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Headline data

Proportion of adults aged 18 to 29 years who experienced abuse as a child before the age of 16
Year Value Observation status Unit multiplier Unit measure
2018/19 6.3024781258 Undefined Units Percentage (%)

Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS)

Geographical Area: England and Wales

Unit of Measurement: Percentage (%)

Footnote: 1. Don't know/can't remember and Don't wish to answer responses have been excluded. 2. 'Sexual abuse' includes rape or assault by penetration (including attempts), other contact sexual abuse, and non-contact sexual abuse. 3. Any contact sexual abuse' includes rape or assault by penetration (including attempts) and other contact sexual abuse.

This table provides metadata for the actual indicator available from UK statistics closest to the corresponding global SDG indicator. Please note that even when the global SDG indicator is fully available from UK statistics, this table should be consulted for information on national methodology and other UK-specific metadata information.

Indicator available

Not available for this indicator
Indicator description

Proportion of adults aged 18 to 29 years who experienced sexual abuse as a child before the age of 16
Geographical coverage

England and Wales
Unit of measurement

Percentage (%)
Definitions

Any sexual abuse includes both non-contact sexual abuse and contact sexual abuse. Non-contact sexual abuse is defined as where the respondent indicated that someone made them watch or listen to sexual acts or look at sexual images; made or shared sexual images of them; deliberately exposed themselves to them or sent them sexual images or videos of themselves or others. The sub-categories of the “contact sexual abuse” category are rape or assault by penetration, including attempts (this includes penetration with any object) and other contact sexual abuse. This includes being touched sexually (for example, groping, touching of breasts or bottom, and kissing) or being forced into touching someone else’s body for sexual purposes.
Available disaggregations

Not available for this indicator
Calculations

No calculations were performed in the data acquisition of this indicator as appropriate data was readily available in the final format specified by this indicator.
Other information

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) included a ‘Child abuse during childhood’ module for the first time in 2015/16. Detailed data on child abuse is collected every 3 years. While 2015/16 data is available on the ONS website, the data is not reported here due to changes in the definitions of abuse and the introduction of non-contact sexual abuse. Therefore the data is not directly comparable. Data follows the UN specification for this indicator. This indicator has been identified in collaboration with topic experts.
Data last updated 21 October 2021
Metadata last updated 03 July 2020

This table provides information on metadata for SDG indicators as defined by the UN Statistical Commission. Complete global metadata is provided by the UN Statistics Division.

Indicator name

Proportion of young women and men aged 18–29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18
Target name

End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children
UN designated tier

Tier II
UN custodian agency

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
Link to UN metadata United Nations Sustainable Development Goals metadata for target 16.2 opens in a new window

Source 1

Organisation

Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Periodicity

Discontinuous
Earliest available data

2018/19
Geographical coverage

England and Wales
Link to data source Proportion of adults aged 18 to 29 years who experienced abuse before the age of 16 years, by sex and type of abuse, year ending March 2019 opens in a new window
Release date 14 January 2020
Next release

TBC: We plan to update indicator data within 4 months of data being released
Statistical classification

Official Statistic
Contact details

crimestatistics@ons.gov.uk
Other information

Data acquired from the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
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