Sexual Violence in Australia

  • An estimated 2.8 million people aged 18 years and over (14%) experienced sexual violence (assault and/or threat) since the age of 15.

Of women, 22% (2.2 million) experienced sexual violence, including:

    • 20% (2.0 million) who experienced sexual assault
    • 5.5% (544,700) who experienced sexual threat

Of men, 6.1% (582,400) experienced sexual violence, including:

  • 5.1% (483,800) who experienced sexual assault
  • 1.4% (137,900) who experienced sexual threat

Women were more likely than men to experience sexual violence (both assault and threat).

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Personal Safety Survey 2021-2022.

Sexual violence in Queensland

  • In 2024, there were 9,326 victims of sexual assault recorded in Queensland, an 11% increase (884 victims) from the previous year. This is the largest number in the thirty-two year time series. The victimisation rate also increased from 155 to 167 victims per 100,000 persons.

Most victims of sexual assault:

  • were female (85% or 7,935 victims)
  • knew the offender (67% or 6,288 victims).

A third (33%) of sexual assault victims were aged between 10 and 17 years at the date of incident (3,070 victims).

For sexual assaults:

  • most (92%) did not involve the use of a weapon (8,565 victims)
  • over two-thirds (71%) were reported to police within one year of the incident (6,636 victims)
  • around two-thirds (67%) occurred at a residential location (6,281 victims).

More than two in five (42%) recorded sexual assaults were FDV related (3,940 victims).

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Recorded Crime – Victims, Australia, 2024.

Women and girls

  • In 2021-2022, women and girls made up 85% of victims of recorded sexual assaults in Queensland.
  • Of women, 18% (1.7 million) experienced abuse during childhood, including:
    • 11% (1.1 million) who experienced sexual abuse
    • 10% (988,600) who experienced physical abuse
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Personal Safety Survey 2021-2022.

Men and boys

  • In 2021-2022, men and boys made up 5% of victims of recorded sexual assaults in Queensland.
  • Of men, 11% (1.0 million) experienced abuse during childhood, including:
    • 3.6% (343,500) who experienced sexual abuse
    • 8.3% (788,400) who experienced physical abuse
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Personal Safety Survey 2021-2022.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

  • The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims of sexual assault recorded in 2024 were:
    • 1,738 victims in New South Wales
    • 988 victims in Queensland
    • 185 victims in South Australia.

    For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victims of sexual assault:

    • most were female (66%–85%)
    • the most common age was between 10 and 17 years at the date of the report (29-53%)
    • most incidents were reported to police within a year (57–72%).

    The most common location for sexual assault was a residential location (72-80%).

    More than a third to almost half of all sexual assaults were recorded as FDV related incidents (36–47%).

  • 10.6% of recorded victims of sexual assault in Queensland are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, despite making up only 4.6% of the population.
Sources: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Recorded Crime – Victims, Australia, 2024.

People with disability

  • One in 25 (4.0%) women aged 18 and over with disability have experienced sexual violence in the last 2 years. This compares to 1 in 40 (2.5%) women without disability.
Sources: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Personal Safety Survey 2021-2022.

Women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds

  • While statistics are not readily available, services estimate the vast majority of women from a migrant and refugee background have experienced sexual assault.
Source: Australian Institute of Family Studies, Supporting women from CALD backgrounds who are victim/survivors of sexual violence.

LGBTIQA+ people

Of respondents to the 2019 Private Lives 3 survey:

  • Almost half (49%) indicated having ever experienced sexual assault.
  • 3 in 5 (61%) had ever experienced intimate partner violence.
  • Women who identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual or who used a different term such as asexual, pansexual or queer were more likely to have experienced sexual violence (13%) than women who identified as heterosexual (2.4%).
  • For both groups, 98% of those who experienced sexual violence in the last two years experienced it by a male perpetrator.
Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia, 2025, Australian Bureau of Statistics Sexual violence (2021-2022)

Community attitudes

Although attitudes are improving, our society still has some concerning views about relationships and sexual violence:

  • 34% agree it is common for sexual assault accusations to be used as a way of getting back at men
  • 37% agree that women going through custody battles often make up or exaggerate claims of domestic violence to gain tactical advantage in their case
  • 24% agree that a lot of time, women who say they were raped had led the man on and had regrets (Coumarelos et al. 2023b).
  • 25% agree that when a man is very sexually aroused he may not even realise that the woman doesn't want to have sex
  • 13% agree that women should be flattered if they get wolf-whistles or catcalls when walking past a group of men in public
  • 10% agree that women often say "no" when they mean "yes" (Coumarelos et al. 2023b).
Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Community attitudes (2025), Attitudes matter: The 2021 National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey (NCAS)