Scale & nature of child sexual abuse: Review of evidence

At least 20% of girls and 10% of boys are estimated to sexually abused before the age of 18, but only a fraction of that abuse ever comes to the attention of authorities.

The CSA Centre’s 2026 report Scale and nature of child sexual abuse: Review of evidence brings together data from the Office for National Statistics’ Crime Survey for England and Wales, official data from 2024/25, and prominent international research to provide a detailed account of what we currently know about child sexual abuse and how it is being responded to.

At least 500,000 are estimated to experience in-person contact sexual abuse each year in England and Wales. This is a significant underestimate of the total scale of child sexual abuse, because it omits abuse online and in other contexts. Child sexual abuse also often happens alongside other forms of harm: according to survey data, two-thirds of people who were sexually abused as a child also experienced other forms of abuse or neglect at some point during their childhood.

There remains an urgent need to improve the identification of and response to child sexual abuse to help close the gap between the estimated scale of child sexual abuse, and the number of victims and survivors who receive help and support from professionals. Download and read the new report to find out more about child sexual abuse in England and Wales today.