Behind every national statistic there are human beings, and the latest domestic abuse figures from the Office for National Statistics are a painful reminder of that truth. In the year leading up to March 2026, around 4.7 million people aged 16 and over in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse, according to the Crime Survey of England and Wales. That is roughly one in every ten adults, a figure that is almost impossible to hold in the mind without feeling a sense of profound unease. The number represents 9.6% of the adult population, a significant rise from the 7.8% recorded in the previous 12 months. The ONS, normally cautious about reading too much into changes between survey periods, said its best assessment is that the increase includes real change rather than being solely the result of sampling uncertainty or changes to the questions. For charities, campaigners and survivors, those words confirm what many have been saying for years: domestic abuse remains a national emergency hiding in plain sight. The figures also arrive at a moment when the government has promised to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, and they immediately raise a difficult question. If more people are experiencing abuse now, how realistic is that pledge? But to read the data only as a percentage is to miss the human reality. Every one of those 4.7 million people has a story, a daily routine, and often a family affected by fear, coercion, physical violence or psychological control. Behind each percentage point are people who may never have told anyone what is happening to them, who may be sleeping in a separate room, or who may be enduring the agonising process of trying to leave. The phrase domestic abuse can sound clinical, but it covers a spectrum of behaviours that strip away a person’s sense of safety in the place where they should feel most secure: home.
The overall rise was not spread evenly across every form of abuse. The sharpest change was in partner abuse, which jumped from 6.1% to 7.9% of the adult population in a single year. This is the kind of abuse that happens inside intimate relationships, between current or former partners, inside marriages, among cohabiting couples and between people who may appear from the outside to be perfectly happy. The fact that family abuse did not show a comparable increase suggests that the particular dynamics of intimate partnerships, and the pressures people face within them, are driving much of the new pain being captured in these figures. The data also shows that while women remain disproportionately affected, men are not untouched. Some 11.5% of women said they had experienced domestic abuse in the most recent year, up from 9.1%, while 7.6% of men reported abuse, up from 6.5%. These percentages translate into millions of individual experiences, many of which never enter the criminal justice system. For women, the threat of abuse is often entangled with broader fears about safety in public and private spaces; for men, the stigma of admitting victimisation can be even harder to overcome, and services designed specifically for male survivors remain far too scarce. Humanising these figures means recognising that abuse does not discriminate by age, class, ethnicity or gender, though its consequences are not always equal. It also means acknowledging that the home, traditionally seen as a sanctuary, is for millions a place of terror. The rise in partner abuse, in particular, should be a wake-up call. It suggests that the stress of everyday life, economic pressures, isolation and a thousand other factors are combining to create conditions in which abuse thrives. But it also suggests that more people are willing to name what is happening to them when asked by researchers, which is a small sign of progress in a society that has historically preferred not to look too closely behind closed doors.
Charities that work with survivors on the front line greeted the latest statistics with a mixture of sorrow and frustration. Refuge, one of the country’s leading domestic abuse organisations, said the figures reinforced its concern that the government is not on track to fulfil its pledge to tackle violence against women and girls. Alice Russell-Harris, the charity’s public affairs lead, put the problem bluntly: achieving the goal is simply not achievable without sustainable, long-term funding for specialist domestic abuse services. Her words carry the weight of a sector that has been underfunded for decades, forced to rely on short-term grants and constant fundraising just to keep the lights on. Refuges, helplines, community advocates, children’s workers and Independent Domestic Violence Advisors are the people who catch survivors at the moment of crisis. They help someone find a safe bed for the night, file for a protective order, navigate the benefits system, or simply believe them when they finally tell the truth about what is happening at home. Yet despite the vital nature of this work, funding remains precarious. Russell-Harris noted that Refuge is yet to see a financial commitment that matches the scale needed for every survivor to access timely support. That is a devastating admission. It means that in the same period the nation learns that 4.7 million people have experienced domestic abuse, many of those people will call a helpline only to be met with a waiting list, or be turned away from a refuge because there is no room. The gap between political ambition and lived reality is enormous. Survivors do not have the luxury of waiting for budgets to be rebalanced or for a ten-year strategy to begin to take effect. They need support now, in the aftermath of an attack, in the middle of the night, in the moments when leaving feels impossible. The warning from Refuge is not just about statistics; it is about the moral consequences of underfunding services that can mean the difference between life and death.
In response to the data, the Home Office did not dispute the scale of the problem. A spokesperson said the scale of domestic abuse in this country is completely shocking, but the government is determined to tackle it. That determination, they said, is being translated into practical action: embedding domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms, rolling out Domestic Abuse Protection Orders, and investing £53 million in the Drive Project, which aims to change the behaviour of the highest-harm perpetrators, stop reoffending and protect victims. These are not insignificant measures. A specialist in a control room can make sure that a call from a frightened victim is understood as an emergency and that the right response arrives quickly. A Domestic Abuse Protection Order can impose restrictions on an abuser’s movement and behaviour, providing a layer of protection that did not exist before. The Drive Project takes aim at the small number of individuals responsible for the most serious and repeated abuse, intervening to break cycles of violence before they escalate. All of these initiatives are part of the government’s stated mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. Yet for survivors and the charities who support them, the gap between the promise and the current reality remains difficult to ignore. A decade is a long time if you are living in fear tonight. The Home Office’s language is forceful, but it is still unclear whether the money attached to these programmes will be enough to meet the scale of need identified in the new statistics. The pledge to halve violence against women and girls is admirable, but it will only be meaningful if it is backed by resources that reach every community, every court, every police station and every refuge. The government insists it is deploying the full power of the state, but the charity’s warning suggests that the power of the state still feels too distant to the people who need it most. The challenge is not just to say the right things, but to build a system that can actually deliver safety.
The latest release also contained news that may offer a glimmer of hope in the fight for justice. While recorded rape and sexual offences increased, charges for these crimes rose significantly. The number of sexual offence charges rose by almost a quarter, from 19,779 to 24,587, between the year ending June 2025 and the year ending June 2026. Rape charges increased by almost 30%, from 5,746 to 7,445. At the same time, police recorded a 2.3% increase in rape offences and a 3.9% increase in sexual offences. These numbers are double-edged. On one hand, they suggest that more victims and survivors are coming forward to report what has happened to them, and that the criminal justice system is starting to charge more cases. On the other, they show that the overall number of offences continues to rise, meaning the problem is not yet going away. Satvir Kaur, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, described the statistics as encouraging. In a statement to Metro, she said violence against women and girls is a stain on our society, and that tackling it begins with identifying it. For too long, she added, victims and survivors have not come forward, so it is encouraging to see more people doing so. She also welcomed the increase in charges, saying it means more victims are getting the justice they deserve. But she was careful not to overstate the progress. The scale of the challenge is huge, so our ambition to tackle it must be too. The minister pointed to the acceleration of a deadline for police forces to have specialist rape and sexual offence teams in place by December 2027, as well as the continued rollout of Domestic Abuse Protection Orders and the embedding of specialists in 999 control rooms. Her language is determined, but behind the political rhetoric lies a quieter, more painful truth: every increase in charges represents a person who has endured an ordeal that should never have happened. Justice is important, but it cannot undo the trauma. The encouraging statistics are not a celebration; they are a reminder of how much still needs to be done.
Perhaps the most urgent plea in the whole report came from Alice Russell-Harris, speaking ahead of the Autumn Budget. She urged the government to provide the vital investment required to meet rising demand, warning that specialist support services and the survivors who depend on them cannot afford to bear the brunt of underfunding any longer. This is not a demand born of politics but of necessity. When a woman flees her home in the middle of the night with her children, the refuge that opens its doors to her is funded by a fragile patchwork of local authority contracts, charitable donations and national schemes. When a man who has been abused by his partner finally finds the courage to pick up the phone, the helpline he calls may be staffed by a volunteer whose own funding is uncertain. The statistics released today tell us that more people than ever are experiencing domestic abuse, and the charities on the front line say they are already stretched beyond capacity. To ask them to do more without the resources is to ask survivors to pay for the government’s ambition with their safety. The human story behind these numbers is one of resilience, but also of exhaustion. It is about the mother who hides her bruises from her children, the father who sleeps with one eye open, the young person whose first relationship taught them that love hurts. It is about the friends and family who notice something is wrong but do not know what to say. It is about the police officers, social workers, doctors and volunteers who encounter the signs of abuse every day and try to help with limited tools. The government has set an ambitious target to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, and that vision is necessary. But targets and strategies will only matter if they are matched by funding, by political will, and by a society that refuses to look away. The 4.7 million people who experienced domestic abuse in the last year are not just numbers on a spreadsheet. They are our neighbours, our colleagues, our friends and, too often, ourselves. The first step in solving a problem is seeing it clearly. The figures have been seen. The question now is whether the country will act with the urgency this emergency demands.
