The number of sexual assault survivors who reported the crime to police has risen for the 12th year in a row, reaching a 31-year high.
There were 35,138 victims of sexual assault recorded nationwide in 2023, an increase of 11 per cent on the previous year.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) issued the new statistics on Thursday, part of a broader release on victims of a range of crimes.
The ABS’s head of crime and justice statistics Samantha McNally said there had been increases “across almost all states and territories”.
“Accounting for population growth, the rate of recorded sexual assault victim-survivors has gone up from 126 per 100,000 people last year, to 136 victim-survivors per 100,000 people,” she said.
“This is the highest rate of sexual assault victim-survivors recorded in our 31-year dataset.”
New South Wales and Queensland saw the largest increases, rising 19 per cent (2,296 victims) and 14 per cent (1,011 victims) respectively.
Women made up 84 per cent, or 30,466, of sexual assault victims.
More than a third (38 per cent) were aged between 10-17 years old when the incident were reported, and 41 per cent were aged between 10-17 years old when the incident occurred.
Two in five (39 per cent) were related to family and domestic violence (FDV).
“There were 14,059 victims of FDV-related sexual assault recorded nationally in 2023, an increase of 18 per cent (2,115),” the ABS report said.
“There were 169 victims of FDV-related kidnapping/abductions in 2023, comprising over a third (34 per cent) of all kidnapping/abductions recorded nationally.”
Homicide, manslaughter, assault offences also increased
There were 409 victims of homicides and related offences — including manslaughter, murder and attempted murder — across Australia in 2023, an increase of 20 victims (5 per cent) on the previous year.
The most common victims of these offences were men and people aged between 35-44 years old.
However when these offences were linked to family and domestic violence, victims were most commonly female (50 per cent) and aged 55 years or over.
“There were 157 victims of FDV homicide and related offences recorded nationally in 2023, an increase of 20 per cent (26 victims) from the previous year,” the ABS report said.
“Accounting for population change, the victimisation rate in 2023 was 0.6 victims per 100,000 persons. Since the time series began in 2014, the victimisation has ranged between 0.4 and 0.7 victims per 100,000 persons.
“FDV related homicide comprised nearly two-fifths (38 per cent) of all recorded homicides in 2023.”
The number of blackmail and extortion victims also increased across Australia by 56 per cent, rising to 3,380 people.
New South Wales had the largest increase of 122 per cent (1,029 victims), with Western Australia increasing the second-highest by 64 per cent (137 victims).
There were 501 victims of kidnapping/abduction recorded in Australia in 2023, a decrease of 6 victims from the previous year.” the ABS report said.
“The victimisation rate for kidnapping/abduction remained stable at 2 victims per 100,000 persons.
“In 2023, the number of victims of unlawful entry with intent increased by 6 per cent (9,649 victims) to 160,885 victims.
“However, the number of victims of unlawful entry with intent remained lower than 2019 (173,347 victims), prior to when COVID-19 restrictions were put in place.
“There were 60,417 victims of motor vehicle theft recorded in Australia in 2023, an increase of 10 per cent (5,432 victims) from the previous year. This was the highest number of victims of motor vehicle theft in the time series since 2008 (68,262 victims).”