Hidden by Stigma, Missed by Surveys: WHO Calls for Better Sexual Violence Data

An estimated 263 million women and girls aged 15 and older, representing 8% globally, have experienced sexual violence by a man other than an intimate partner at least once since turning 15.

For women and girls who experience sexual violence, stigma and fear of repercussions can make speaking about it difficult, leaving their experiences absent from the evidence used to shape prevention and support services. A new technical brief from the World Health Organization, the Human Reproduction Programme (HRP) and United Nations partners calls for more rigorous and consistent measurement of sexual violence committed by someone other than an intimate partner.

An estimated 263 million women and girls aged 15 and older, representing 8% globally, have experienced sexual violence by a man other than an intimate partner at least once since turning 15. The true scale is likely to be considerably higher because underreporting, gaps in research and the ways surveys ask questions can prevent experiences from being recorded, obscuring a public health and human rights issue with serious physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health consequences.

Missing and Outdated Data Leave Gaps

WHO's review of population-based surveys conducted between 2000 and 2023 identified 140 countries with at least one eligible survey, covering 89% of the global population of women and girls aged 15 and older. Many countries still lacked data, and 42 of those with an eligible survey had not collected such evidence for more than a decade, leaving substantial gaps in understanding women's experiences.

Differences in definitions, questions, age ranges and the populations surveyed make comparisons across countries and over time difficult. Some surveys ask only women who have had an intimate partner about sexual violence, excluding women and girls who have never been partnered despite their potential exposure to violence by a non-partner; this restriction can leave important experiences outside national estimates.

Better Questions Need Safer Surveys

The brief highlights evidence that questions describing specific acts are more effective than broad questions asking whether someone has experienced sexual violence. Social norms can lead women to regard certain abusive acts as normal and leave them unreported, and surveys that ask only about rape or attempted rape miss other forms of sexual violence, producing an incomplete picture of its scale.

Collecting more accurate information requires safeguards that protect the people being asked to share deeply personal experiences. Researchers and statistical offices should ensure privacy and confidentiality, establish appropriate referral pathways for support, and provide interviewers with specialized training, supervision and support so that surveys are conducted safely and ethically.

Further research is needed to develop accurate ways of capturing how women and adolescent girls understand and experience coercion and the absence of consent in sexual interactions. The brief identifies sexual harassment and technology-facilitated sexual violence as areas needing stronger measurement, including the non-consensual sharing of nude images and rape threats made online.

Stronger Evidence Can Guide Support

Reliable data help governments and their partners identify where prevention and response services are most needed, design programmes that respond more effectively to survivors and track progress towards ending violence against women and girls. WHO and HRP work with partners to strengthen countries' ability to produce comparable evidence, supporting accountability under Sustainable Development Goal target 5.2 on eliminating violence against women and girls.

HRP and WHO are calling for sustained investment in high-quality population-based surveys and greater international standardization of sexual violence measures. Their recommendations place women's and girls' experiences at the centre of efforts to improve national, regional and global evidence, giving decision-makers a clearer basis for directing resources and assessing whether prevention and support programmes are making a difference.