Sexual assaults at record highs in Australia and most know their attacker

There were 36,318 victim-survivors of sexual assault in data collected by police in 2023.

That was an 11 per cent increase on 2022 and the 12^th straight year sexual assaults had increased.

ABS head of crime and justice statistics Samantha McNally said the total number of victim-survivors had increased across nearly every state and territory with rates also spiking.

"Accounting for population growth, the rate of recorded sexual assault victim-survivors has gone up from 126 per 100,000 people last year, to 136 victim-survivors per 100,000 people," Ms McNally said.

"This is the highest rate of sexual assault victim-survivors recorded in our 31-year dataset."

Women were much more likely to be victim-survivors of sexual assault nationwide with 84 per cent of reported incidents from females.

Two in every five victim-survivors were between 10 and 17 years of age.

Residential locations were by far the likeliest location for a sexual assault to occur making up 69 per cent of reported incidents.

NSW recorded more than 40 per cent of the nationwide sexual assaults.

Its 14,708 reported incidents in 2023 was 19 per cent higher than the previous year and the 12^th straight annual increase.

The rate of sexual assaults also jumped 16 per cent to 176 victim-survivors per 100,000 people, nearly double the rate in Victoria.

Data showed 66 per cent of NSW victim-survivors were under 18 years of age at the time of the assault or two in every three. That was significantly higher than any other state or territory.

More than 80 per cent of victim-survivors were female and 84 per cent knew their attacker.

In Victoria 87 per cent of victim-survivors were female but only 67 per cent knew their attacker and just two per cent of attacks involved a weapon.

In Tasmania nine in 10 victim-survivors knew their attacker and more than half (54 per cent) were under 18 years of age.

In ACT 73 per cent knew their attacker and only 37 per cent were under 18 years of age but there were more sexual assaults recorded than before.

Family violence incidents contributed to 39 per cent of reported sexual assaults across the country.

Victim-survivors were much more likely to be female (88 per cent) and the most common age group to be targeted was between 10 and 17 years of age (34 per cent).

Family violence related attacks were just as likely to involve the use of a weapon as non-family violence sexual assaults.

The rate of family violence related attacks was higher than the national average in NSW (41 per cent), Victoria (40 per cent), Queensland (40 per cent) and Tasmania (41 per cent), but lower in SA (36 per cent), WA 28 per cent, NT (25 per cent) and ACT (32 per cent).

The attacker was most likely to be an intimate partner in Victoria, SA, Tasmania and ACT, while in NSW and Queensland the offender was more likely to be an other family member. This likely reflects the higher rates of children being targeted for sexual assault in NSW and Queensland.