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Gender-based Violence (GBV) in Canada: A Snapshot

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Description: Gender-based Violence (GBV) in Canada: A Snapshot

Sexual violence

Almost four times as many women as men have been sexually assaulted since age 15Footnote 1.

30% of women

8% of men

Transgender and gender-diverse peopleFootnote 2 Footnote 3 are about 1.5 times more likely than cisgender people tp have been physically or sexually assaulted since age 15.

Intimate partner violence

Women are more likely than men to have experienced intimate partner violenceFootnote 4 since age 15.

6.2 million: 44% of women

4.9 million: 36% of menFootnote 5

Women account for 79% of victims of intimate partner violence incidents reported to police.

Over recent years, women have made up the vast majority (80%) of all victims of intimate partner homicides.

Gender-based violence at work

In 2018, almost 3 in 10 (29%) women said they had experienced inappropriate sexual behaviourFootnote 6 at work in the previous 12 monthsFootnote 7 compared to almost 2 in 10 men (17%).

Four times as many women as men have been sexually assaulted in a work-related context (13% vs. 3%)Footnote 8

Due to intersecting forms of discrimination and inequality, some groups of womenFootnote 9 are more culnerable to GBV.

Intimate partner violence since age 15

Women with disabilities

55%

Women without disabilities

37%

LGBTQ2 womenFootnote 10

67%

Non-LGBTQ2 women

44%

Indigenous women

61%

Non-indigenous women

44%

Non-racialized women

47%

Racialized womenFootnote 11 Footnote 12

29%

Intimate partner violence, police-reported
Incident rates per 100,000 population

Rural women

789

Urban women

447

In 2018, 12% of women aged 15-24 said they had been sexually assaulted in the previous 12 months, significantly more than among any other age group.

Sexually assaulted since age 15

Women with disabilities

39%

Women without disabilities

24%

Non-racialized women

33%

Racialized women

19%

Sources: All data are from the following Statistics Canada surveys: Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces, 2018; Family violence in Canada: A statisti­cal profile, 2019; Survey on Sexual Misconduct at Work, 2020; and Homicide Survey. Some data are from custom tabulations that are not available online.

Note: Provincial and territorial data on various forms of GBV are available in the tables accompanying the following Statistics Canada reports: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2019001/article/00017-eng.htm and https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2020001/arti­cle/00012-eng.htm .

This infographic was prepared by Women and Gender Equality Canada as part of the Workplan of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Task Team on Gender-Based Violence and Access to Justice 2021-2023. It was shared with the federal, provincial, and territorial ministers responsible for the status of women in December 2021.

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