A rose is placed with a pair of shoes in memory of a women lost to domestic violence during the annual NSW Vigil Collective, for the Unite Against Violence: No More Empty Shoes vigil at Martin Place on November 25, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. Lisa Maree Williams / Getty Images

Every 10 minutes last year a woman somewhere in the world was killed by a person close to her, the United Nations said Monday as it decried a lack of progress in the battle against femicide.

Some 50,000 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or family members in 2024, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and UN Women said in a report released to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

The report found that 83,000 women and girls were intentionally killed in 2024. Sixty percent of those women were murdered by partners or relatives such as fathers, uncles, mothers and brothers, the report said.

For comparison, 11% of male murder victims were killed by someone close to them, though about 80% of all homicide victims in 2024 were men, according to the report.

The 50,000 figure — based on data from 117 countries — breaks down to 137 women per day, or around one woman every 10 minutes, the report said.


"The home remains a dangerous and sometimes lethal place for too many women and girls around the world," said John Brandolino, acting Executive Director of UNODC, in a news release announcing the report.

The total is slightly lower than the figure reported in 2023, thought it does not indicate an actual decrease, according to the report, as it stems largely from differences in data availability from country to country.

No region of the world went without femicide cases committed by partners or family members. The highest rate was recorded in Africa, with 3 such cases per 100,000 women, followed by the Americas, which saw 1.5 such cases per 100,000 women. Oceania saw 1.4 cases per 100,000 women, Asia had 0.7, and Europe recorded 0.5, according to the report.

"Femicides don't happen in isolation. They often sit on a continuum of violence that can start with controlling behavior, threats, and harassment — including online," Sarah Hendricks, Director of UN Women's Policy Division, said in a statement.

The report said technological development has exacerbated some kinds of violence against women and girls and created others, such as non-consensual image-sharing, doxxing, and deepfake videos.

"We need the implementation of laws that recognize how violence manifests across the lives of women and girls, both online and offline, and hold perpetrators to account well before it turns deadly," said Hendricks.

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