Violence against women prevalence estimates, 2018: WHO Region of the Americas fact sheet

This map shows global and regional (by WHO region) prevalence estimates of lifetime and past 12 months physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) among ever-married/partnered women aged 15–49. The WHO Region of the Americas is highlighted. 2018 GLOBAL AND REGION OF THE AMERICAS INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE AND NON-PARTNER SEXUAL VIOLENCE ESTIMATES REGIONAL PREVALENCE ESTIMATES OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE LIFETIME PREVALENCE of ever-married/partnered women aged 15–49 subjected to physical and/or sexual violence from a current or former husband or male partner at least once in their lifetime (since the age of 15). This works out to an average of 53 million women, and up to 66 million women, in this region. PAST 12 MONTHS PREVALENCE of ever-married/partnered women aged 15–49 subjected to physical and/or sexual violence from a current or former husband or male partner in the past 12 months. LIFETIME PREVALENCE of women aged 15 years and older subjected to non-partner sexual violence at least once in their lifetime (since the age of 15). LIFETIME PREVALENCE of women aged 15–49 subjected to one or both of these forms of violence at least once in their lifetime. Non-partner sexual violence (NPSV) + 31% 34% 12% 6% 13% 7% 27% 25% Intimate partner violence (IPV) Key Global prevalence estimates WHO Region of the Americas prevalence estimates Combined IPV and/or NPSV WHO REGION OF THE AMERICAS FACT SHEET VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN PREVALENCE ESTIMATES, 2018 lifetime prevalence IPV(%) past 12 months prevalence IPV(%) Least Developed Countries 22 37 Low- and middle- income countries (Region of the Americas) 25 8 South-East Asia Region Eastern Mediterranean Region African Region 20 33 Western Pacific Region 20 8 31 17 17 33 Region of the Americas 25 7 Violence against women is a global public health crisis of pandemic proportions. It has serious social and economic consequences for countries and societies. “ “ This fact sheet highlights the need for governments to reinforce the commitments made to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls (Sustainable Development Goal 5, target 5.2). European Region 21 6 Argentina Belize Bolivia (Plurinational State of) Brazil Canada [no data for lifetime] Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Grenada Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Paraguay Peru Suriname Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) High-income countries: Chile Panama Trinidad and Tobago United States of America Uruguay This chart shows country prevalence estimates of lifetime and past 12 months IPV among ever-married/partnered women aged 15–49 in countries of the WHO Region of the Americas.a COUNTRY PREVALENCE ESTIMATES OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE (IPV) IPV lifetime IPV past 12 months a There are a total of 35 Member States in the region. 60 50 40 30 3020 2010 100 Low- and middle-income countries: For more information contact vawestimates@who.int This report was produced by the WHO Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research (SRH), including HRP, for the United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group on Violence Against Women Estimation and Data (VAW-IAWGED). 27% 24% 42% 23% 30% 27% 14% 19% 33% 21% 21% 23% 17% 24% 24% 23% 18% 38% 19% 21% 16% 26% 18% 5% 8% 18% 6% 3% 12% 5% 10% 8% 6% 8% 7% 10% 12% 7% 7% 10% 6% 6% 11% 8% 8% 6% 8% 7% 6% 4% Download the full report here. Policy and laws – Institute and implement laws and regulations that promote gender equality (e.g. girls’ and women’s equitable access to secondary education, paid employment and property/ inheritance rights, as well as laws to address violence against women). Support – Empower and invest in autonomous women’s rights organizations to apply their expertise in addressing violence against women and guide decision-making in programming and policy-making. Services – Scale up comprehensive, accessible and quality survivor-centred services for women affected by violence and their children through capacity-building of service providers in all sectors (health, judicial, education, social), including in humanitarian crises. Strengthen joined-up multisectoral responses to better respond to and prevent violence against women. Society – Challenge norms and attitudes that discriminate against women and girls, especially regarding the acceptability of violence against women, including through school- and community- based programmes and interventions. Prevention – Support and scale up nationalized and localized evidence-driven programmes and strategies for prevention. Promote and support community- based and women’s organizations’ efforts to end violence against women. Data – Strengthen data collection, reporting and use. Invest in high-quality surveys on violence against women and improve measurement of the different forms of violence that women are subjected to. URGENT ACTION IS NEEDED 28% 28% 28% 7% 31% (Global average: 27) (Global average: 13) WHO/SRH/21.11 © World Health Organization 2021. Some rights reserved. This work is available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence.