The Numbers Behind Gender-Based Violence in BC (And Why Awareness Changes Everything)
Maya sits at a café in Vancouver, scrolling through her phone. She's 22. A man she doesn't know leans over her shoulder and tells her she'd be prettier if she smiled. When she ignores him, he calls her a “moody bitch.” She leaves her coffee unfinished, her heart racing.
Later that week, she mentions it to a friend who says, "That happens to everyone. Don't let it get to you." And Maya nods, pushes it down, and tries to move on. But it doesn't feel small anymore; it feels like evidence of something larger.
She's right to feel that.
Women are significantly more likely than men to have experienced any form of Interpersonal Violence (IPV), including physical abuse (23% versus 17%, respectively), sexual abuse (44% versus 36%), and psychological abuse (43% versus 35%).¹ Yet these numbers often hide in statistics, tables, and news reports. Often, they don't feel real until they touch someone we know or until we realize it’s us. Unfortunately, with rates like this, it’s likely that it does impact each of us already.
The truth is, gender-based violence is an ongoing reality for many people. But reality can be interrupted and changed. It’s the purpose of everything we do through Arise, including this blog you’re reading. We believe that change starts through awareness and small steps. It’s not something that will go away if we ignore or think it won’t—or doesn’t—impact us.
We hope something in this post will help you reflect on:
1) your own experiences and know that you’re not alone, or
2) how people you know are impacted by this much more than you realize, and
3) that you can make a difference in how you influence your friends’ behaviours, dismantle societal norms, raise your kids, and help build safer communities for everyone.
The Scope in BC and Canada
Let's start with the number that will probably stop you in your tracks. Between 2018 and 2022, 850 women and girls were killed across Canada.² That's at least one every two days. That's mothers, sisters, daughters, friends. That's women with futures, with dreams, with people who loved them.
And here's what makes it worse: 93% of these homicides were committed by a male intimate partner or family member.¹ These deaths happen within relationships—spaces that are supposed to be safe.
In 2023, 26,777 children and youth (aged 17 years and younger) were victims of police-reported family violence. Of these, more than three in five victims (62%) were girls¹.
In British Columbia specifically, 29.8% of women report experiencing physical or sexual assault from an intimate partner since the age of 15.² That's nearly 1 in 3. That's in your workplace, your family, your community. Nationally, more than 11 million Canadians have experienced intimate partner violence at least once since age 15.¹
Do you remember what life was like for you at 15? The new freedoms you were exploring, the things you did without thinking twice about safety. Now imagine navigating those same years knowing that you're four times more likely than your male peers to be sexually assaulted. Women living in Canada are almost four times more likely than men to have been sexually assaulted at least once since the age of 15.¹
For many young women, that statistic isn't abstract, it's their reality.
These numbers represent disrupted childhoods and fractured communities. They represent dozens of friends, sisters, cousins, neighbours—people with names and stories and people who love them.
Who Is Most Vulnerable?
Gender-based violence affects different populations in different ways, but the patterns are clear: those with fewer resources and less social power face the highest risk.
Young women are at the highest risk. Consider Jasmine, who is 19 and in her first year of university. She's learning to be independent, but she's also navigating spaces where her safety isn't always guaranteed. For Jasmine and many like her, harassment and assault are part of navigating public and private spaces, like the guy on the bus who touches her without asking. It's the "joke" at a party that crosses a line, the drugs being added to drinks, and the knowledge that she has to be careful, always.
Indigenous women and girls face disproportionate violence. Indigenous women are overrepresented as victims of intimate partner homicides in Canada. While Indigenous women account for about 5% of all women in Canada, they accounted for 22% of all women killed by an intimate partner between 2019 and 2023. In 2023, 49 women, 11 of whom were Indigenous, were killed by their partner in Canada¹. These statistics are painful, and reflect centuries of colonialism, systemic racism, and ongoing marginalization. We must remember that these statistics aren’t just numbers, they are women—sisters, mothers, daughters—whose safety has been systematically deprioritized.
LGBTQ2SI+ communities experience elevated rates. Marco, who came out as trans five years ago, carries a different kind of hypervigilance. For many in these communities, violence isn't just about intimate partners but is embedded in everyday interactions, in workplaces, on streets, and in families that don't accept them.
Women with disabilities are at heightened risk. Priya uses a wheelchair. She's intelligent, capable, and independent, but she's also more vulnerable to abuse in ways that people without disabilities often don't see. Dependency on caregivers can be weaponized. Physical vulnerability can be exploited.
The clear pattern here is that vulnerability compounds, and the more marginalized you are, the more exposed you become. Other demographics include BIPOC women, senior women, and women living in rural communities.
The Costs: Beyond Statistics
Gender-based violence doesn't just harm individuals. It fractures families, destabilizes workplaces, and drains public resources at every level.
Consider what happens behind closed doors. A woman stays late at work to avoid going home because her partner's mood is unpredictable. A teen misses school because she's covering bruises. A man loses his job because he's too distracted by anxiety and fear. These invisible costs ripple outward.
The financial impacts are significant. Financial abuse can include an inability to work and loss of wages, lengthy and costly court battles, loss of housing and property, and counselling and health care costs.²
More profound than the financial cost are the negative psychological and neurological impacts. As many as 92 percent of women who have experienced intimate partner violence demonstrate signs and symptoms of traumatic brain injury.²
Think about that: nearly all survivors of intimate partner violence are experiencing brain injury. Repeated impacts to the head, the stress and trauma of living in fear—these leave lasting neurological damage that affects cognition, emotional regulation, and functioning for years.
A child witnesses their parent being controlled and learns that love looks like domination. A teenager experiences harassment and internalizes shame. An adult survivor struggles with trust and safety in every relationship. The trauma passes down, generation to generation, until someone decides it stops with them.
Why This Matters—And Why Now
If the statistics feel overwhelming, pause here and take a breath.
Now consider the women and young people in your life. Then think about the boys and men too. Ask yourself, could they be capable of harm? You probably would say no, whether it’s out of loyalty, love, or respect. However, the uncomfortable truth is that the majority of perpetrators in these statistics are not strangers or "bad people." They are partners, family members, friends—people in our communities who we thought we knew. People who may seem like good people by every other measure.
That's not meant to paralyze you with suspicion. It's meant to wake you up to why prevention and accountability matter so deeply. Because gender-based violence isn't something only "monsters" do. It's something that happens when culture, silence, and unchecked power converge. And that means every single one of us has a role in changing the conditions that allow it to happen.
This is why awareness matters. This is why we need to talk openly about consent, boundaries, and respect. This is why we need to hold ourselves and each other accountable. This is why prevention works.
When we see these numbers, we stop dismissing gender-based violence as something that happens to other people, in other places, or as the result of individual choices. We begin to understand it as a systemic issue rooted in inequality—and systemic issues require systemic responses.
For individuals: Understanding that violence and harassment are widespread—and not your fault—is liberating. It shifts the narrative from shame to action. When you know you're not alone, you're more likely to seek help, speak up, and take steps to protect yourself. Maya learns self-defense and discovers that her body belongs to her. She practices setting boundaries and finds her voice. She realizes that the man's comment says nothing about her and everything about a culture that hasn't taught him respect.
For communities: Awareness builds collective accountability. When we all understand the scope of the problem, we become more likely to intervene as bystanders, support survivors, and challenge the attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate violence. Someone at that café witnesses what happened to Maya. Instead of looking away, they check in with her. They tell her it wasn't okay. They report the man's behaviour. They help shift the culture, one interaction at a time.
For organizations: Data-driven awareness motivates institutional change. Workplaces, schools, and community organizations that understand the prevalence of gender-based violence are more likely to invest in prevention training, support services, and policy reform. Universities implement consent training. Corporations create real accountability for harassment. Schools teach healthy relationships, not just the mechanics of reproduction.
For policy makers: Statistics make the case for action. Femicide needs to be named in law. Resources need to flow to prevention. Funding needs to shift from response to prevention—and in the safety, dignity, and economic participation of millions of people.
What Arise Does
At Arise Self-Defense, we know that awareness without tools leaves people vulnerable. That's why we exist.
That’s why we offer empowerment-based self-defense classes and workshops that teach physical skills, boundary-setting, and confidence-building. We provide community education initiatives that help parents, educators, and organizations understand gender-based violence and respond effectively. And we deliver workplace safety and violence prevention programs tailored to organizations serious about cultural change.
Our approach isn't about blame or shame. It's about agency. We believe everyone deserves to feel safe in their body and in their world—and that confidence, skills, and knowledge are pathways to that safety. When a woman walks out of our Friday evening class, she doesn't just know how to throw a punch. She knows her voice matters. She knows she can say no. She knows she's not alone.
The numbers behind gender-based violence in BC and Canada are staggering, but they're a call to action.
You don't have to be a statistician to understand the call: we need to do better, and we can.
Ready to Take Action?
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Interested in training? Our women's self-defense classes run Friday evenings (6:15–7:30pm in Vancouver) and are designed to build confidence, skills, and community. No prior experience necessary.
Are you an educator, parent, or organizational leader? We offer customized workshops and training programs on gender-based violence prevention, bystander intervention, and creating safer spaces.
Looking for resources? Explore our free guides on conversations about safety, boundary-setting, and prevention.
The statistics are real. The risks are real. But so is your power to protect yourself and stand up for others. Safety isn't something that happens to us—it's something we build, together. And it starts with seeing the truth.
Citations
Women and Gender Equality Canada. (2025). Facts, stats and WAGE's impact: Gender-based violence. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/women-gender-equality/gender-based-violence/facts-stats.html (and links from there)
YWCA BC. (2026). Ending Gender-Based Violence. Retrieved from https://ywcabc.org/advocacy/end-gender-based-violence and https://ywcabc.org/gender-based-violence-epidemic
Arise Self-Defense offers empowerment self-defense programs for women and teens, kids, schools, and workplaces across Metro Vancouver. Our work begins long before any physical technique — with voice, boundaries, and the knowledge that safety starts with you.
