Younger women most likely in Britain to suffer partner abuse: survey

LONDON - Young women aged 16 to 24 in Britain are more likely to experience partner abuse than any other age group, with students the group that is the most likely to suffer sexual abuse, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported Thursday.

For the the first, the ONS has looked at three years of data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales to help develop insight into which women are most at risk of experiencing abuse by a partner or former partner.

The survey has revealed that women with a long-term illness or disability were more than twice as likely to have experienced some form of partner abuse than women who did not.

Bisexual women were nearly twice as likely to have experienced partner abuse than heterosexual women, the survey added, while women with mixed or multiple ethnicities were more likely to have experienced partner abuse than any other ethnic group.

ONS statistician Glenn Everett said the analysis "gives insight into the characteristics of women who are more vulnerable to partner abuse. It also tells us about the types of households they live in. This can help to inform policies and services aimed at ending violence against women and girls, one of the key targets in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals".

The survey has also revealed that women living in households with an income of less than 10,000 pounds ($13,400) were more than four times as likely to have experienced partner abuse than women living in households with an income of 50,000 pounds or more.

Women living in social housing were nearly three times as likely to have experienced partner abuse than women who owned their own homes.

The survey estimates that 1.2 million women, or 7.5 percent of those aged 16 to 59 years, have been victims of domestic abuse in the last 12 months.

Unemployed women were nearly twice as likely to have experienced partner abuse in the last 12 months than those in employment, with women in managerial and professional job roles the least likely to have experienced partner abuse.