A new EU-wide survey delivers an unequivocal message: violence against women remains pervasive across Europe — and too often invisible to the very systems meant to prevent and address it.
The report, EU Gender-based Violence Survey – Evidence for Policy and Practice, published by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), provides the most comprehensive and updated data to date on the prevalence and nature of gender-based violence across the European Union.
The findings are stark. One in three women in the EU has experienced physical and/or sexual violence. Psychological abuse, economic control and cyber violence are widespread — yet remain among the least recognised and least addressed forms of abuse. This is not only a social crisis. It is a fundamental rights failure.
Violence Is Underreported — and Institutions Are Failing Women
The scale of underreporting reveals deep institutional shortcomings. Only 6.1% of women who experienced physical or sexual violence by a partner reported it to the police. When the perpetrator was a non-partner, the reporting rate rises only to 11.3%. Shame, self-blame, fear and lack of trust in authorities remain the primary barriers to reporting. Many women also lack awareness of, or access to, specialised support services. As FRA Director Sirpa Rautio stated, violence against women constitutes a fundamental rights violation. When abuse is normalised, hidden or ignored, it reflects systemic failures to uphold rights. If women cannot rely on institutions to protect them, the responsibility lies with institutions to change.
The Hidden Forms of Violence
The survey sheds light on forms of violence that are often minimised or misunderstood:
Psychological and Economic Intimate Partner Violence
- 29.9% of women experienced psychological violence by a partner, including humiliation, intimidation and controlling behaviour.
- 12.7% experience it frequently.
- 20.3% have experienced economic violence, such as being prevented from working or denied control over family finances.
These forms of violence are less visible but deeply harmful, affecting women’s autonomy, mental health and economic independence.
Sexual Violence and Consent
Sexual violence is more often characterised by the absence of freely given consent than by physical force. Women are nearly twice as likely to be raped through coercion or inability to refuse as through overt force.
This reinforces the urgent need to criminalise sexual violence based explicitly on lack of consent.
The Impact on Women’s Lives
Intimate partner violence carries severe physical, psychological and economic consequences:
- 9.8% of women were physically injured by a partner.
- 9.6% suffered significant mental harm.
- 17.6% needed time off work.
- 30.8% were unable to carry out household work.
Many women resort to medication (25.8%) or alcohol and drugs (17.1%) to cope with trauma. Violence is not a private matter. It is a structural barrier to equality, participation and economic security.
Childhood Violence and Cycles of Abuse
32.9% of girls experienced physical or emotional violence by their parents. Women who experienced childhood sexual abuse are three to four times more likely to face sexual violence as adults.
Prevention must therefore start early, with child protection systems and trauma-informed services at the centre.
Digitalisation Is Intensifying Abuse
Technology is amplifying violence:
- 8.5% of women experienced cyberstalking.
- 7% of working women faced sexual harassment online.
- 10.2% had their location monitored or tracked by a partner.
Legal and policy frameworks must catch up with the realities of tech-facilitated abuse.
From Law to Implementation: The Urgent Next Steps
The EU has strengthened its legal framework, including through the Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence and the EU-wide ratification of the Istanbul Convention. But laws alone are not enough. To move from commitment to impact, the survey points to clear priorities:
- Improve victim-sensitive and gender-responsive reporting systems
- Guarantee access to holistic support, including specialised and trauma-informed services
- Criminalise sexual violence based on lack of consent
- Extend legal protection to economic and psychological violence
- Strengthen responses to tech-facilitated abuse
- Invest in early prevention and child protection systems
A Roadmap for Policy and Budgeting
For Gender Five Plus, these findings reinforce a central message: gender-based violence must be addressed not only through criminal law, but also through gender-responsive budgeting, investment in care systems, and structural equality policies. Violence against women is not inevitable. It is sustained by policy gaps, underfunding and institutional inertia.
The data is clear. The obligations are clear. The question is whether political will will follow. A Union committed to dignity, safety and equality cannot accept that one in three women experiences violence.