‘Marriage is the safest place for men and women’ to avoid domestic violence

Marriage reduces the risk of being the victim of domestic violence, new figures suggest.

According to the Office for National Statistics, around 3.8 million over-16s in England and Wales suffered domestic abuse in the year ending March 2025. This included approximately 2.2 million women and 1.5 million men.

The statistics regulator noted that victims who were married accounted for a “significantly lower proportion” of those experiencing domestic abuse, in contrast to people who were “cohabiting, single, separated or divorced”.

‘Safest place’

The most common marital status of victims was “separated” (22.7 per cent), followed by “divorced/legally dissolved partnership” (16.3 per cent). Marriage accounted for the lowest percentage at just 4.4 per cent.

Dr Tony Rucinski of campaign group Coalition for Marriage said: “For years a ‘gendered narrative’ has heavily shaped the official debate on domestic violence, painting the traditional family as dangerous and ‘patriarchy’ as the root of abuse.

“That dogma is not just misleading, it is dangerous. The official figures tell a very different story, one that points back to real marriage.”

He emphasised: “None of this excuses cruelty in marriage or reduces the need for support”, but “the hard numbers are pushing back towards a very old truth. On average, the safest place for women is a stable marriage to a man who keeps his promises. The safest place for men and for children is the same.”

Children

Earlier this year, the Centre for Social Justice warned that marriage breakdown is driving social issues among white working class pupils.

Writing for The Spectator, Edward Davies, Director of Policy at CSJ, broke down the statistics and laid bare the impact that family breakdown has, and its prevalence for this particular generation of young people.

Davies summarised that “if you are willing to look, it’s not hard to find declining marriage at the heart of almost every domestic challenge we face”.

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that over 100,000 marriages ended in divorce in 2023.