Today (Tuesday 2 September 2025), the Femicide Census releases data on women killed by men in the UK in 2022. As most cases have now concluded the criminal justice process, we are now able to publish the most comprehensive data on femicides from 2022 in the UK. This is our fourteenth year of reporting.
The Femicide Census has identified 122 women who were killed by men in the UK in 2022. 62 women were killed by a current or former partner. More women were killed by their son than by a stranger. The vast majority of women were killed in their own home. Evidence of gratuitous violence was found in just over two-thirds of killings.
Key findings include:
- Consistent with previous years, women killed by men are most likely to be killed by a current or former partner than any other man. Sixty-two (51%) women killed by men in 2022 were killed by a current or former intimate partner. The average between 2009 and the end of 2021 is 60%.
- Leaving an abusive man is no guarantee of women’s safety. The Femicide Census has consistently shown that separation is a risk factor for intimate partner femicides, or more accurately, a trigger for violent, abusive and/or controlling men At least 40% of women killed by a current/former partner had left or were taking steps to leave him. Yet Women’s Aid regularly report that there are insufficient spaces in women’s refuges to meet need.
- A sharp instrument, such as a knife, was used in the killing of 65 women (53%). This has consistently been the most common method men choose to kill women.
- Men used the brute force of their own bodies in the killings of 20 women (17%) by kicking, hitting and stamping a woman to death.
- More women were killed by their sons than by strangers. 10% of women killed by men were killed by their sons. 9% were killed by strangers.
Of the men who killed women in 2022:
- Seventy-one men (57%) were known to have histories of violence against women and/or were subject to monitoring or restrictions by a statutory agency at the time they killed.
- The majority of men who kill women are charged with murder. 84% of all who killed, 97% of those charged, were charged with murder, double or multiple murder.
Continues at https://www.femicidecensus.org/femicide-census-publishes-its-annual-report/
2022 Femicide Census
The 2022 Femicide Census report analyses the deaths of 122 women killed by men in 2022.
2022 Femicide Census