Trends in police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence in Canada, 2022

Released: 2023-11-21

According to police services in Canada, after several years of increase, rates of reported family violence and intimate partner violence were unchanged in 2022. Rates decreased to a small degree for women and girls (-1% for family violence and -1% for intimate partner violence), while they increased slightly for men and boys (+1% for family violence and +2% for intimate partner violence). Regardless, rates for both types of violence were higher for women and girls than for men and boys.

Today, the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics at Statistics Canada is releasing a series of downloadable data tables detailing the number and characteristics of victims of police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence (see Note to readers). This release presents high-level trends in police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence. It should be noted that the findings in this release reflect only incidents of family violence and intimate partner violence that came to the attention of the police, and past research has highlighted that these types of violence are often not reported to authorities. As such, the data presented here likely underestimate the full scope of these types of violence.

In this release, family violence is violence committed by spouses, parents, children, siblings and extended family members and intimate partner violence is violence committed by current and former legally married spouses, common-law partners, dating partners and other intimate partners. Victims of family violence and victims of intimate partner violence are not mutually exclusive groups, as victims of a current or former spouse are included in each group.

After increasing for several years starting in 2015, police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence were stable in 2022

In 2022, there were 129,876 victims of police-reported family violence and 117,093 victims of intimate partner violence aged 12 years and older. Overall rates of police-reported family violence (337 victims per 100,000 population) and intimate partner violence (346) were similar. The rate of family violence was more than two times higher among women and girls (455) than among men and boys (215). Meanwhile, the rate of intimate partner violence was more than three times higher among women and girls (537) than among men and boys (151).

From 2009 to 2014, family violence and intimate partner violence generally declined, with 2014 marking the lowest rates since comparable data became available. Since then, however, both types of violence have increased, nearly reaching rates seen in 2009. Rates of family violence and intimate partner violence were both 19% higher in 2022 compared with 2014, and increases were noted regardless of victim gender. Comparing 2022 with 2014, family violence was 17% higher for women and girls and 22% higher for men and boys, while intimate partner violence was 19% higher for women and girls and 21% higher for men and boys.

Chart 1 
Victims of police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence, by type of violence, gender and year, Canada, 2009 to 2022

In 2022, overall rates of family violence and intimate partner violence were higher than in 2019 (the year before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic) and 2020 (the first year of the pandemic, when many people were dealing with stressful circumstances). These findings held true regardless of victim gender, with increases ranging from 2% to 6%.

The rate of police-reported family violence is nearly twice as high for girls as for boys

There were 24,136 children and youth (aged 17 years and younger) who were victims of police-reported family violence in 2022, representing a rate of 334 victims per 100,000 population. Girls accounted for more than 6 in 10 child and youth victims (63%), with the rate being nearly twice as high for girls (424) as it was for boys (240). Younger victims are unique in that they may be unaware that they are being victimized, may not know how to seek help, may be unable to report their victimization and may be dependent on the perpetrator. Research has indicated that, while a similar proportion of girls and boys experience childhood victimization, a smaller proportion of boys report their experiences to authorities.

From 2014 to 2022, family violence against children and youth increased 38% (+43% among girls and +27% among boys). Compared with 2021, the rate of family violence against children and youth decreased 4.3% in 2022 (-6.6% among girls and -2.2% among boys).

Large majority of victims of police-reported intimate partner violence are women and girls, with the rate being especially high among those aged 12 to 24 years

Of the 117,093 victims of police-reported intimate partner violence in 2022, almost 8 in 10 (78%) were women and girls. In terms of age group and gender, intimate partner violence was almost seven times higher among women and girls aged 12 to 24 years (776 victims per 100,000 population) than among their male counterparts (114), and more than three times higher among women aged 25 to 64 years (661) than among their male counterparts (203).

From 2014 to 2022, there were large increases in intimate partner violence among adults aged 25 to 64 years (+32%) and seniors aged 65 years and older (+42%). Physical assault (253 victims per 100,000 population) was by far the most common form of intimate partner violence in 2022, followed by sexual assault (24), uttering threats (23) and criminal harassment (20). Still, compared with 2014, intimate partner sexual assault was 163% higher in 2022, while intimate partner physical assault (+14%) and indecent or harassing communications (+38%) also increased.

In 2022, 1% of victims of intimate partner violence were involved in firearm-related incidents, compared with 3% of victims of violent crime overall. When considering female victims of intimate partner violence, the proportion that experienced firearm-related violence (1.3%) was higher relative to male victims (0.6%). The rate and number of victims of intimate partner violence involved in incidents where a firearm was present was 1.8 per 100,000 population (536 victims) in 2013. From 2014 to 2021, the rate and number increased every year from 1.9 per 100,000 population (584 victims) to 3.2 (1,037 victims), and then declined in 2022 to 3.0 (990 victims).

Large increase in the rate of police-reported family violence against seniors, regardless of victim gender

There were 6,356 seniors (aged 65 years and older) who were victims of police-reported family violence in 2022, representing a rate of 87 per 100,000 population. Women accounted for more than half (56%) of senior victims, with a rate of 91 compared with 83 among their male counterparts.

From 2014 to 2022, family violence against seniors increased 46% (+40% among women and +55% among men). Compared with 2021, the rate of family violence against seniors increased 6%, with a larger increase seen for senior men (+8%) than for women (+3%).

Large majority of family homicide and intimate partner homicide victims are women and girls, with the exception of boys killed by a family member

From 2009 to 2022, there were 6,920 victims of solved homicide (i.e., an accused person was identified by police) in Canada. One-third (32%) of victims were killed by a family member, while nearly one-fifth (18%) were killed by an intimate partner. These proportions were much more pronounced among women and girls (59% were killed by a family member and 46% were killed by an intimate partner) than men and boys (20% were killed by a family member and 6% were killed by an intimate partner).

Of the solved homicides from 2009 to 2022, there were 2,133 victims of family homicide, the majority (58%) of whom were women and girls. While this held true for adult victims (60%) and senior victims (61%) of family homicide, just over half (53%) of child and youth victims of family homicide were boys. The gender difference was more pronounced among victims of intimate partner homicide, as 79% of the 1,223 victims from 2009 to 2022 were women and girls.

Provincial rates of police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence highest in Saskatchewan and Manitoba

In 2022, Saskatchewan (730 victims per 100,000 population) and Manitoba (585) had the highest provincial rates of police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence (732 for Saskatchewan and 633 for Manitoba), similar to police-reported crime overall. Meanwhile, the lowest rates were in Ontario (221 for family violence, 257 for intimate partner violence) and Prince Edward Island (251 for family violence, 247 for intimate partner violence).

Overall rates of police-reported family violence (256 victims per 100,000 population) and intimate partner violence (275) were similar in Canada's census metropolitan areas (CMAs) in 2022. However, these rates were notably higher in non-CMAs (546 for family violence and 530 for intimate partner violence). Among the CMAs, the rate of family violence was highest in Trois-Rivières (492), Lethbridge (460) and Thunder Bay (440), while it was lowest in Ottawa (141), Peterborough (155) and St. Catharines–Niagara (158). The rate of intimate partner violence was highest in Lethbridge (613), Thunder Bay (551) and Moncton (486), while it was lowest in Ottawa (183), St. Catharines–Niagara (188) and Vancouver (193).

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).