How often does sexual assault occur?

There is an average of 207,754 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year.¹

Every 2 minutes, someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted.

Here’s the math. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey –there is an average of 207,754 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year.

There are 525,600 minutes in a non-leap year. That makes 31,536,000 seconds/year. So, 31,536,000 divided by 207,754 comes out to 1 sexual assault every 152 seconds, or about 1 every 2 minutes.

The Unvictims

Sexual assault has fallen by more than 60% in recent years.² Had the 1993 rate held steady, 6.8 million Americans would have been assaulted in the last 13 years.

But, thanks to the decline, the actual number of victims was about 4.2 million. In other words, if not for the historic gains we’ve made in the last decade, an additional 2,546,420 Americans would have become victims of sexual violence.

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References

1. U.S. Department of Justice. National Crime Victimization Survey. 2006-2010.