Trends in police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence in Canada, 2024
Released: 2025-10-28
According to police services in Canada, in 2024, there were 349 victims of family violence per 100,000 population, and 356 victims of intimate partner violence per 100,000 population aged 12 and older. Both rates were relatively unchanged compared with the previous year. In all, there were 142,724 victims of family violence and 128,175 victims of intimate partner violence in 2024.
Today, the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics at Statistics Canada is releasing a series of data tables about victims of police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence, as well as victims of violent crime in general (see Note to readers). This release presents high-level trends for family violence and intimate partner violence. Past research and information collected through population surveys have highlighted that these types of violence are often not reported to authorities, since victims may, for example, 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. Therefore, the data presented here underestimate the full scope of the issue.
In this release, family violence and intimate partner violence include physical and sexual assault, harassment, uttering threats, and other forms of violence that come to the attention of police and reach the criminal threshold. Family violence is violence committed by spouses, parents, children, siblings and extended family members, while 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, since victims of a current or former spouse or common-law partner are included in both groups.
After many years of consecutive gradual increases, rates of family violence and intimate partner violence in 2024 are relatively unchanged compared with 2023
According to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey, compared with 2023, rates of police-reported family violence (-0.2%) and intimate partner violence (+0.02%) were relatively unchanged in 2024, after many years of consecutive gradual increases. Rates gradually declined year over year from 2009—the first year of comparable data—to 2014 before rising, with rates in 2024 just surpassing those from 2009.
Chart 1
Victims of police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence, by type of violence, gender and year, Canada, 2009 to 2024
The rate of family violence was 17% higher in 2024 than in 2018—when revisions to the definition of a founded incident were implemented to the UCR Survey. During the same period, the rate of intimate partner violence among victims aged 12 and older grew 14%. Increases were noted regardless of victim gender; however, the rise was larger for men and boys than women and girls for both family violence (+21% for men and boys versus +16% for women and girls) and intimate partner violence (+22% for men and boys versus +13% for women and girls).
Still, women and girls remain largely overrepresented among victims of both types of police-reported violence. In 2024, the rate of family violence was 2.1 times higher among women and girls (474 victims per 100,000 population) compared with men and boys (224 victims per 100,000 population), and the rate of intimate partner violence was 3.5 times higher (553 victims per 100,000 population aged 12 and older for women and girls versus 158 victims per 100,000 population aged 12 and older for men and boys).
According to the Homicide Survey, there were 187 victims of family homicide (0.45 per 100,000 population) and 100 victims of intimate partner homicide (0.27 per 100,000 population aged 12 and older) in 2024. Since 2014, there have been 1,755 victims of family homicide, nearly 6 in 10 (59%) of whom were women and girls. Among the 963 victims of intimate partner homicide, nearly 8 in 10 (79%) were women and girls.
Chart 2
Victims of family homicide and intimate partner homicide, by type of violence, gender and year, Canada, 2009 to 2024
Family violence against children and youth declines slightly after reaching highest recorded level in 2023
There were 25,938 child and youth victims of police-reported family violence in 2024, corresponding to a rate of 345 victims per 100,000 population aged 17 and younger. Nearly one-third (30%) of all child and youth victims of violence were victimized by a family member. Since 2018, the rate of family violence against children and youth has increased 26%. In 2024, 6 in 10 victims (60%) were girls; the rate of family violence was 1.6 times higher among girls than boys (428 victims per 100,000 population aged 17 and younger for girls versus 266 for boys). There was a slight decline (-2%) in the rate from 2023, when family violence against children and youth reached its highest recorded rate. The slight decline in 2024 was attributable to a decrease among girls (-4%), while there was a slight increase among boys (+1%).
In 2024, child and youth victims of family violence were most often victimized by a parent (61%), while around one in six (15%) was victimized by a sibling and around one in four (24%) by another type of family member. Among girl victims, a parent (56%) was most often the perpetrator, while 16% were victimized by a sibling and 28% were victimized by another type of family member. Among boy victims, a parent (69%) was even more common as the perpetrator, while 14% were victimized by a sibling and 18% were victimized by another type of family member.
The majority (57%) of child and youth victims of family violence were victims of physical assault in 2024. One-third (33%) of child and youth victims of family violence were victims of a sexual offence, a higher proportion than for child and youth victims of non-family violence (27%) and victims of violent crime in general (10%). Among child and youth victims of family violence, similar proportions of girl victims experienced physical assault (47%) and sexual offences (44%), while boys far more often experienced physical assault (72%) than sexual offences (15%).
Nearly half of victims of intimate partner violence live with the accused at the time of the incident
In 2024, more than one-quarter (28%) of all victims of violent crime were victimized by an intimate partner. Of the 128,175 victims aged 12 and older of police-reported intimate partner violence in 2024, nearly 8 in 10 victims (78%) were women and girls. The rate of intimate partner violence peaked at age 30 for women and girls (1,146 victims per 100,000 population aged 12 and older) and at age 38 for men and boys (308 victims per 100,000 population aged 12 and older).
Among victims of intimate partner violence, similar proportions of women and girls and men and boys were victimized by a current partner (63% of women and girls versus 64% of men and boys), a former partner (35% versus 33%) or another type of intimate partner (2% versus 3%) in 2024. Of those who were victimized by an intimate partner and where information about living arrangements was known, nearly half (47%) were living with the accused at the time of the violent incident.
Most often, victims of intimate partner violence were physically assaulted (72%) in 2024. Smaller proportions were victims of a sexual offence (9%), criminal harassment (7%) and uttering threats (7%). Sexual offences were more common among victims who were women and girls (11%, versus 2% of men and boy victims), while physical assault was more common among victims who were men and boys (84%, versus 68% of women and girl victims).
In 2024, one in six victims of intimate partner violence (16%) was involved in an incident where a weapon was present. A weapon was not present in the remainder of incidents, but for just over two-thirds (69%) of all victims of intimate partner violence, physical force was involved. Overall, for 1% of victims, a firearm was present. The presence of a weapon was more common for men and boy victims (25%, versus 14% of women and girl victims), but a firearm was more common for women and girl victims (1.3%, versus 0.8% of men and boy victims).
Family violence against seniors continues to increase after reaching highest recorded level in 2023
There were 7,622 senior victims of police-reported family violence in 2024, a rate of 98 victims per 100,000 population aged 65 and older. Just over one-third (34%) of all senior victims of violence were victimized by a family member. Since 2018, the rate of family violence against seniors has increased by 49%. In 2024, nearly 6 in 10 victims (57%) were women, and the rate of family violence was slightly higher among women than men (104 victims per 100,000 population aged 65 and older for women versus 92 for men). There was a 4% increase overall in the rate from 2023—when family violence against seniors reached what was then its highest recorded rate. More specifically, the rate increased 4% for both senior women and senior men.
In 2024, senior victims of family violence were most often victimized by their child (36%). Around one in four was victimized by a spouse (28%) or another type of family member (25%), while 11% were victimized by a sibling. Among senior women victims, their child (34%) or spouse (32%) was most often the perpetrator. Among senior men victims, their child (39%) was even more common as the perpetrator, while just over one in five (21%) was victimized by a spouse.
Nearly three-quarters (72%) of senior victims of family violence were victims of physical assault in 2024, while one-sixth (17%) were victims of threats. A slightly higher proportion of senior men victims experienced physical assault (74% of senior men victims versus 71% of senior women victims) and threats (19% versus 16%). A larger proportion of senior women were victims of sexual offences, criminal harassment, indecent or harassing communications, or other offences (13% of senior women victims versus 7% of senior men victims).
Family violence and intimate partner violence decline in most provinces and territories
Similar to crime in general, the highest rates of police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence were in the territories in 2024. Among the provinces, the highest rates for each type of violence were in Saskatchewan (737 victims of family violence and 714 victims of intimate partner violence per 100,000 population) and Manitoba (568 for family violence and 607 for intimate partner violence). Meanwhile, the lowest rates were in Ontario (237 victims of family violence and 278 victims of intimate partner violence per 100,000 population) and British Columbia (264 for family violence and 269 for intimate partner violence).
Compared with 2023, rates of family violence and intimate partner violence declined in most provinces and territories in 2024. Among the provinces, Quebec recorded the largest increase in family violence (+29%) since 2018, while Newfoundland and Labrador recorded the largest increase in intimate partner violence (+30%).
Consistent with previous years, rates of family violence and intimate partner violence were highest in the north (1,052 victims of family violence and 1,065 victims of intimate partner violence per 100,000 population) in 2024, followed by the rural south (465 for family violence and 425 for intimate partner violence) and the urban south (284 for family violence and 298 for intimate partner violence). Regardless of geographic region, rates for both types of violence were higher in 2024 than in 2018.
Chart 3
Victims of police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence, by type of violence, geographic region and year, Canada, 2014, 2018 and 2024
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Note to readers
Since 1998, Statistics Canada has released the annual publication "Family violence in Canada: A statistical profile" as part of the Government of Canada's Family Violence Initiative, which seeks to address intimate partner violence and family-related violence. In recent years, however, the data tables from this publication have been released as a series of downloadable tables (35-10-0214-01, 35-10-0215-01, 35-10-0216-01, 35-10-0217-01, 35-10-0218-01, 35-10-0219-01, 35-10-0220-01 and 35-10-0221-01). These tables allow the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics at Statistics Canada to release annual police-reported family violence and intimate partner violence data in a timelier and more user-friendly format. Also released today is a series of tables on victims of police-reported violent crime more broadly (35-10-0211-01, 35-10-0212-01 and 35-10-0213-01). It should be noted that, because of different methodologies, the text presented in this release may differ slightly from the data presented in the downloadable tables.
Most of the data presented in this release are based on the Incident-Based Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey trend database, which, as of 2009, includes data for 99% of the population in Canada. The UCR Survey collects detailed information on criminal incidents that have come to the attention of police services in Canada. Information includes characteristics of victims, accused persons and incidents. Victim age is calculated based on the end date of an incident, as reported by the police. Some victims experience violence over time, sometimes years, all of which may be considered by the police to be part of one continuous incident. Information about the number of individual incidents for these victims of continuous violence is not available. Percent change is calculated on the basis of rate. Because of data quality concerns, weapon analysis excludes the province of Quebec unless the most serious weapon present was a firearm, and data from the Québec City Police Service are excluded regardless of the most serious weapon present. Further, the percent calculation of the most serious weapon present excludes unknown weapons.
In 2018, a new definition of "founded" crime was implemented in the UCR Survey, which impacted the collection of police-reported crime statistics (for more information, see Revising the classification of founded and unfounded criminal incidents in the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey). Following the change, more incidents were reported by police, a larger proportion of incidents were classified by police as founded, a smaller proportion of incidents were cleared (solved) by police and—of those that were solved—a larger proportion of incidents resulted in charges laid or recommended by police.
Homicide data are based on the Homicide Survey, which collects police-reported data on all incidents of murder, manslaughter and infanticide. Information includes characteristics of victims, accused persons and incidents. Homicide analysis includes solved homicides only.
Family violence refers to violence committed by spouses (legally married, separated, divorced and common-law, and current and former dating partners who lived together at the time of the incident), parents (biological, step, adoptive and foster), children (biological, step, adopted and foster), siblings (biological, step, half, adopted and foster) and extended family members (e.g., grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and in-laws). Intimate partner violence refers to violence committed by current and former legally married spouses, common-law partners, dating partners and other intimate partners. Victims of family violence include those aged 110 years and younger, and victims of intimate partner violence include those aged 12 to 110 years (victims of spousal violence include those aged 15 years and older, and victims of dating violence include those aged 12 years and older). Victims aged older than 110 years are excluded because of possible instances of miscoding unknown age within this age category. Victims whose gender or age was unknown, or whose relationship with the accused was unknown, are excluded.
Given that counts of victims reported as non-binary may be small, the UCR Survey and Homicide Survey aggregate data available to the public have been recoded to assign these counts to either "women and girls" or "men and boys" to ensure the protection of confidentiality and privacy. Victims identified as non-binary have been recoded based on the regional distribution of victims' gender. The option for police to code victims as non-binary was implemented in 2018 for the UCR Survey and in 2019 for the Homicide Survey.
The Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics at Statistics Canada has released several articles on similar subjects using self-reported data. See, for example, "Intimate partner violence in Canada, 2018: An overview," "Profile of Canadians who experienced victimization during childhood, 2018," "Spousal violence in Canada, 2019," "Violence against seniors and their perceptions of safety in Canada" and "Women's experiences of victimization in Canada's remote communities." For information about crime more broadly, see the Crime and Justice Statistics Hub.
Contact information
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