Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals Report, 2022
Goal 5, Gender Equality

Release date: September 28, 2022
Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 5, Gender Equality
Description: Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 5, Gender Equality

Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls

Self-reported sexual assault and intimate partner violence in the previous 12 months, 2018

Almost 4 in every 100 women have been sexually assaulted. This is three times higher than the proportion of men.

In 2018, 12% of women aged 15 and older reported experiencing intimate partner violenceNote 1 in the previous 12 months.


Table 1
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 1. The information is grouped by Selected characteristic (appearing as row headers), Percentage that reported experiencing intimate partner violence in previous 12 months (appearing as column headers).
Selected characteristic Percentage that reported experiencing intimate partner violence in previous 12 months
Women aged 15 to 24 years 29%
LGBTQ2+Note 2 women 20%
Indigenous women 17%

Intimate partner violence among young women aged 15 to 24

In 2018, more than 4 in 10 ever-partneredNote 3 women aged 15 to 19 reported experiencing intimate partner violence in the previous 12 months.


Table 2
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 2. The information is grouped by Age group (appearing as row headers), Percentage that reported experiencing intimate partner violence (appearing as column headers).
Age group Percentage that reported experiencing intimate partner violence
15 to 19 years 43%
20 to 24 years 24%
25 years and older 10%

The proportion of women who reported intimate partner violence was four times higher among women aged 15 to 19 than among than women 25 years and older.

Note: The term “ever-partnered” refers to those who indicated that they had been in an intimate partner relationship at some point since age 15.

Note: Intimate partner violence is a form of gender-based violence and encompasses a broad range of behaviours, including emotional, financial, physical and sexual abuse committed by a current or former legally married spouse, common-law partner, or dating partner.

Distribution of household tasks

Women completed the majority of household tasks during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020


Table 3
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 3. The information is grouped by Household task (appearing as row headers), Tasks done mostly by women and Tasks done mostly by men (appearing as column headers).
Household task Tasks done mostly by women Tasks done mostly by men
Laundry 56% 16%
Meal preparation 48% 16%
Groceries 37% 30%
Household finances 30% 40%

Note: Numbers do not add up to 100% due to households that reported sharing the task equally.

Women and management positions in 2021

Women remain underrepresented in senior management roles.


Table 4
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 4. The information is grouped by National Occupation Classification (NOC) (appearing as row headers), Proportion of men and Proportion of women (appearing as column headers).
National Occupation Classification (NOC) Proportion of men Proportion of women
Senior management occupations 69% 31%
Specialized middle management occupations 51% 49%

Community spotlight: Women’s Shelters Canada

Women’s Shelters Canada provides leadership, collaboration and a unified voice for shelters that support women and children fleeing violence across Canada.

In 2020, during the pandemic, 65% of shelters reported decreases in admittance during the lockdown due to fears of COVID-19. Additionally, 71% of shelters reduced capacity in accordance with public health measures, but saw an increase in the severity of violence. When measures eased, 54% of shelters reported increases in admittance.

Sources: Statistics Canada, Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces, 2018, Labour Force Survey, 2021, Canadian Perspectives Survey Series, 2020; Women’s Shelters Canada, Shelter Voices Report, 2020.


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