Third of women and quarter of men abused in childhood, new estimates suggest

Almost a third of women and more than a quarter of men in England and Wales are estimated to have experienced abuse during their childhoods, according to new figures.

Some 13.6 million adults – almost three in 10 – suffered some form of emotional, physical, sexual abuse or neglect as children, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The estimates are based on responses collected for the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) in the year to the end of March 2024 and are the first of their kind to use an expanded definition of childhood abuse.

The data suggests that around 7.5 million (31.5%) women and 6.1 million (26.4%) men experienced any of these forms of abuse before reaching adulthood at the age of 18.

ONS head of crime statistics Meghan Elkin said: “Child abuse is appalling in all its forms and affects some of the most vulnerable in society, but it is also something that is little discussed or understood.

“Today’s figures estimate around three in 10 people aged 18 years and over experienced abuse during childhood.

“These new figures cover a variety of experiences of abuse and are vitally important in supporting decision making for what is often a hidden crime.”

The most commonly experienced type of abuse was emotional – defined as the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child that causes severe and ongoing adverse effects their emotional development – with more than a fifth (22.7% or an estimated 10.6 million) of people having faced this in childhood.

An estimated 7.7 million people (16.5%) said they had experienced physical abuse, which can include use of force such as hitting.

Around 3.6 million people (7.6%) said they had experienced neglect – whereby their basic needs, such as food, clothing or shelter were not met as a child, or they were not supervised adequately or provided with safety.

Almost one in 10 (9.1% or 4.3 million people) suffered sex abuse, with women more common victims (13.9%, or around one in seven) than men (4.1%, or just under one in 20).

The vast majority of the perpetrators of child sex abuse were men, with 91.3% of all victims saying their abuser was male and 94.2% of female victims saying they were abused only by males.

Most of those sexually abused as children said they knew the perpetrator, but when it came to non-contact abuse – which can include experiences online such as being made to look at sexual images – abusers were said to be strangers in almost half (44.2%) of cases.

Someone who is bisexual or gay, transgender, disabled, from a mixed ethnic background or who grew up in a single-parent household was more likely to have faced any of the four forms of abuse as a child, the data suggested.

Last month, a key figure in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) warned that a failure to enact recommendations from the national inquiry could risk some people taking their lives.

John O’Brien, who was secretary to IICSA, issued the warning exactly three years on from the publication of its final report, which found institutional failings and tens of thousands of victims across England and Wales.

The seven-year probe made 20 recommendations in 2022, describing child sexual abuse as an “epidemic” across the two nations.

The Labour Government criticised the Conservatives for making “far too little progress” on the recommendations while they were in power, and committed to act in the interests of victims and survivors.

But campaigners said child sexual abuse “is still happening on a colossal scale in the UK” with not enough action from Government to tackle it as none of the 20 recommendations have yet been fully implemented.