About 3.6% of men have recently experienced domestic abuse

For the year ending March 2020, the crime survey of England and Wales estimated that 757,000 men experienced domestic abuse—that is approximately seven men in every 100.

During a debate in the House of Commons on 18 October, the Safeguarding Minister, Rachel Maclean, made an error over the share of men who experience domestic abuse.

Ms Maclean said that “757,000 men experienced domestic abuse”, and that this represented around 7% of men.

Although the figure of 757,000 was correct according to reports to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, the share of men that it represented was not.

The data shows that 3.6% of men aged 16 to 74—not 7%—said they had experienced some form of domestic abuse in the year up to the end of March 2020.

The figure for women was 7.3%, representing 1.6 million women, which may have been the cause of the confusion.

The same data shows that 13.8% of men aged 16 to 74 reported to the survey that they had experienced some form of domestic abuse since the age of 16, while the figure for women was 27.6%.

When Full Fact contacted Ms Maclean, her office said that it agreed with these figures.