The Office for National Statistics found that 9.6 per cent of adults aged 16 and over in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse in the last year, equivalent to roughly 4.7 million people. The figure comes from the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
Charities responding to the data characterised the findings as "the tip of the iceberg", suggesting the actual scale of domestic abuse exceeds what surveys capture. They also said the figures demonstrate that the government is not meeting its pledge to halve violence against women and girls.
The data provides a headline measure of prevalence across the adult population but does not detail variations by gender, age, severity or repeat victimisation. It reflects abuse reported in a survey rather than reported to police, and survey-based estimates typically capture only a fraction of actual incidents due to underreporting, shame, fear or lack of awareness among victims.
The government's commitment to halve violence against women and girls was part of its broader violence-reduction strategy. Charities argue that current prevalence rates and trends suggest this target remains far from reach based on available evidence.