The World Health Organization (WHO) published a report stating that almost one in three women in the world—approximately 840 million—has experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner or non-partner sexual violence throughout their lives.
The study, the most exhaustive on the prevalence of these two forms of violence against womenreveals that in the last 12 months 316 million women (11% of those over 15 years of age) They were victims of physical or sexual violence by their partner.
Led by WHO and UN partners, with data from 168 countries between 2000 and 2023, The annual reduction in intimate partner violence barely reached 0.2% in two decades.
For the first time, estimates of sexual violence outside the couple (family member, friend, acquaintance, authority figure or stranger) are included: 263 million women have suffered it since the age of 15, a figure that is considered underestimated due to stigma and fear.
About violence in the couplethe analysis shows that 24.7% of women aged 15 and over who have had a partner (25.8% among women aged 15 to 49) have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of their romantic partner at least once in their lives.
On the other hand, 11.4% of women aged 15 and over who have had a partner (13.7% among women aged 15 to 49) have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of their romantic partner in the previous 12 months.
In the case of the sexual violence outside the couple8.2% of women aged 15 and over (8.4% among women aged 15 to 49) are considered to have experienced sexual violence at the hands of someone other than their partner at least once in their lives.
Meanwhile, 2.4% of women aged 15 and over (2.7% among women aged 15 to 49) have suffered sexual violence at the hands of someone other than their partner in the previous 12 months.
A “serious public health problem”
For the doctor in Psychology Marta Ferragut Ortiz-Tallo, professor at the University of Malaga, this type of violence collected in the study represents “a serious public health problem.” The expert expressed herself this way when asked about the study, along with other colleagues, on the web Science Media Center.
For her part, Professor Victoria A. Ferrer Pérez, finds among the report’s limitations the fact that in several countries there is no data on the prevalence of intimate partner violence and some have not conducted a survey in almost a decade. “The way of evaluating violence is not identical in all countries,” he adds.
Ferrer Pérez, who is a professor of Social Gender Psychology in the Department of Psychology and head of the Gender Studies research group at the University of the Balearic Islands, believes “it is very likely that the prevalence of sexual violence by a person other than the partner is much higher.”
Furthermore, she says, “this type of violence is more complex to measure, because it is highly stigmatized, it is very likely that in many places women do not report it.”
Regarding the rope of limitations, Professor Silvia Ubillos Landa, from the University of Burgos, sees it as the main lack “the absence of an analysis of the behaviors, attitudes and socialization norms of men.”
In his opinion, to reduce violence It is not enough to care for the victims, but we must work with possible aggressors. “Prevention, emotional education and awareness programs aimed at men require specific data on their behavior, attitudes and experiences.”
One of the injustices with the fewest responses
“Violence against women is one of the oldest and most widespread injustices of humanity, but at the same time it is one of those that has received the least response,” declared this Wednesday the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
New @WHO Estimates reveal that 840 million women have faced violence at least once in their lifetime, including 263 million who are survivors of sexual violence.
These alarming numbers have remained unchanged for 20 years.
This is unacceptable.
As a father of a young woman… pic.twitter.com/bk9HLybxxd
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 19, 2025
In X, the official considered the figures “alarming”, especially because “they have remained unchanged for 20 years”.
“As a father of a young girl and grandfather of little girls, I dream of a world where all girls and women in the world are safe,” he wrote.
In 2022, only 0.2% of global development aid was allocated to programs against this violence, a percentage that continues to decline.
According to the report, The highest rates of lifetime intimate partner violence are recorded in the archipelagos of Oceania (up to 60.7% in Fiji), sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (exceeding 31%).
In Spain the prevalence is 18.3%, below the world average of 24.7%, while in Latin America (23.5%) and East Asia-Pacific (18.5%) are below that average, although countries such as Bolivia (52.8%), Argentina (33.8%), Costa Rica (34.2%) and Colombia (29.8%) far exceed the regional figure.
The report also highlights that 12.5 million adolescents between 15 and 19 years old suffered physical or sexual violence by their partner in the last year studied.
And Cuba?
Global data on the prevalence of physical and sexual violence in couples show a deeply unequal panorama between countries, and place Cuba at a medium-low point within the world spectrum.
According to estimates, 8.4% of Cuban women between 15 and 49 years old who have been married or in a relationship have suffered violence of this type at some point in their lives, and 5.1% experienced it in the last 12 months.
The island is closer to the levels of violence recorded in some European and Latin American countries, although it continues to surpass several nations with notably lower rates, such as Georgia (7.3%), Armenia (8.7%), Bulgaria (7.8%), the Philippines (7.2%) or Singapore (7.1%).
If we compare with the region, Cuba presents lower figures than Latin American countries such as Bolivia (52.8%), Honduras (23.9%), Peru (23.2%), Colombia (29.8%) or Brazil (19.1%), but slightly higher than other Caribbean and South American nations with moderate or low prevalence, such as Chile (22.4%), Uruguay (24.8%), Dominican Republic (28.5%), although in these cases the values tend to fluctuate due to the width of the uncertainty intervals.
When analyzing data from violence that occurred in the last 12 months, Cuba once again places itself in an intermediate range. He 5.1% reported is lower than that of countries with critical emergencies – such as Papua New Guinea (45.3%), Kiribati (42.2%) or Sierra Leone (41.0%) – and also lower than that of many African and Latin American countries, where exceeding 15% is common.
However, it is still higher than that of countries with consolidated protection systems or with lower levels of recent violence, such as New Zealand (1.2%), Australia (1.8%), Spain (2.4%), Poland (1.7%) or Italy (2.8%).
In the section on physical or sexual violence against women (from 15 years old) outside the couple, Cuba does not offer any data.
Femicides increase
While the WHO report was released, independent platforms confirmed femicide number 41 in Cuba so far this year, although the organization does not analyze that dimension.
The new victim is Diosdaysis Sandoval Damas, who died on November 13 in the municipality of Arroyo Naranjo. According to feminists, the alleged aggressor is Sandoval’s ex-partner, who “dragged her and left her injured in public.” The victim is survived by a young daughter.
Sexist murders in Cuba will reach 40 in 2025, according to activists
In their recent report, feminists also cited 15 attempted femicides, while pointing out that they have three cases requiring access to police investigation. In addition, they said they were investigating another four in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Camagüey, Villa Clara and Sancti Spíritus.
The Attorney General’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior, the Supreme Court and other institutions announced this year the joint development of a computerized, but not public, administrative registry to collect data on femicides, he summarized. EFE.
Between 2019 and October 1, 2025, those same sources have registered 300 femicides in the country. The year 2024 closed with 56 femicides verified by activists, although higher figures have later emerged from officialdom.
These figures, alarming in themselves, reflect partial under-recording due to the lack of regular official statistics and more aggressive and effective public policies in response to these events.
Feminist observatories insist that the prevention of violence cannot depend only on citizen complaints or the work of independent networks. They demand political will, state resources and adequate legal frameworks, in addition to the right to freedom of association and assembly to be able to organize against this problem.
The Government, for its part, claims to be aware of the phenomenon and carry out prevention and control actions, through organizations such as the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), the Prosecutor’s Office and other state entities or entities related to the Government.
In July 2024, the National Registry System for acts of gender violence was approved, within the Program for the Advancement of Women. However, activists have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that this registry does not have, in their opinion, the transparency and public access necessary for independent verification and accountability.
According to the Cuban sociologist Clotilde Proveyer Cervantes, “we must promote the culture of rights, work on the responsibility of offering services, so that those in charge have the knowledge and can properly implement the action protocols.”
In statements published on the portal SemlacWomen’s News Service in Latin America and the Caribbean, the specialist insisted that “articulation between the national and local levels” is needed, while it is urgent to activate “a special line for violence.”
“It is essential to carry out a prevalence study that allows us to truly diagnose the problem in the country and can complement the information for the design of policies,” he claimed.
Likewise, it indicated statistical deficiencies. “We still need reliable and immediate data, which does not go to the saga, but rather is an instrument for work. We still have many gaps, but we are working hard,” added the university professor.
