Domestic Violence in the UK 2026
Domestic abuse remains one of the most widespread crimes in the United Kingdom, with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirming that an estimated 3.8 million people aged 16 and over experienced domestic abuse in England and Wales alone during the year ending March 2025, the most recent full survey period feeding into 2026 reporting. Alongside this survey-based estimate, police across England and Wales recorded 816,493 domestic abuse-related crimes over the same period, while separate data from Police Scotland and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) show the pattern repeating across every UK nation, each with its own distinct legal definitions and recording practices.
This report lays out the most current, verified domestic violence statistics for the UK in 2026, sourced exclusively from the Office for National Statistics, the Home Office, the Scottish Government, and the PSNI. Readers will find figures on national prevalence, police-recorded crime trends, victim demographics, criminal justice outcomes, and how the data compares across England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Every number reflects the latest published government data, giving policymakers, service providers, and researchers a single reliable reference point on this critical issue.
It is worth noting upfront that domestic abuse statistics are not directly comparable across the UK’s three legal jurisdictions. England and Wales define domestic abuse broadly to include both partners and family members, Scotland’s police data covers only partner and ex-partner relationships, and Northern Ireland applies its own distinct legislative framework under the “Stopping Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse” strategy. This means the figures throughout this article should be read as separate national pictures rather than directly summed into a single UK-wide total.
Interesting Facts About Domestic Violence in the UK 2026
Before the detailed breakdown, here is a quick-reference table of standout figures defining domestic violence across the UK this year.
Key 2026 UK Domestic Violence Figures
England & Wales Survey Prevalence (3.8M) ████████████████████████████████████████ 7.8%
Police Recorded Crimes (E&W) ████████████████████████████████████░░░░ 816,493
Domestic Abuse Share of All E&W Crime ████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 15.4%
Scotland Recorded Incidents ██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 64,967
Lifetime Prevalence Since Age 16 (E&W) ████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░ 25.8%
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| People who experienced domestic abuse, England & Wales, YE March 2025 | 3.8 million (7.8%) |
| Police-recorded domestic abuse-related crimes, England & Wales | 816,493 |
| Domestic abuse incidents and crimes recorded (England & Wales) | 1,350,460 |
| Domestic abuse share of all police-recorded crime, England & Wales | 15.4% |
| Lifetime prevalence since age 16, England & Wales | 25.8% (12.5 million people) |
| Domestic abuse-related prosecutions, England & Wales | 54,987 |
| Domestic abuse incidents recorded, Scotland, 2024-25 | 64,967 (+2%) |
| Share of Scottish incidents with female victim, male perpetrator | 81% |
| Coercive control offences recorded, England & Wales | 49,557 |
| Domestic abuse-related crime charging rate (CPS) | 79.9% |
Source: Office for National Statistics, “Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview,” November 26, 2025; Scottish Government, “Domestic abuse: statistics recorded by the police in Scotland, 2024-25,” June 2026.
These figures confirm that domestic abuse touches an enormous share of the UK population, with roughly 1 in 13 adults in England and Wales experiencing it in a single year, and more than a quarter (25.8%) experiencing it at some point since turning 16, a figure equating to 12.5 million people. Notably, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) found no statistically significant change in prevalence compared with the previous year, though comparisons before YE March 2024 are not possible due to a redesign of the survey questions used to measure domestic abuse.
Police-recorded figures tell a somewhat different story: recorded crimes actually fell 4.1% to 816,493 in England and Wales, continuing a second consecutive annual decrease, though the ONS is careful to attribute this decline to changes in police recording practices rather than a genuine fall in abuse. Meanwhile, Scotland’s recorded incidents rose 2% to 64,967, remaining below the 2020-21 peak, and 81% of Scottish incidents involved a female victim and male suspected perpetrator, a proportion that has held steady since 2021-22, mirroring the gender pattern seen throughout England, Wales, and Northern Ireland alike.
Domestic Abuse Prevalence in England and Wales 2026
CSEW Domestic Abuse Prevalence, YE March 2025
Overall Prevalence (16+) ████████████████████████████████████████ 7.8%
Female Prevalence █████████████████████████████████████████ 9.1%
Male Prevalence ███████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 6.5%
Ages 16-19 Prevalence ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ 18.2%
| Prevalence Metric (YE March 2025) | Figure |
|---|---|
| Overall prevalence, ages 16+ | 7.8% (3.8 million people) |
| Female prevalence | 9.1% (2.2 million women) |
| Male prevalence | 6.5% (1.5 million men) |
| Ages 16-19 prevalence | 18.2% |
| Ages 20-24 prevalence | 12.9% |
| Ages 60-74 prevalence | 5.3% |
| Combined DA, sexual assault, or stalking prevalence | 10.6% (5.1 million people) |
Source: Office for National Statistics, “Domestic abuse prevalence and trends, England and Wales,” November 26, 2025.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales remains the most reliable measure of domestic abuse prevalence precisely because it captures incidents that never reach the police, and its most recent data shows 2.2 million women (9.1%) and 1.5 million men (6.5%) experienced domestic abuse in the year to March 2025. Age is a striking risk factor: people aged 16 to 19 (18.2%) and 20 to 24 (12.9%) were victimized at significantly higher rates than those aged 25 and over, while adults aged 60 to 74 (5.3%) and 75 and over (3.4%) recorded the lowest prevalence of any age bracket.
For the first time, the ONS also published a combined measure covering domestic abuse, sexual assault, and stalking together, finding that 10.6% of people aged 16 and over, around 5.1 million individuals, experienced at least one of these crime types in the survey year, split between 12.8% of women and 8.4% of men. This combined measure has been adopted as the primary metric for tracking the government’s ambition to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, giving this single statistic outsized importance for monitoring UK domestic violence policy through the remainder of the decade, a policy backdrop that connects closely to broader public-service pressures examined in our NHS Workforce Statistics coverage of frontline capacity across the UK.
The ONS is candid about the limitations of even its own survey methodology. Because the domestic abuse questions were substantially redesigned starting in the year ending March 2024, direct comparisons with earlier years are not statistically valid, meaning the current 7.8% prevalence figure represents a new baseline rather than a continuation of a longer historical trend line. Domestic abuse campaigners, including the Domestic Abuse Commissioner and organisations such as Women’s Aid and Refuge, have also pushed the ONS to adopt more detailed “abuse scales” that group victims by the number and severity of abusive behaviours experienced, a methodology now being piloted following collaboration with the University of Bristol and University of Southampton, though it has not yet replaced the headline prevalence measure.
Police-Recorded Domestic Abuse Crime in England and Wales 2026
Police-Recorded Domestic Abuse Crimes (England & Wales)
YE March 2024 ████████████████████████████████████████ 851,062
YE March 2025 ██████████████████████████████████████░░ 816,493
| Police Crime Metric (England & Wales) | Figure |
|---|---|
| Domestic abuse-related crimes, YE March 2025 | 816,493 (–4.1%) |
| Domestic abuse-related crimes, YE March 2024 | 851,062 |
| Domestic abuse incidents and crimes combined | 1,350,460 |
| Domestic abuse share of all recorded crime | 15.4% |
| Share of violence-against-the-person offences that were DA-related | 32.8% |
| Coercive control offences recorded | 49,557 |
| Arrests per 100 domestic abuse-related crimes | 44.6 (up from 41.7) |
Source: Office for National Statistics, “Domestic abuse and the criminal justice system, England and Wales,” November 2025.
Police-recorded domestic abuse-related crime in England and Wales fell to 816,493 in the year ending March 2025, a 4.1% decrease representing the second consecutive annual decline, driven mainly by fewer recorded violence-against-the-person offences. The ONS explicitly cautions that this trend likely reflects changes in how police classify and record incidents rather than a genuine reduction in domestic abuse, meaning the falling police figures should not be read alongside the far more stable CSEW prevalence estimates as evidence that abuse itself is declining.
Domestic abuse now accounts for 15.4% of all police-recorded crime in England and Wales, and a striking 32.8% of all violence-against-the-person offences, the highest share of any offence category. On a more encouraging note, the arrest rate per 100 domestic abuse-related crimes rose to 44.6, up from 41.7 the previous year among the police forces supplying complete data, while recorded coercive control offences reached 49,557, a figure the ONS attributes partly to improved police recognition and application of this relatively newer offence, introduced under the Serious Crime Act 2015.
Domestic Abuse Victim Characteristics in England and Wales 2026
Gender Breakdown of Police-Recorded Domestic Abuse Victims
Female Victims ████████████████████████████████████████████████████ 72.1%
Male Victims ████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 27.9%
Female (Domestic Homicide) ██████████████████████████████████████████████░░ 69.6%
| Victim Characteristic Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Female share of police-recorded domestic abuse victims | 72.1% |
| Male share of police-recorded domestic abuse victims | 27.9% |
| Female share of domestic abuse-related sexual offence victims | 90.9% |
| Female share of domestic homicide victims | 69.6% |
| Female share of non-domestic homicide victims (comparison) | 11.4% |
| People who have ever been homeless with higher DA prevalence | Significantly higher |
Source: Office for National Statistics, “Domestic abuse victim characteristics, England and Wales,” November 26, 2025.
Gender remains the single clearest dividing line in domestic abuse victimization across England and Wales, with women representing 72.1% of all police-recorded victims and an overwhelming 90.9% of victims in domestic abuse-related sexual offences specifically. The homicide data underscores just how disproportionately lethal this violence is for women: 69.6% of domestic homicide victims were female, compared with just 11.4% of victims in non-domestic homicides, a stark reversal that highlights how the home, rather than the street, remains the far more dangerous setting for women who are killed.
The ONS data also flags an important and less commonly discussed risk factor: people who have experienced homelessness at any point in their lifetime show a significantly higher rate of domestic abuse victimization than the general population, a finding that reinforces the well-documented cyclical relationship between housing instability and abuse. This pattern is consistent with findings from Scotland, where domestic abuse is recognized as a leading cause of women’s homelessness, with a violent or abusive household dispute accounting for 22% of homelessness applications where the main applicant was female, compared to just 5% for male applicants.
Domestic Abuse Recorded by Police in Scotland 2026
Scotland Domestic Abuse Incidents by Year
2020-21 (Peak) ████████████████████████████████████████ Highest on record
2023-24 ██████████████████████████████████████░ 63,867
2024-25 ███████████████████████████████████████ 64,967
| Scotland Metric (2024-25) | Figure |
|---|---|
| Domestic abuse incidents recorded | 64,967 (+2%) |
| Domestic abuse aggravated crimes/offences recorded | 39,711 |
| Incidents per 10,000 population | 117 |
| Share involving female victim, male perpetrator | 81% |
| Highest local authority rate (Dundee City) | 189 per 10,000 |
| Crimes under Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 | 2,573 (+26%) |
| Share of incidents occurring in a home | 89% |
Source: Scottish Government, “Domestic abuse: statistics recorded by the police in Scotland, 2024-25,” June 2026.
Scotland’s most recent annual data shows police recorded 64,967 domestic abuse incidents in 2024-25, a 2% increase on the previous year, though this remains below the peak recorded in 2020-21. Of these, 39,711 resulted in at least one recorded crime or offence, with common assault the single most frequent category at 37%, followed by threatening and abusive behaviour and crimes against public justice, each at 14%. Geographically, Dundee City, West Dunbartonshire, and West Lothian recorded the highest incident rates per 10,000 population, figures that have remained consistently elevated across multiple reporting years.
Crimes prosecuted specifically under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, which criminalizes coercive and controlling behaviour distinctly from earlier legislation, jumped 26% to 2,573 in 2024-25, the sixth year this law has been in force. As in England and Wales, the gender pattern remains stark and stable: 81% of Scottish incidents involved a female victim and male suspected perpetrator, essentially unchanged since 2021-22, while homicide data shows 47% of female homicide victims in Scotland were killed by a partner or ex-partner, compared with just 4% of male homicide victims killed under the same circumstance, a disparity closely tied to the broader mortality patterns tracked in Death Statistics in the UK.
Repeat victimisation also stands out as a defining feature of the Scottish data: 73% of domestic abuse incidents recorded in 2024-25 involved a victim and suspected perpetrator who had previously been recorded in a prior domestic abuse incident, underscoring how frequently this crime type recurs within the same relationships rather than representing isolated events. Age also plays a distinct role north of the border, with the 31 to 35 age group recording the highest incident rate for both victims (249 per 10,000) and suspected perpetrators (227 per 10,000) of any age bracket, a pattern that has held consistent across the last several years of Scottish Government reporting.
Domestic Abuse and the Criminal Justice System in the UK 2026
England & Wales Criminal Justice Outcomes
CPS Charging Rate ████████████████████████████████████████ 79.9%
Prosecutions ██████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░ 54,987
Conviction Rate ███████████████████████████████████░░░░░ 74.7%
| Criminal Justice Metric (England & Wales, YE March 2025) | Figure |
|---|---|
| Police referrals to CPS for charging decision | 76,393 |
| CPS domestic abuse charging rate | 79.9% |
| Domestic abuse-related prosecutions | 54,987 (+7.4%) |
| Prosecutions leading to conviction | 74.7% (down from 75.8%) |
| Northern Ireland domestic abuse data series | 2004-05 to 2024-25 |
Source: Office for National Statistics, “Domestic abuse and the criminal justice system, England and Wales,” November 2025; Police Service of Northern Ireland, Official Statistics.
The criminal justice pipeline for domestic abuse in England and Wales showed measurable improvement on the charging side in the most recent reporting year, with police referrals to the Crown Prosecution Service rising to 76,393 and the charging rate climbing to 79.9%, the fourth consecutive annual increase from a base of 70.1% in YE March 2021. Prosecutions themselves rose 7.4% to 54,987, though the share of those prosecutions resulting in a conviction slipped slightly to 74.7%, down from 75.8% the year before, a modest but notable dip that bucks the otherwise improving trend in charging.
Northern Ireland maintains its own separate, continuously updated data series through the PSNI, covering domestic abuse incidents and crimes from 2004-05 through 2024-25, using a legal definition that, like Scotland’s, differs enough from England and Wales’ framework that direct cross-nation comparisons are not straightforward. Despite these definitional differences across all three legal jurisdictions, the underlying pattern remains remarkably consistent UK-wide: women are disproportionately victimized, most incidents occur within the home, and criminal justice systems across all four nations continue working to improve charging and conviction outcomes even as recorded incident volumes fluctuate year to year, a legal complexity not unlike the definitional and jurisdictional nuances covered in our Class Action Lawsuit Statistics in UK coverage of the UK’s broader civil and criminal legal landscape.
Looking ahead, the UK government’s “Freedom from violence and abuse” strategy paper, published in December 2025, sets out the policy framework guiding efforts to halve violence against women and girls over the coming decade, with the combined domestic abuse, sexual assault, and stalking prevalence measure now serving as its primary success metric. Whether police-recorded crime figures, prosecution rates, and survey-based prevalence estimates move in tandem or continue to diverge, as they notably did in the most recent England and Wales data, will be closely watched by campaigners, statisticians, and policymakers alike as the next annual releases from the ONS, Scottish Government, and PSNI become available through 2026 and beyond.
Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.
