Gender Violence Facts & Figures

• Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury and death for women worldwide.
• Only 1 in 100 battered women in the U.S. reports the abuse she suffers. Every nine seconds, a woman is battered by her domestic partner.
• 59% of Japanese women are victims of domestic violence. In Kenya, 42% of women and in Pakistan, 80% of women experience violence within the home.
• Everyday, 6000 girls are genitally mutilated.
• Every year in India, 5000 brides are murdered or commit suicide because their marriage dowries are considered inadequate.
• In Russia, half of all murder victims are women killed by their male partners.
• In South Africa, a woman is raped every 80 seconds.
• In the U.S., one in five women will be victims of rape in her lifetime. A woman is raped every 3 minutes.
• Every day in Manila, a woman reports rape.
• One-third of women in Barbados, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Norway are sexually abused during childhood.

Sources: Joni Seager, The State of Women in the World Atlas (Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1997); United Nations, The World's Women 2000: Trends and Statistics (New York: United Nations, 2000); United Nations, The World's Women 1995: Trends and Statistics (New York: United Nations, 1995); United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Progress of the World's Women 2000: UNIFEM Biennial Report (New York, UNIFEM, 2000); United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2000 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000); United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 1995 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).