Facts and figures about child abuse

A significant minority of children suffer serious abuse or neglect, according to NSPCC research:

• 7 per cent of children experienced serious physical abuse at the hands of their parents or carers during childhood.
• 1 per cent of children experienced sexual abuse by a parent or carer and another 3 per cent by another relative during childhood.
• 11 per cent of children experienced sexual abuse by people known but unrelated to them. 5 per cent of children experienced sexual abuse by an adult stranger or someone they had just met.
• 6 per cent of children experienced serious absence of care at home during childhood.
• 6 per cent of children experienced frequent and severe emotional maltreatment during childhood.¹
• 16 per cent of children experienced serious maltreatment by parents, of whom one third experienced more than one type of maltreatment. ²

32,700 children on child protection registers in the UK as at 31 March 2003.³

Nearly 79,000 children are currently looked after by local authorities in the UK.⁵

Every week in England and Wales one to two children will die following cruelty.⁶

There are on average 80 child homicides recorded in England and Wales each year.⁷

Every 10 days in England and Wales, on average, one child is killed at the hands of their parent. An average of 35 a year over the past five years.

The people most likely to die a violent death are babies less than a year old, who are four times more likely to be killed than the average person in England and Wales.⁷

Three-quarters of sexually abused children did not tell anyone about the abuse at the time, and around a third still had not told anyone about their experience(s) by early adulthood.⁸

Over a quarter of all rapes recorded by the police are committed against children under 16 years of age.⁹

31 per cent of children experienced bullying during childhood, a further 7 per cent were discriminated against and 14 per cent were made to feel different/an outsider. 43 per cent experienced at least one of these things during childhood.¹

NSPCC teams and Helplines accepted over 24,000 requests for help in 2003-4.¹⁰

The National Commission of Inquiry into the Prevention of Child Abuse estimated that the cost of child abuse to statutory and voluntary agencies is £1 billion per year in the UK.¹¹

1 Cawson et al., 2000, Child Maltreatment in the UK: A Study of the Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect, NSPCC.

2 Cawson, 2002, Child Maltreatment in the Family: The Experience of a National Sample of Young People, NSPCC.

3 DfES, 2004, Statistics of Education: Children looked after by Local Authorities, Year Ending 31 March 2003 Volume 1: Commentary and National Tables, National Assembly for Wales, 2003, Adoptions, Outcomes and Placements for Children Looked After by Local Authorities: Year ending 31 March 2002, Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (N.I.), 2003, Community Statistics 1 April 2002 - 31 March 2003, Scottish Executive, 2002, Children Looked After Statistics 2001-2002.

4 DfES, 2004, Statistics of Education: Referrals, Assessments and Children and Young People on Child Protection Registers: Year Ending 31 March 2003.

5 DfES, 2004, Statistics of Education: Children looked after by Local Authorities, Year Ending 31 March 2003 Volume 1: Commentary and National Tables, National Assembly for Wales, 2003, Adoptions, Outcomes and Placements for Children Looked After by Local Authorities: Year ending 31 March 2002, Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (N.I.), 2003, Community Statistics 1 April 2002 - 31 March 2003, Scottish Executive, 2002, Children Looked After Statistics 2001-2002.

6 Office of National Statistics, Mortality Statistics.

7 Home Office (2004) Crime in England and Wales 2002-3: Supplementary Volume 1, Homicide and Gun Crime.

8 Cawson et al., 2000, Child Maltreatment in the UK: A Study of the Prevalence of Child Abuse and Neglect, NSPCC.

9 Harris and Grace, 1999, A question of evidence? Investigating and prosecuting rape in the 1990s, Home Office.

10 NSPCC Services for Children and Young People Annual Statistics 2003-4.

11 National Commission of Inquiry into the Prevention of Child Abuse, 1996, Childhood Matters: Report of the National Commission of Enquiry into the prevention of Child Abuse.