AMS Sexual Assault Support Center | AMS Sexual Assault Support Center Phone604.827.5180

Escape

Statistics & Sexual Violence

Did you know?

1. Sexual violence is common

  • Approximately 745,000 Canadians were sexually assaulted in 2025.[1]
  • 71% of Canadian post-secondary students experienced sexual violence that year.[2]
  • 1 in 3 women over the age of 15 in Canada experience sexual assault during their lifetime; this statistic has remained consistent and elevated over the past 30 years.[1, 3]

2. Sexual violence is rarely reported to the police—survivors seek disclosure in other ways

  • Only 5% of all sexual assaults were reported to the police between 2015 to 2019[4]; in 2025, it remained the most under-reported crime in Canada.[5]
  • Only 8.6% of people who experienced sexual assault said their most serious incident was reported to police—approximately 1 in 12 survivors.[4]
  • Over 90% of students opt against disclosing to formal sources such as police, the university, or legal professionals; instead, they confide in informal sources such as friends and family.[6]

3. Sexual violence is a gendered crime—but anyone can experience it

  • Among women who experienced sexual assault by someone other than an intimate partner, 91% said the person or people responsible were men.[1]
  • 61% of non-binary people, 50% of transgender men, and 43% of transgender women have experienced sexual assault since age 15, compared with 37% of cisgender women and 11% of cisgender men.[1]

4. Sexual violence is not experienced evenly

  • 52% of Indigenous women reported experiencing sexual assault since age 15 vs. 37% of non-Indigenous women.[1]
  • 66% of Bisexual women, 61% of LGB+ women, and 38% of LGB+ men experienced sexual assault since age 15.[1]
  • Among people with disabilities, sexual assault was 2x more common vs. people without disabilities in 2025.[1]
  • International students experience sexual violence at 45% to 65% higher odds than domestic students.[7]

5. Students and young adults experience higher rates of sexual violence

  • Students were nearly 4x more likely to experience sexual assault at 5.6%, compared with 1.5% of non-students. Among those attending school, the rate was 8.2% for women and 2.7% for men.[1]
  • Young people aged 15 to 24 accounted for 43% of everyone who experienced sexual assault in Canada in 2025—approximately 320,000 people.[1]
  • 1 in 10 women aged 15 to 24 experienced sexual assault in 2025—more than twice the rate among women aged 25 to 34 (10.3% versus 4.6%).[1]

6. Sexual violence has significant and varied impacts

  • 64% of women and 49% of men who experienced sexual assault reported that their most serious incident affected them emotionally.[1]
  • 29% of women and 24% of men who experienced sexual assault reported three or more longer-term emotional impacts associated with post-traumatic stress.[1]
  • Sexual violence also impacts students’ education. In the 2026 national postsecondary survey, 9% of women and 7% of men who experienced sexual assault stopped attending class while 5% of women and 6% of men dropped class altogether.[2]

Note about the data: Statistics can help illustrate broader patterns, but they cannot capture every experience of sexual violence. Differences between studies may reflect how sexual violence is defined, who was surveyed, the period measured, and whether the data refer to self-reported experiences or incidents reported to institutions or police.

Footnotes

[1] Adam Cotter and Marta Burczycka, “Gender Differences in Experiences of Violence and Unwanted Sexual Behaviour in Canada, 2025,” Juristat, Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 85-002-X, 31 March 2026. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2026001/article/00004-eng.html

[2] Marta Burczycka, “Students’ Experiences of Unwanted Sexualized Behaviours and Sexual Assault at Postsecondary Schools in the Canadian Provinces, 2019,” Juristat, Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 85-002-X, 14 September 2020. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/85-002-x/2020001/article/00005-eng.pdf

[3] Statistics Canada (2015), “Self-reported victimization, 2014” The Daily, November 23 2015, at https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/151123/dq151123a-eng.html

[4] Adam Cotter, “Criminal Justice Outcomes of Sexual Assault in Canada, 2015 to 2019,” Juristat, Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 85-002-X, 6 November 2024, online: Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2024001/article/00007-eng.html

[5] Office of the Federal Ombudsperson for Victims of Crime, “Reporting to Police and Investigations,” in Rethinking Justice for Survivors of Sexual Violence: A Systemic Investigation (19 November 2025), online: Government of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/office-federal-ombudsperson-victims-crime/sissa-essas/reporting.html

[6] Jori Jones and Rachelle Ashcroft, “Understanding Disclosures of Sexual Violence in Canadian Postsecondary Institutions: A Scoping Review Protocol,” BMJ Open 15, no. 8 (2025): e099628, 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-099628

[7] Ihssane Fethi, Isabelle Daigneault, Manon Bergeron, Martine Hébert, and Francine Lavoie, “Campus Sexual Violence: A Comparison of International and Domestic Students,” Journal of International Students 13, no. 1 (2023): 1–21, https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v13i1.3685