Gender-based violence facts for 16 Days of Activism

Every year, from November 25 to December 10, the United Nations marks 16 Days of Activism — a campaign to fight violence against women and girls in all its forms. 

Here’s what you need to know in 2025. 

The UN’s definition of GBV is any act of violence against women and girls, based on their gender, “that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering.” The UN adds that this can happen either in public or in private.

This can play out in countless ways, and there are many types of gender-based violence. Among the most common examples are domestic and intimate partner violence, sexual harassment, rape, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, so-called “honour” crimes, and online harassment.

GBV is so prevalent that, globally, one in every three women worldwide is estimated to experience some form of abuse in her lifetime based on her gender. That’s about 840 million people in 2025.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a prevalent form of GBV and involves abuse from a current, former, or potential partner. As the World Health Organisation reported last week, 316 million women — 11% of the total population of women and girls 15 or older — were subjected to IPV in the last 12 months alone. This has been a constant issue, with the WHO noting that IPV has only declined by 0.2% annually over the last 20 years.

The WHO estimates that 25.8% of women ages 15-49 who have been married or partnered experience intimate partner violence at least once in their lives. The number drops slightly to 24.7% when including all women, including those over 50, but this also demonstrates that IPV or gender-based violence is not a concern of the past. 

Even with these reports, it’s likely that many countries don’t know the full scope of violence against women and girls. Despite GBV’s prevalence, it’s been a slow process to get a global body of evidence. Violence against women wasn’t officially recognised by the United Nations as a violation of human rights until 1992. Many women in countries with high rates of GBV still don’t report their experiences. 

Progress on this front has been slow but steady. In 2010, for example, only 82 countries were collecting data on GBV cases. That number nearly doubled in just over a decade, with 161 countries reporting in 2021. As of 2025, UN Women reports that at least 168 countries now keep data on the prevalence of IPV, and 140 countries collect data on reports of non-partner violence. 

It took a while, but GBV has now been recognised as a violation of human rights for more than 30 years. It goes against the first article of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” 

GBV also threatens other fundamental human rights, including the rights to:

• Life, liberty, and the security of person
• Safety from torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment
• Equality before the law
• Freedom of movement

Violence affects women in every country around the world, but there are disparities between regions and countries. The highest rates of gender-based violence are in low-income countries, countries in conflict, and countries facing high climate risks.

As we mentioned above, the global risk for intimate partner violence is about 25%. The WHO estimates that, on average, low-income countries have an IPV rate of 34.9%. A group classified by the UN as Small Island Developing States (SIDS) that includes much of Oceania (outside of Australia and New Zealand) and many Caribbean nations like Haiti has an average IPV rate of 31.4%. In the last year, instances of IPV in low-income countries occurred at an average rate of 38% — more than three times the global average of 11%. 

This includes Sierra Leone (55.2%), South Sudan (54.3%), and Afghanistan (50.9%) — all countries where Concern works. 

Several other nations where we have programmes are also well above the global average of 25%, including Bangladesh (48.9%), Democratic Republic of the Congo (48.5%), and Burundi (46.6%). 

As many of the countries above suggest, GBV is linked to poverty and some of its major causes. UN Women reports that 70% of women in a humanitarian crisis have experienced some form of GBV (compared to the global average of 35%). GBV rates have been classified as severe or extreme in 22 of 25 countries that experienced humanitarian crises in the last year. 

Child-marriage rates are four percentage points higher in conflict-affected areas — a desperate measure many families take out of economic need or the sense that their children will be protected through marriage. In the last decade, increased droughts in Ethiopia led to more girls being sold into early marriage in exchange for livestock. 

Displacement driven by conflict or natural disasters also leaves women and girls especially vulnerable, especially since so many of those displaced are women (including 80% of people displaced due to climate). Leaving home in these conditions leaves people at higher risks for physical, sexual, and psychological violence. In one 2021 report, forcibly-displaced women in Liberia faced a 55% greater risk of IPV compared to non-displaced women.

As noted above, child marriage is a key issue in violence against women and girls. It not only leaves them more vulnerable to abuse, it is itself a form of GBV as they are usually entered into these unions without consent (and in many instances against the law). Over the last decade, there has been a slow decline in global marriage rates: In 2024, roughly 22% of young women (20-24) were first married or in a union before turning 18. In 2025, that rate is now 19%. 

Still, that’s one in every five young women around the world. As UN Women notes, if no progress is made, 9 million girls will marry in childhood in the year 2030. This burden will also fall to girls from the poorest and most vulnerable circumstances. 

School-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) is used to describe any act or threat of sexual, physical, or psychological violence in and around schools that is fuelled by gender norms and stereotypes and enforced by unequal power dynamics. It’s another key form of GBV that exists at some rate in every country and affects both boys and girls and can come from both their peers and their teachers. 

Globally, UN Women estimates one third of all students aged 11-15 have been bullied by their peers at school at least once in the past month. Boys are more likely to experience physical bullying, while girls are more likely to experience psychological bullying. Addressing high rates of SRGBV is at the heart of several Concern programmes, including the Safe Learning Model we developed in Sierra Leone. 

Several reports in recent years have confirmed a higher risk for GBV and IPV among women with disabilities, compared to women without disabilities. A 2018 study from UNFPA reveals that girls and young women with disabilities face up to 10 times more gender-based violence than those without disabilities.

More recently, an EU study confirmed that this is an interlocking issue with poverty as well: While 15.1% of women without a disability confirmed an instance of IPV, that figure rose to 24% of women with a disability. Likewise, women with a disability were more than 22 percentage points more likely to report financial difficulties at home, and 13.8% less likely to have equal say with their partner in economic decisions.

Women who have experienced gendered violence are 50% more likely to be living with HIV. In sub-Saharan Africa, 80% of all new HIV infections among 10 to 19-year-olds are girls. 

Female genital mutilation (FGM) affects millions of women and girls around the world and is on the rise despite the known (and severe) health risks and violations of fundamental human rights. In 2025, UN Women reports that over 230 million girls and women have undergone the practice — a 15% increase (or 30 million more people) compared to data from 2013. 63% of these cases happen in African countries, where as many as 2 million girls under the age of 5 have been subjected to the practice. 

In the European Union alone, gender-based violence costs roughly €366 billion a year (in Ireland the cost is €4 billion), with half of those costs attributed to intimate partner violence. 

The costs of GBV amount to lost economic output related to the productivity and work status of survivors; the public services covering healthcare, criminal and civil justice, housing, protection, and other specialist services relating to GBV; and the physical and emotional impact on survivors that leads to a drop in quality of life. More broadly, an IMF report shows that, for every 1 percentage point that GBV increases, economic activity reduces by up to 8%. 

These are not new discoveries. More than a decade ago, the World Bank estimated that violence against women costs countries up to 3.7% of their GDP — more than double the expenditures on education in most countries. The more we reduce GBV, the more the costs associated with it can go into sectors that lead to economic empowerment and growth. 

Despite slowed progress, ending GBV isn’t an impossibility. Solutions to gender-based violence have to come at multiple levels, often working intersectionally both in terms of sectors and working with both women and men. 

That said, there are efforts that are demonstrably successful, particularly ones that address intersectional issues like GBV and poverty, or protecting women and girls in humanitarian crises or conflict zones. Economically empowering women, school-based interventions, and programmes for couples have all been proven effective in recent years. There are emerging bodies of evidence to suggest that addressing infrastructure and transport, legislation, and justice systems are also key areas of focus. 

Above all, what we know is this: No one is born violent. GBV is caused by a host of issues, often a combination of harmful cultural values and external factors like conflict and crisis. By addressing both traditions and risks, we can effectively break the cycle. We not only can break it, we must. 

Gender equality is a development issue, and one that we have to foster in order to sustainably end poverty. Concern’s approach to this also addresses the risks for and realities of gender-based violence in many of the communities where we work. 

During emergencies, we prioritise the safety of those who are most vulnerable to violence, particularly women and girls. In many cases we also provide psychosocial support and other resources to those who have experienced GBV or IPV. 

In our livelihoods work, we work with the proven approach that economic empowerment programmes incorporate social empowerment interventions for women. We work with couples to build more trust and accountability within families so that everyone thrives, and we work with communities to identify and challenge the harmful norms and dynamics that hinder progress for everyone. 

» Learn more about our work towards gender equality