What is the economic cost of failing to address gender-based violence? The European Institute for Gender Equality (2021) quantifies the financial impact of gender-based and intimate partner violence across the EU, underscoring the high cost of policy inaction.
Gender-based violence remains widespread across the European Union and disproportionately affects women, with 2012 data indicating that one in three women aged 15 or older has faced physical or sexual violence. Although human suffering and lost lives cannot be measured in monetary terms, calculating lost economic productivity alongside public expenditures across healthcare, legal systems, social assistance, and specialized support clarifies the broader societal burden of this violence. Placing an economic value on the issue assists both member states and EU institutions in making evidence-based resource allocation choices across policy areas, while illustrating the hidden costs of underfunding prevention efforts.
Drawing on the methodology established in its 2014 study, the report examines intimate partner violence as a primary subset of gender-based violence. The authors calculate updated cost estimates using 2019 data from the United Kingdom and extrapolate these figures across EU member states. In addition to these calculations, the publication presents a critical review of studies on intimate partner and gender-based violence costs published across Europe since 2014. Through this synthesis, the report identifies key lessons learned and provides concrete recommendations to guide future costing analyses and data-collection practices at both national and EU levels, supported by an accompanying technical report detailing the underlying models and extrapolation techniques.
Learn more about this policy research report here:
European Institute for Gender Equality. (2021). The costs of gender-based violence in the European Union. Publications Office of the European Union. https://eige.europa.eu/publications-resources/publications/costs-gender-based-violence-european-union