People who experienced family and domestic violence

3.3 People have equal, healthy, and respectful relationships.

Decreased prevalence of violence and abuse in family and domestic relationships.

Prevalence of physical and/or sexual violence by a family member or intimate partner (in the last 12 months).

A decrease in the prevalence of violence by a family member or intimate partner over time may indicate that people are choosing to use less or no violence. 
Prevalence data relate to the number of people who have experienced violence, not the number of people who have perpetrated violence, or the severity or frequency of violence within a family or intimate relationship.

2021–22

Number of people aged 18 years and over who experienced violence from an intimate partner or family member in the 12 months prior to the survey.

Data element: Person—experienced violence
Data source: ABS PSS
Data source type: Survey

Number of people aged 18 years and over.

Data element : Person
Data source: ABS PSS
Data source type: Survey

This measure is the number of people who experienced violence from a family member or intimate partner expressed as a percentage of people aged 18 years and over in Australia.

100 × (Numerator/Denominator)

For each reference period, nationally, by: 

• state and territory
• sex 
• age (for younger women and older women)
• country of birth.

For disaggregated data, the reference period will be extended to 2 years where required to allow for more reliable reporting. 

FDV includes physical and/or sexual violence by all family members or intimate partners.
In the PSS, sexual violence is defined as the occurrence, attempt or threat of sexual assault. 
Physical violence is defined as the occurrence, attempt or threat of physical assault.
Statistics will not be reported if they have a high relative standard error and are considered too unreliable to measure changes over time.

For some population groups, numbers may be too small to be reported on separately.  
Data on violence by a family or intimate partner combined are only available from 2021–22 onwards. 
State and territory data in 2021–22 are only available for women. 
Where the RSE for numbers and estimates is between 25% and 50%, this will be indicated in the data visualisation and any accompanying data tables. Where the RSE is greater than 50%, the data will not be published.