How common it is
- 37%of women in Canada have been sexually assaulted since age 15.Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces, 2025
- 11%of men in Canada have been sexually assaulted since age 15.Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces, 2025
- 44%of people aged 15 and older have been physically or sexually assaulted since age 15.Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces, 2025
These figures come from a national Statistics Canada survey released in March 2026, and they include assaults by intimate partners. Older figures you may see, such as 30% of women in 2018, left out partners, so the two can't be compared directly.
How few are reported
- Reported to police
- Not reported
Why don't people report? In the 2019 General Social Survey, victims of violent crime, including sexual assault, who didn't report most often said the crime seemed minor (56%) or not important enough (53%), that they didn't want the hassle of dealing with police (49%), or that it was private or personal (48%). Others said the offender wouldn't be adequately punished (37%), or cited shame or embarrassment (25%), or fear of not being believed or of revenge (19% each). Women cited shame and not being believed more often than men.
Even so, police recorded 36,284 sexual assaults in the most common category (level 1) in 2025. That's a rate of 87 per 100,000 people, 52% higher than in 2015.
Who commits sexual assault, and against whom
- 3 in 4people sexually assaulted in the past year by someone other than a partner knew the person who committed the most serious assault: 73% of women and 74% of men.Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces, 2025
- 89%of victims in police-reported sexual assaults from 2015 to 2019 were women and girls.Criminal justice outcomes of sexual assault in Canada, 2015 to 2019
- 10%of women and girls aged 15 to 24 were sexually assaulted in the past year, more than double the rate for women aged 25 to 34.Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces, 2025
Who is most affected
Some groups face much higher rates of sexual assault. This table shows the share of people sexually assaulted since age 15, in 2025.
| Group | Sexually assaulted since age 15 | For comparison |
|---|---|---|
| Indigenous women | 52% | Non-Indigenous women: 37% |
| Women with disabilities | 52% | Women without disabilities: 34% |
| Lesbian, gay, bisexual and other sexual minority people | 52% | Sexual minority women: 61%. Sexual minority men: 38%. |
| All women | 37% | All men: 11% |
Statistics Canada notes that the way disability was measured changed between surveys, so compare the disability figures with earlier years only with caution. For Indigenous women, Statistics Canada links the higher rates to the ongoing effects of colonization.
On campus
- 71%of post-secondary students aged 18 to 24 in the provinces witnessed or experienced unwanted sexualized behaviour in a post-secondary setting in 2019.Survey of Individual Safety in the Postsecondary Student Population, 2019
- 11%of women students aged 18 to 24 were sexually assaulted in a post-secondary setting in the previous year.Survey of Individual Safety in the Postsecondary Student Population, 2019
Why the numbers matter
Behind every number is a person. Together, these figures show that sexual violence is common, that it's usually committed by someone the survivor knows, and that most survivors never go to police.
That's why AccordBoreal focuses on prevention, on believing survivors, and on making support easy to find.
Sources
- Gender differences in experiences of violence and unwanted sexual behaviour in Canada, 2025 (Juristat). Statistics Canada, Adam Cotter and Marta Burczycka, March 31, 2026.
- Criminal victimization in Canada, 2019 (Juristat). Statistics Canada, Adam Cotter, August 25, 2021.
- Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2025 (The Daily). Statistics Canada, July 22, 2026.
- Criminal justice outcomes of sexual assault in Canada, 2015 to 2019 (Juristat). Statistics Canada, Adam Cotter, November 6, 2024.
- Students' experiences of unwanted sexualized behaviours and sexual assault at postsecondary schools in the Canadian provinces, 2019 (Juristat). Statistics Canada, Marta Burczycka, September 14, 2020.
- Gender-based violence and unwanted sexual behaviour in Canada, 2018: Initial findings from the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces (Juristat). Statistics Canada, Adam Cotter and Laura Savage, December 5, 2019.