THE deadliest place for women is at home, it was revealed today with 140 women and girls on average killed by an intimate partner or family member per day last year.

Globally, an intimate partner or family member was responsible for the deaths of approximately 51,100 women and girls during 2023, an increase from an estimated 48,800 victims in 2022, UN Women and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime said.

The report was released on the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women which aims to raise awareness about all forms of violence against women and girls.

The new UN report said: “Women and girls everywhere continue to be affected by this extreme form of gender-based violence and no region is excluded.”

The agencies said “the home is the most dangerous place for women and girls.”

The highest number of intimate partner and family killings was in Africa — with an estimated 21,700 victims in 2023, the report said.

Africa also had the highest number of victims relative to the size of its population — 2.9 victims per 100,000 people.

There were also high rates last year in the Americas with 1.6 female victims per 100,000 and in Oceania with 1.5 per 100,000, it said. 

Rates were significantly lower in Asia at 0.8 victims per 100,000 and Europe at 0.6 per 100,000.

According to the report, the intentional killing of women in the private sphere in Europe and the Americas is largely by intimate partners.

By contrast, the vast majority of male homicides take place outside homes and families, it said.

“Even though men and boys account for the vast majority of homicide victims, women and girls continue to be disproportionately affected by lethal violence in the private sphere,” the report said.

“An estimated 80 per cent of all homicide victims in 2023 were men while 20 per cent were women, but lethal violence within the family takes a much higher toll on women than men, with almost 60 per cent of all women who were intentionally killed in 2023 being victims of intimate partner/family member homicide,” it said.

The report said that despite efforts to prevent the killing of women and girls by countries, their killings “remain at alarmingly high levels.

“They are often the culmination of repeated episodes of gender-based violence, which means they are preventable through timely and effective interventions,” the two agencies said.