. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

Violence perpetrated by a current or former husband or male intimate partner, including: Physical violence and Sexual violence.

(Note: psychological violence is widely recognized but inconsistently measured globally, so it is not modeled here)

IPV is globally the most common form of violence women experience.

2. Non-Partner Sexual Violence (NPSV)

Sexual violence perpetrated by: Relatives, Friends or acquaintances, Authority figures, and Strangers. This includes rape, attempted rape, and other forms of forced sexual acts. Unlike IPV, this category applies to all women, regardless of partnership or marital status.

Other forms of violence, such as femicide, trafficking, harassment, or workplace violence, were excluded due to insufficient comparable data.

Why Estimating Prevalence is Challenging

The report highlights persistent measurement challenges:

• Many countries lack recent national surveys (some over a decade old).

• Definitions of violence vary significantly.

• Stigma and fear suppress reporting, especially for sexual violence.

• Survey methodologies differ (acts-based measures vs. broader categories).

• Older women are often excluded from surveys limited to ages 15–49.

• Conflict zones, refugee populations, and marginalized groups remain under-represented.

Despite these limitations, the 2023 WHO dataset incorporates hundreds of nationally representative studies from 2000–2023, using advanced statistical modelling to ensure comparability.

Global Prevalence: A Disturbing Reality

Intimate Partner Violence

The report reveals that:

25.8% of ever-married/partnered women aged 15–49

24.7% of women aged 15+

have experienced physical or sexual IPV at least once in their lifetime.

In real numbers, 682 million women worldwide have endured partner violence.

The past-12-months prevalence is also alarming:

13.7% for women aged 15–49

11.4% for women 15+

 ≈ 316 million women affected recently.

This is not only a historical problem; it is ongoing and active.

Violence Begins Early and Impacts All Ages

• Adolescent girls (15–19 years)

• 23.3% have already experienced IPV.

• 16% experienced IPV in the last year alone.

This shows that violence begins at an age when girls are still in school, pursuing early careers, or negotiating their first relationships. Such early trauma affects mental health, education, reproductive health, and future economic participation.

Older women (65+ years)

• 20.5% have experienced IPV in their lifetime.

• 3.9% experienced violence in the last year.

These figures are likely underestimates because most surveys exclude older women, and the specific forms of violence they experience (neglect, financial abuse, coercive control, etc.) are poorly measured.

Regional Patterns: Where is Violence Most Prevalent?

Using UN SDG regions, the report reveals stark differences:

Highest lifetime IPV prevalence:

1. Oceania (excluding Australia & New Zealand): 56.9%

2. Sub-Saharan Africa: 31.9%

3. Central & Southern Asia: 30.8%

Over half of women in parts of Oceania experience IPV, a staggering crisis rarely discussed in global forums.

Past-year IPV prevalence remains high:

1. Oceania (excluding Aus/NZ): 43.4%

2. Central & Southern Asia: 20.1% 

3. Sub-Saharan Africa: 19%

Regions such as Europe & Northern America have lower reported levels (5.7%), but data here may not fully account for emotional/psychological violence or coercive control.

National-Level Insights

The countries with the highest lifetime IPV prevalence (51–61%) include:

• Fiji

• Solomon Islands

• Papua New Guinea

• Vanuatu

• Kiribati

• Sierra Leone

• South Sudan

• Equatorial Guinea

• Bolivia

• Afghanistan

These represent diverse geographies, Pacific Islands, Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, revealing that violence is not tied to any one culture, religion, or income level.

Past-year IPV prevalence in some countries exceeds 45%, showing an urgent need for intervention and resourcing.

Non-Partner Sexual Violence: Hidden and Underreported

Globally:

• 8.2% of women (15+) have experienced NPSV in their lifetime.

• 2.4% experienced it in the last 12 months.

• ≈ 263 million women.

Because sexual violence carries heightened stigma, especially in conservative or patriarchal societies, these numbers likely underestimate the reality substantially.

Highest lifetime prevalence:

1. Oceania: 18%

2. Latin America & Caribbean: 13.5%

3. Europe & Northern America: 12%

4. Small Island Developing States: 12.5%

The lowest estimates were reported from Central & Southern Asia (4.6%) and Northern Africa & Western Asia (4%), but this almost certainly reflects underreporting rather than lower incidence.

Combined Violence: One in Three Women Affected

When combining IPV and NPSV:

31.6% of women 15 – 49

 30.4% of women 15+

have experienced at least one of these forms of violence.

That means 840 million women alive today have been subjected to violence that affects health, dignity, autonomy, and economic opportunities.

This figure does not include harassment, psychological abuse, trafficking, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, or online violence.

The real global prevalence is therefore much higher.

Why These Findings Matter

Violence against women is not only a human rights abuse, it is a public health emergency with implications for:

• maternal health

• mental health

• sexual and reproductive health

• child development

• economic productivity

• intergenerational trauma

• healthcare system costs

The slow rate of progress over two decades indicates that existing approaches, though well intentioned, are insufficient. Significant acceleration is needed to meet SDG Target 5.2 by 2030.

To be Concluded…

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