Intimate partner violence up 15% over 8 years in Canada, StatCan says

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Intimate partner violence rates are rising across the country, according to Statistics Canada, following an influx of what some experts are calling "anti-feminist backlash."

The average rate of intimate partner violence (IPV) across the country has risen for the eighth straight year, according to Statistics Canada, following a surge of what some experts are calling “anti-feminist backlash.”

Data released by the agency on Tuesday shows the average rate of police-reported intimate partner violence was two per cent higher in 2025 compared to 2024. The most recent numbers were up 15 per cent from 2018.

“We know things like IPV are chronically under-reported, so I’m not surprised that the numbers are rising,” said Kaitlynn Mendes, interim director of the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children at Western University.

She said movements like #MeToo and an increase in community support have sparked an increase in the number of victims coming forward. A greater understanding of what constitutes intimate partner violence, which Mendes said can include anything between physical, psychological, emotional or financial violence, could also be sparking this rise.

While it is hard to pinpoint whether the increases come from a rise in instances of violence or if the increased numbers represent more people coming forward to file police reports, Mendes said she wouldn’t be surprised if the increase reflects more cases, not just better reporting.

“We’re in this anti-feminist backlash, I would say. We have these influencers who are really promoting things like aggressiveness: ‘if you want to show that you’re like a real man, you do that by being really aggressive, being dominant,’” she said.

“I think that the numbers that we see from Statistics Canada, we should regard as the floor, not the ceiling,” she added. “It’s an underestimation.”

A rise in reports of intimate partner violence could also be linked to the ongoing socioeconomic climate, said Alexa Yakubovich, an associate professor in the department of community health and epidemiology at Dalhousie University.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the economic turmoil that followed…

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