FRA – European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

FRA – European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

Schwarzenbergplatz 11 – 1040 Vienna – Austria

info@fra.europa.eu

+43 158030-0

+43 158030-699

14/03/2019

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) survey on violence against women was the first EU-wide survey to collect comparable data on women's experiences of gender-based violence in all 28 EU Member States.

The survey asked a representative sample of women aged 18 to 74 years about their experience of gender-based violence since the age of 15 (i.e. lifetime prevalence) and within the last 12 months.

The standardised survey questionnaire included questions about physical, sexual and psychological violence, childhood victimisation, sexual harassment and stalking, as well as new medium for abuse such as the internet. The survey also collected information about respondent's personal experience of various forms of violence, how often they have experienced different types of violence, information on perpetrators and the consequences of their experience of violence. In addition, the survey collected information about reporting/ non-reporting to police and their usage of other victim support services. Results of the FRA survey aim to inform policy and legislation in regard to tackling violence against women across the EU and at the Member State level.   

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Main statistical concepts and definitions are listed below.

Gender-based violence- violence directed against a person because of that person’s gender, gender identity or gender expression, or which affects persons of a particular gender disproportionately.

Intimate partner violence- Any act of physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence that occurs between former or current spouses or partners, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the victim.

Physical violence- bodily harm suffered as a result of the application of immediate and unlawful physical force often associated with sexual and psychological violence resulting in injuries, distress and health problems.

Psychological violence- any intentional conduct that seriously impairs another person’s psychological integrity through coercion or threats.

Sexual harassment- form of gender-based violence encompassing acts of unwanted physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature, which have a purpose or effect of violating the victim’s dignity and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.

Sexual violence- any non-consensual sexual act or attempt to obtain an act of a sexual nature that is performed on another person without her or his freely given consent, irrespective of the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work.

Stalking of women- form of violence against women defined as repeatedly engaging in threatening conduct directed at a woman, causing her to fear for her safety.

The statistical unit in the FRA survey is the respondent. Data are collected for each individual and disseminated as proportion of respondents.

The survey covers the female population of the 28 European Union Member States, aged 18-74 years. A total of 42,000 women (approximately 1,500 in each country) participated in the survey, with the exception of Luxembourg where the sample size was 900 women.

The FRA survey on violence against women cover all 28 EU Member States.

In most countries, fieldwork was conducted between late March to 22^nd July 2012 with the exception of Sweden, Ireland and the United Kingdom in which the interviews were completed in September 2012.

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The dataset of the FRA survey on violence against women is available on the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights Survey data explorer webpage.

Data are also accessible free of charge from the UK Data Service website. Before accessing the data, users have to complete and submit a Special Licence form which covers the terms and conditions that are in place to protect the confidentiality of survey respondents.

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All personal details were removed before the data were uploaded to a central location to ensure confidentiality and anonymity of respondents.  

There is no scheduled calendar release date for the FRA survey on violence against women.

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Data are disseminated to all types of users via FRA’s Survey data explorer webpage and the UK Data Service website.

News releases related to the topic of the survey and the dataset are published on the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights webpage.

The FRA survey was carried out in response to a one-off request for comparable data on violence against women from the European Parliament, to inform policy and legislation in relevant areas. The official Main Results Report of the survey was published in March 2014.

The dataset of the FRA survey on violence against women is available on the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights Survey data explorer webpage.

In addition, all data files for the survey including the questionnaire, the technical report and anonymised micro-data are available through the UK Data Service website.

Anonymised micro-data is available for access on the UK Data Service website.

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The FRA survey on violence against women adheres to ISO 9001:2008 for quality management and ISO 20252:2006 for market research process quality standard.

A Technical Report is available through the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights webpage with details on the survey methodology, sample and fieldwork.

Information on all aspects of quality is included in the Technical Report and accessible online via the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights webpage.

A pilot study was carried out in six EU Member States (FI, DE, HU, IT, PO and ES) to test the draft questionnaire, which was revised for the full-scale survey. National adaptations to the master questionnaire was kept at a minimum, to ensure questions and results were comparable. In addition, the English-language master questionnaire was translated into relevant languages by two independent bodies and proofread by the central research team.

National research teams checked correctness of question wording and coding for interviews carried out using the CAPI questionnaire. In countries where pen and paper questionnaires were carried out, interviewers received two days of additional training in the correct application of instructions on the paper questionnaire. In addition, interviewers possessed at least three months experience of random probability survey work and received additional training to follow precise fieldwork instructions.

A random 10% of interviews and 5% of refusals were back-checked throughout the fieldwork period to reduce interviewer bias. If interviewers were found to not conduct interviews appropriately, they were replaced by additional trained interviewers. 

In order to select respondents that accurately represent the population, a two-stage clustered random probability sampling design was used to collect good-quality, reliable and comparable data. In addition, to prevent bias resulting from order of answers, 50% of the interviews were conducted with answer categories in reverse order. Moreover, the response rate was calculated using the ‘response rate 3’ (RR3) definition of response rates by the American Association for Public Opinion Research.

An extensive weighting procedure including three weighting variables - sampling design weights, non-response weights and country population weights - were used to adjust for possible sampling errors.

The FRA survey on violence against women exhibits high-quality standards. Quality assurance measures have been implemented at each step, starting with the pilot/ pre-test study to assess the applicability of the questions. Proofreading of the questionnaire and check-backs throughout the fieldwork process was conducted to ensure thoroughness of the due process. In addition, experienced interviewers were chosen and provided additional training on how to build a good rapport with respondents and carry out the due process to produce non-biased and good quality data. Moreover, selection of respondents via a multi-stage random probability design significantly reduced sampling error, while remaining error due to sampling was adjusted using three weighting variables.   

The EU-wide FRA survey on violence against women provided comparable data on women's experiences of physical, sexual and psychological violence – including sexual harassment and stalking – by partners and other persons. Results of the survey filled existing gaps in knowledge on violence against women at EU and Member State level. In addition, along with existing data, the FRA survey data could be used to develop policies and carry out necessary actions to combat all types of violence experienced by women throughout the EU.

No user satisfaction surveys are carried out.

Please refer to section on the reference area.

Three weighting variables (sampling design weights, non-response weights and country population weights), were used to compensate for over- or under-representation of certain groups of respondents in comparison to the total population size. The reduced sample covered in each country could potentially impact the overall accuracy of data.

To ensure that the survey results were representative of the wider population, a two-stage clustered stratified sampling design was applied.

Primary Sampling Units (PSUs) were based on local electoral territorial units were possible. These were then listed, stratified and ordered by geographical region and by degree of urbanisation. This list was then alphabetised, after which PSUs were selected. The probability of a PSU being selected was proportional to their size.

Clustering implies data is not fully representative of the whole population in each country, but rather represents the experiences and opinions of a representative sample. As a result, clustering reduces the precision of the survey results, which means that confidence intervals are wider. Chapter 10 in the Technical Report provides confidence intervals for selected survey results by EU Member State. It shows, for example, relatively wide intervals for Bulgaria while intervals for France are relatively narrow. The fluctuation in precision is due to the varying degree of precision of the samples of these countries.

Surveys commonly do not have a 100% response rate, which can result into non-sampling error as non-respondents may share common characteristics that are not present – to the same degree – in respondents. Chapter 7 of the Technical Report provides information on response rates. The most common reason for non-response was non-contact after the minimum number of visits/calls, but it also includes situations where information about the household was refused by the first contact or where the interviewer was not able to locate the issued address.

Main Results Report of the FRA survey on violence against women was published in March 2014. No further publications are planned.

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Measures are in place to ensure FRA survey data on violence against women are comparable between countries. For example, the English language master questionnaire was translated into the national languages of EU Member States to ensure comparability of questions and results although, for a small number of questions, national adaptations were applied for ease of understanding of the respondents (see the Technical Report for more details on adaptations). Nevertheless, one has to take into account that the coverage is not exactly comparable for every country, as the number of participants is neither the same for all countries nor strictly proportional to its population size. 

Not applicable. The FRA survey was carried out in response to a one-off request from the European Parliament for comparable EU-wide data on violence against women.

The FRA survey presents the most comprehensive compilation of data on women’s diverse experiences of violence at the EU level and worldwide.

Internal coherence of the data (e.g. across countries) was ensured through appropriate application of a common methodology and quality assurance of data at various stages of data analysis.

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FRA survey data derived from a random sample of participants, who were interviewed face-to-face via CAPI (computer assisted personal interview) or PAPI (pen and paper interview).

The FRA survey on violence against women was a single survey. Data collection took place between March and September 2012.

Data were collected through face-to-face interviews via CAPI in 23 EU Member States and PAPI in the remaining five Member States. The interviews were conducted either at respondent's home or another place of her choice. An English language master questionnaire was developed based on analysis of the pilot study conducted in six EU Member States. The master questionnaire was translated into national languages by two independent bodies and proofread by the central research team.

See section on quality assurance.

FRA survey data included in EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database are presented as the proportion of respondents who selected a certain answer, broken down by Member State.

Datasets were weighted in three stages to compensate for over- or under- representation of certain groups of respondents in comparison to the total population size.

More details on the weighting procedure can be found in the section overall accuracy, on the application of weights and in Chapter 9 of the Technical Report.