The number of women and girls killed by men is not rising

A recent BBC News article about suicides following domestic abuse wrongly claimed that the number of women and girls being killed by men is rising. BBC News has corrected the claim after Full Fact got in touch.

The original version of the article, which at one stage appeared on the BBC News homepage, referred to an earlier article, saying: “The BBC recently examined the rising numbers of women and girls killed by men”.

But the other article did not describe a rise in these killings.

And in fact the number of these killings in England and Wales isn’t rising. The number of homicides with a female victim and a male principal suspect was lower in the year ending March 2025 than in any other year in the series, going back to 2014/15. (This excludes cases with no suspects and homicide offences where all suspects have been acquitted at court.)

Full Fact contacted the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which publishes these figures, and it told us they could be seen as “a fairly accurate reflection of trends across England and Wales”.

The ONS also told us: “Trends in homicide in general are on a downward trajectory and that is reflected in domestic homicides committed by males towards females[…] It was at 71 in the most recent year (the lowest in the time series), although it has fluctuated over recent years.

“However, it is also true [...] that females are far more likely to be victims of domestic homicide (and males are more likely to be the perpetrator).” (Scotland and Northern Ireland do not publish directly comparable figures.)

The BBC removed the reference to a rising number of women and girls being killed by men and published a correction on the article.

The rate of homicide with female victims and male offenders has been in long-term decline since the 1980s.

Misleading headline remains uncorrected

Separately, the headline and first sentence of the same article claimed—and continue to claim—that the latest figures show a rise in suicides following domestic abuse, saying:

• “Figures show rise in suicides after domestic abuse“
• “There has been a sizeable rise in the number of victims of domestic abuse who took their own lives in England and Wales, official figures show.”

This is misleading, because it fails to make clear that the rise is probably due to a change in the way the figures are recorded. Official figures do indeed show a rise in the recorded number of these deaths, but a police statement warns that this “reflects improved awareness and recording of suicides” following a change in police policy. The official report on the data says the rise “likely reflects better case identification and reporting, rather than an empirical increase in cases”.

The third paragraph of the BBC article clarifies this, saying: “Police believe improved awareness and a change in reporting practice have driven the rise in the figures.”

When we asked Professor Louis Appleby, leader of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, he confirmed our understanding of the data. He said the BBC article was covering an important issue, but also told us: “It's odd that by the third sentence, the headline has been contradicted.”

However BBC News declined to correct the article on this point. It told us that the issue we raised “doesn't detract from the fact there has been a rise, and so we don't believe this to be inaccurate”.

While it is possible that suicides following domestic abuse did rise in the latest year, it is misleading to claim that official figures say this happened—which they do not. We challenged BBC News on this point, but it declined to clarify its thinking any further.

Contacting Samaritans

If you are struggling to cope, please call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and the Republic of Ireland) or contact other sources of support, such as those listed on the NHS help for suicidal thoughts webpage. Support is available around the clock, every day of the year, providing a safe place for you, whoever you are and however you are feeling.