Crimes Against Women: India and the World, in Numbers (2026 Data Report)

Method note. Every statistic below comes from an official report or a named publication, and each is attributed in the text. A numbered source list sits at the end. This is the latest data available as of 29 October 2026. India’s most recent official figures cover 2024 (published May 2026), and the global WHO and UN estimates cover 2023 and 2024. This is a data article, so I’ve kept opinion to a minimum.

Content note: this article discusses sexual violence, domestic violence and killings of women.

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The Short Version

• India: police registered 4,41,534 cases of crimes against women in 2024, about 1,210 FIRs a day, or one every 71 seconds. The national rate was 64.6 cases per lakh women, down marginally from 66.4 in 2022.
• The biggest category was not stranger violence. Cruelty by husband or relatives accounted for 1,20,227 cases, or 27.2 percent.
• Justice is slow. NCRB placed the rape conviction rate at 24.4 percent, calculated against completed trials, with 1,85,785 rape cases still pending in court at the end of 2024.
• Worldwide: about 840 million women, nearly one in three, have experienced partner or sexual violence in their lifetime, a figure that has barely changed since 2000.
• Femicide: around 50,000 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or other family members in 2024, an average of 137 a day.
• The caveat that matters most: registered crime is not the same as crime that happens. Official figures capture only what is reported, registered and classified.

For more on how safety is experienced beyond the statistics, see our opinion pieces on  what safety means for women and the Crime Against Women tag.

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Part 1: How to Read Crime Statistics (Before You Read Any)

Three measures get mixed up constantly, and mixing them produces misleading headlines.

Type of measure	What it counts	Example in this article
Police-recorded crime	Incidents reported to police and registered	India’s NCRB Crime in India
Survey prevalence	Women’s own reports of experiences, whether or not they told police	WHO global estimates, EU survey, England and Wales survey
Homicide and femicide data	Killings of women, by perpetrator	UNODC and UN Women reports

Three things to keep in mind:

1. A rising number can mean better reporting, not more crime. NCRB itself notes that an increase in recorded crime does not necessarily imply an increase in the incidence of crime, and a lower figure may reflect barriers to reporting or under-registration.
2. The Principal Offence Rule hides some crimes. Under NCRB’s counting, a case is recorded only under the offence carrying the highest punishment, so an FIR involving both rape and murder would appear only as murder.
3. India’s law changed mid-2024. On 1 July 2024 the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita replaced the Indian Penal Code, and NCRB advises caution when comparing 2024 with earlier years.

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Part 2: India, the Official Picture (NCRB Crime in India 2024)

The NCRB’s 2024 report was released in May 2026. It recorded 58.85 lakh cognisable crimes overall, a rate of 418.9 per lakh population, with cybercrime crossing one lakh cases for the first time. Crimes against women moved against that broader decline.

The headline numbers

Registered cases stood at 4,45,256 in 2022, rose to 4,48,211 in 2023 and fell to 4,41,534 in 2024. That is a decline of about 1.5 percent in 2024, which is small enough that it should not be read as a trend.

Year	Registered cases	Rate per lakh women
2022	4,45,256	66.4
2023	4,48,211	66.2
2024	4,41,534	64.6

Source: NCRB via CEDA, Ashoka University, and secondary reports. The 2023 rate of 66.2 comes from a secondary NCRB summary.

What kinds of crime? The 2024 breakdown

Offence category	Cases (2024)	Share of total
Cruelty by husband or relatives	1,20,227	27.2%
Kidnapping and abduction of women	67,829	15.4%
POCSO offences (girl child victims)	67,809	15.4%
Assault with intent to outrage modesty	48,303	10.9%
Rape	29,536	6.7%

Source: NCRB 2024 via CEDA (Sneha Thomas, June 2026). Together these five heads made up nearly three-quarters of all registered crimes against women.

A few more figures from the 2024 data: sexual harassment cases numbered 15,346 and stalking cases 9,865. India recorded 5,737 dowry deaths, nearly 16 a day, though researchers argue this likely understates the problem because of misclassification, stigma and recording gaps.

Where is it recorded? States and cities

Case counts and crime rates tell different stories, because states have very different populations.

• Highest number of cases: Uttar Pradesh recorded 66,398 cases, Maharashtra 47,954 and Rajasthan 36,563.
• Highest rates: Delhi (130.7) and Telangana (128.6) recorded rates nearly twice the national average, followed by Odisha (118.3), Haryana (96.4) and Rajasthan (91.3).
• Uttar Pradesh’s paradox: despite having the most cases, its rate of 58 per lakh women was below the national figure of 64.6.
• Lowest rates: among major states, Tamil Nadu (29.4) and Gujarat (22) were comparatively low, while Manipur (12) and Nagaland (5.1) recorded the lowest rates nationally.
• Delhi as a city: Delhi City recorded 13,396 crimes against women in 2024, with a rate of 176.8 per lakh women and a chargesheeting rate of 73.6 percent. NCRB reports city and state or UT figures separately, so don’t compare them directly.
• Rape rate by state: Goa recorded the highest rape rate when adjusted for population, at 13.3 per lakh people against a national average of 4.3. Small populations can swing per-capita rates sharply.

Reading the rankings carefully. A high rate can reflect better police registration and more willingness to report, not necessarily more crime. A low rate can reflect under-registration. CEDA’s analysts caution that recorded crime reflects reporting differences across states, which means state comparisons need care. Bihar is a useful example: its registered crimes against women rose by more than a third in two years, from 20,222 in 2022 to 27,359 in 2024. That could signal worsening safety, improved registration or both.

Who commits it? Mostly people women know

This is one of the most important findings in the data, and one of the least reflected in public conversation. In 96.8 percent of rape cases registered in 2024, the accused was known to the survivor, with friends or intimate partners the largest group (47 percent), followed by neighbours and other known persons (42.6 percent) and family members (7.2 percent). Only 3.2 percent involved an unidentified offender.

Combined with the dominance of domestic cruelty cases, the data challenges the idea that the main threat comes from strangers in public spaces. Public-space attacks are real and politically visible (see Part 3), but the larger share of registered violence happens within relationships and households.

The justice pipeline: where cases go

For cases that reach the police, the 2024 data shows:

• Police investigated 6,23,377 cases of crimes against women, including 1,81,717 pending from the previous year.
• Of these, 3,36,609 were chargesheeted, a chargesheeting rate of 77.2 percent.
• 26,40,698 cases were pending trial, of which 23,04,089 were carried over from the previous year.
• Courts recorded 45,832 convictions against 1,23,340 acquittals in 2024. By my own arithmetic, that is a conviction share of roughly 27 percent of cases decided. NCRB calculates its published rates in its own way, so check the report for official percentages.

Rape cases specifically (NCRB data reported by The Statesman):

• Courts had 2,06,777 rape cases available for trial in 2024 but completed only 20,587 trials, leaving 1,85,785 pending at year-end.
• Convictions were recorded in 5,032 rape cases, and NCRB put the conviction rate at 24.4 percent, calculated against completed trials.
• That 24.4 percent figure is not the share of all registered rape cases ending in conviction. The distinction matters, because pending cases have not yet reached an outcome.

The takeaway is that the bottleneck is largely in the courts, not only at the police stage. Pendency, forensic delays and trial length all shape outcomes.

What India’s data doesn’t capture

• Marital rape. It is absent from crime statistics because it is not recognised as a criminal offence.
• Unreported violence. NCRB figures are a record of crimes entering the criminal justice system, not a measure of total incidence, and stigma, fear of retaliation and economic dependence suppress reporting.
• Survey evidence. National survey data points to a larger hidden burden. NFHS-5 (2021) indicates that nearly one in three women face spousal violence. Among ever-married women who reported sexual violence in NFHS-5, over 95 percent named a current or former husband as the perpetrator.
• No national victimisation survey. India lacks a nationwide crime survey comparable to the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
• Classification quirks. CEDA’s analysis notes that under POCSO, any sexual act with someone under 18 is legally classified as rape, even where the parties describe the relationship as consensual, and research on Delhi courts has found many cases involving consensual elopements reported by families. The statistics record legal categories, not a direct picture of social reality.

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Part 3: Recent Cases in India (September to October 2026)

Data tells us the scale, and cases show how the system responds. These are alleged incidents based on news reports, and trials have not concluded. I’ve left out victims’ names and identifying details.

Delhi, September 2026. Several incidents in quick succession drew national attention. A 17-year-old was allegedly gang-raped in a public park near Delhi University by three men who posed as police officers, triggering student protests. The alleged assault took place on 21 September, and a subsequent DDA safety audit found that only 16 of 736 DDA-managed parks had CCTV coverage. Other cases cited by the Supreme Court included the alleged gang rape and killing of a minor in Swaroop Nagar and a reported sexual assault involving a minor in a bus.

Supreme Court action, 28 September 2026.  A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran took suo motu cognisance of the sexual assault cases involving minors and women in Delhi-NCR. Reuters reported that the court said the cases reflected a failure of law enforcement and pressed for accountability. The court said it would examine institutional mechanisms rather than individual guilt, and sought status reports.

Beyond Delhi.  AFP-reported coverage on 25 September noted that a video had surfaced showing a teenage girl being sexually assaulted in Bihar, and earlier in 2026, the alleged gang rape of a 30-year-old woman inside a moving bus in Delhi in May prompted public outrage and comparisons with the 2012 Nirbhaya case.

For a month-by-month look at documented cases, see our reports on  the cost of being a woman in India , crime against women in India: the data and the cases and  crimes against women in August 2026.

What these cases tell us, and don’t. Visible public-space crimes shape the national conversation, but NCRB data shows most registered violence occurs within known relationships. Both matter, and they call for different responses: public-space safety (lighting, CCTV, patrolling, transport) and domestic and relationship violence (legal aid, shelters, faster trials, reporting support).

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Part 4: The World, the Global Estimates

Lifetime and past-year prevalence (WHO, November 2025)

In November 2025, WHO and UN partners published new estimates for 2023:

• Nearly one in three women, about 840 million, have experienced partner or sexual violence in their lifetime, a figure that has barely changed since 2000.
• In the previous 12 months alone, 316 million women, 11 percent of those aged 15 and over, were subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner.
• For the first time, the report estimated non-partner sexual violence: 263 million women have experienced it since age 15, a figure experts caution is significantly under-reported.
• The average annual decline in intimate partner violence from 2000 to 2023 was just 0.2 percent per year.
• In 2022, only 0.2 percent of global development aid went to programmes focused on preventing violence against women, and funding fell further in 2025.

Regional picture. WHO’s prevalence estimates show that more than 30 percent of women and girls in Oceania and sub-Saharan Africa have experienced intimate partner and sexual violence, compared with 27.9 percent in North America and 18.6 percent in Europe. The Lancet Public Health editorial also notes more than 1,45,000 deaths and 18.5 million disability-adjusted life years attributed to intimate partner violence in the Global Burden of Disease 2023 data.

India in the WHO and Lancet estimates. A report on the Lancet analysis said intimate partner violence prevalence in India was estimated at 23 percent among women aged 15 and above, with WHO estimating nearly 30 percent affected over their lifetime. I’m reporting these as relayed by the news outlet. Check the original WHO tables for the exact definitions and age bands before quoting them.

Femicide (UNODC and UN Women, November 2025)

• About 83,000 women and girls were intentionally killed in 2024, and 50,000 of them, or 60 percent, were killed by a partner or family member.
• That is an average of 137 women or girls killed every day by someone in their own family, roughly one every 10 minutes.
• By comparison, only 11 percent of male homicides occur in private settings. The home is far more dangerous for women than for men.

Regional rates (partner and family-related femicide per 100,000 women and girls, 2024):

Region	Rate	Note
Africa	3.0	Highest in absolute and relative terms, with an estimated 22,600 victims
Americas	1.5
Oceania	1.4
Asia	0.7	India is included in this regional average
Europe	0.5	In Europe, 64 percent of women killed were murdered by intimate partners

Source: UNODC and UN Women, Femicides in 2024. Rates for Africa, the Americas, Oceania, Asia and Europe are as reported by the UN in its 2025 femicide briefing.

Two warnings from the report: fewer countries are reporting femicide statistics, creating an accountability gap in global data, and technology-facilitated violence such as cyberstalking, coercive control and image-based abuse can escalate offline and in some cases lead to femicide.

Europe: survey data from 114,000 women

The EU’s gender-based violence survey, run by Eurostat, FRA and EIGE, covered 2020 to 2024:

• 30.7 percent of women in the EU, about one in three, have experienced physical violence, threats or sexual violence in their lifetime, based on 1,14,023 women aged 18 to 74.
• One in six women have experienced sexual violence including rape in adulthood, and one in three have been sexually harassed at work, rising to two in five among younger women.
• One in five has suffered physical or sexual violence from a partner or household member.
• Reporting gap: only one in eight women reported the violence to police, and fewer than one in twenty contacted a help line.

England and Wales: the Crime Survey

The year ending March 2025 Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated that 4.5 percent of people aged 16 and over, about 2.2 million, had experienced sexual assault by rape or penetration, including attempts, since age 16. This figure covers all adults, not women only, though women make up the majority of victims in the underlying data.

United States: CDC survey data

The CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, reported in 2022, found that one in four women reported attempted or completed rape in her lifetime, more than 29 million women, up from one in five in earlier survey rounds. That report draws on 2016 to 2017 data, so it is older than the other figures here.

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Part 5: India vs the World, a Careful Comparison

It is tempting to line up India’s 64.6 per lakh against survey figures from other countries. Don’t. They measure different things.

Indicator	India	Global / other regions	Comparable?
Registered crimes against women	4.41 lakh FIRs; 64.6 per lakh (2024)	No equivalent global police figure	No: depends on each country’s laws, reporting and recording
Lifetime partner or sexual violence (survey)	Nearly 30% lifetime (WHO estimate, as relayed); NFHS-5: nearly 1 in 3 ever-married women report spousal violence	Global: nearly 1 in 3; EU: 30.7% (broader definition); North America 27.9%; Europe 18.6% (WHO)	Partly: similar survey logic, but definitions, age groups and methods differ
Past-year intimate partner violence	Not directly given in this article’s sources	Global: 11%	No Indian comparator in the sources here
Partner and family femicide	Not published as a national figure in these sources	Global: 137 women a day; Asia 0.7, Europe 0.5, Africa 3.0 per 100,000	Not for India alone
Reporting to police	Large, unquantified gap (CEDA: no national victimisation survey)	EU: 1 in 8 reported	Shows underreporting is global
Court outcomes	Rape conviction 24.4% of completed trials; 1.86 lakh rape cases pending	Differs by system	Not comparable without standard definitions

What the comparison does support:

1. No country is safe by every measure. Both WHO and EU data find that roughly a third of women in many settings have experienced violence. The WHO’s Lancet commentary describes violence against women as a global public health crisis sparing no country.
2. The home is the main danger zone. In India, cruelty by husbands or relatives leads registered crime and most rape accused are known to the victim. Globally, partners and family members account for 60 percent of killings of women. The EU survey puts one in five women facing violence from a partner or household member.
3. Underreporting is universal. Only one in eight EU women report to police, and India lacks the survey infrastructure to measure the gap directly.
4. Progress is painfully slow. WHO’s estimate of a 0.2 percent annual decline in partner violence since 2000 and UN Women’s finding that partner and family femicide shows no real progress point the same way.

What it does not support: claims that India is “worse” or “better” than another country based on registered crime rates alone. A country with strong reporting and trusted police may record more crime than one where women fear reporting.

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Part 6: Patterns in the Data

1. Known perpetrators dominate. India (96.8 percent of rape cases), the UN (60 percent of killed women), and the EU (one in five facing partner or household violence) all point to relationships as the main risk.
2. Violence starts young. In the past year alone, 12.5 million adolescent girls aged 15 to 19, or 16 percent, experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner.
3. Reporting is the first filter, the courts are the second. In India, police chargesheet around three-quarters of investigated cases, but trials are slow and pendency is heavy.
4. Technology is a growing factor. The UN femicide report links cyberstalking, coercive control and image-based abuse to escalation. For practical guidance, read our digital safety piece on this site and browse Cyber Crime if you want to know what protections exist.
5. Prevention is underfunded. The 0.2 percent aid figure is stark next to the scale of the problem.
6. Data itself is incomplete. Fewer countries report femicide figures, India has no national victimisation survey and marital rape isn’t recorded as a crime.

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Part 7: What the Evidence Suggests Would Help

I’m limiting this to measures flagged in the sources cited, not broad policy opinion.

• Better data: national victimisation surveys, comparable femicide reporting and standard definitions. CEDA’s analysts and the UN both highlight the gap.
• Faster courts: India’s data shows the main bottleneck after investigation is trial pendency, with forensic delays frequently cited. For rape cases, 1.86 lakh were pending at the end of 2024.
• Safer public spaces: the Delhi parks audit, in which only 16 of 736 DDA parks had CCTV, points to concrete infrastructure gaps. The Supreme Court has asked for accountability on patrolling and surveillance.
• Early-warning systems: UN Women says coordinated efforts involving schools, workplaces, public services and local communities are needed to spot early signs of violence.
• Funding for prevention: the 0.2 percent aid share is a reminder of how little goes to preventing violence before it happens.
• Reporting support: in the EU, only one in eight women report to police, and in India stigma and economic dependence keep many from reporting. Easier, safer reporting channels and support services matter.

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If You Need Help

If you’re in immediate danger, contact emergency services right away. In India, commonly listed numbers include 112(national emergency), 181 (Women Helpline), 1091 (women in distress) and 1930 (national cybercrime helpline). Services vary by state and numbers change, so confirm the current numbers locally and save them in your phone before you need them. Outside India, look up your country’s emergency and domestic violence helplines.

If you’re supporting someone else, listening without judgement, believing her and helping her reach professional services matter more than urging a particular decision. For more, see Abuse, Domestic Violence, Child Marriage, Mental Health, Women’s Health and our guide to solo travel safety for women in India. If you want to ask a question, try Ask Shakti. You can also share your own story by getting featured or writing a guest post.

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FAQ

How many crimes against women were registered in India in 2024?
NCRB’s Crime in India 2024 recorded 4,41,534 cases, about 1,210 a day, with a rate of 64.6 per lakh women. This was a decline of about 1.5 percent from 2023.

What is the most common crime against women in India?
Cruelty by husband or relatives, with 1,20,227 cases in 2024, or 27.2 percent of registered crimes against women.

Which Indian state has the highest crime rate against women?
Among states and Union Territories, Delhi (130.7 per lakh women) and Telangana (128.6) recorded the highest rates in 2024. Uttar Pradesh had the most cases (66,398) but a lower rate. Rates can reflect reporting differences, so rankings need careful reading.

What is the rape conviction rate in India?
NCRB put it at 24.4 percent in 2024, calculated against completed trials. That is not the share of all registered cases, and 1,85,785 rape cases were still pending at the end of 2024.

How many women worldwide experience violence?
WHO estimates about 840 million women, nearly one in three, have experienced intimate partner or sexual violence in their lifetime, and 316 million experienced partner violence in the past year (2023 estimates).

How many women are killed by partners or family members each year?
UNODC and UN Women estimate around 50,000 in 2024, about 137 a day, representing 60 percent of all intentional killings of women and girls.

Is India more dangerous for women than other countries?
The data does not support a simple ranking. Police-recorded crime depends on reporting and recording practices, and survey and femicide measures differ in definition and coverage. Violence against women is widespread in every region studied.

Why are crime statistics an undercount?
Many women do not report because of stigma, fear, dependence or distrust of institutions. Some acts, such as marital rape in India, are not recorded as crimes, and counting rules can hide offences within multi-offence FIRs.

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Sources

1. NCRB, Crime in India 2024, Volume I (ncrb.gov.in), released May 2026
2. Sneha Thomas, “What India’s 2024 crime statistics reveal (and miss) about violence against women,” CEDA, Ashoka University, 22 June 2026
3. Feminism in India, “NCRB Report 2024: Violence Against Women Is Not an Exception; It Is the Norm,” 1 June 2026
4. The Statesman, analysis of NCRB 2024 rape trial and conviction data
5. The Wire, “16 dowry deaths every day in 2024, NCRB data shows”
6. The News Minute, “Telangana reports highest number of crimes against women in south: NCRB 2024”
7. Open Magazine and other reporting on Delhi City NCRB data and the Supreme Court’s suo motu action (28 September 2026); Reuters, AFP and Business Standard coverage
8. WHO, “Lifetime toll: 840 million women faced partner or sexual violence,” 19 November 2025; The Lancet and The Lancet Public Health commentary
9. UNODC and UN Women, Femicides in 2024: Global estimates of intimate partner/family member femicides, 25 November 2025
10. Eurostat, FRA and EIGE, EU Gender-based Violence Survey (2020 to 2024), published November 2024
11. Office for National Statistics, Crime Survey for England and Wales, year ending March 2025
12. CDC NISVS, as reported in Psychology Today (2022)
13. SPRF, “Crimes Against Women in India: Trends, Challenges, and Policy Responses” (NFHS-5 reference)