Global decline in acceptance of intimate partner violence against women

Acceptance of intimate partner violence against women declined globally between 1999 and 2024. The decline was greatest in countries where living standards, as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI), improved the most. In countries where acceptance declined most rapidly, the actual prevalence of intimate partner violence against women also fell. These are the findings of a study from the Institute for Futures Studies (IFFS), based on data from more than 60 countries.

Intimate partner violence against women is a major global health problem. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 641 million women worldwide are subjected to such violence every year.

In addition to examining how acceptance has changed over time, the new study also explores the relationship between changing norms, living standards and the prevalence of violence.

To measure acceptance, the researchers used responses to survey questions asking in which situations, if any, it is acceptable for a man to beat his wife.

The results show a broad decline in acceptance of violence against women. Among men, acceptance decreased in 89 percent of the countries studied, and among women in 94 percent. This pattern was found across sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, as well as Latin America.

– These are societies with very different religions, legal systems and cultural histories. The fact that such a clear change is taking place across such different contexts is one of the main findings,” says Pontus Strimling, one of the authors of the study.

The researchers found that in countries where attitudes shifted most rapidly towards lower acceptance of intimate partner violence, reported cases of such violence also declined. A similar positive relationship was found between improvements in living standards—in terms of education, health and income—and declining acceptance of intimate partner violence.

The study cannot establish causal relationships between attitudes, living standards and intimate partner violence, but the researchers conclude that they vary together.

– The decline in acceptance reflects broader societal changes driven by better education, improved healthcare and rising living standards,” says Pontus Strimling.

On average, there was a 3–5 year lag between improvements in living standards, as measured by HDI, and changes in attitudes towards lower acceptance of intimate partner violence. This shows that the change is not immediate, but is nevertheless too rapid to be explained by generational replacement, in which younger people hold more progressive attitudes than older people.

– The fact that attitudes change within 3–5 years means that people are updating their views during their own lifetimes. If this were a demographic effect, the change would take decades,” says Irina Vartanova, lead author of the study.

The study was conducted by Irina Vartanova, Pontus Strimling and Kimmo Eriksson at the Institute for Futures Studies and is published in the scientific journal PLOS Global Public Health under the title Trends in the acceptability and prevalence of intimate partner violence: Evidence from Demographic and Health Surveys, 1999–2024 (open access).

Contact

Pontus Strimling, Professor of Analytical Sociology
+46 70 407 97 48
[email protected]

For other enquiries, please contact Henric Karlsson, Communications Officer, Institute for Futures Studies, +46 72 080 23 77