Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that around one in three women around the globe becomes a victim of physical or sexual violence during her life, with violent behaviour seemingly increasing during the coronavirus pandemic.

They stressed the need for governments and states to prevent violence while improving the services available for victims and to bridge economic gaps between the genders which regularly leaves women and girls vulnerable and trapped in abusive relationships.

The director general of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Violence against women is endemic in every country and culture, causing harm to millions of women and their families, and has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

In the "largest-ever study" of its kind, the WHO found through combining national data and surveys from between the years 2000 and 2018, that roughly 31 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 49, or 852 million, have experienced physical or sexual violence.

The most common perpetrator of physical or sexual violence according to the data, are husbands or intimate partners. The WHO added that a disproportionate number of victims of such crimes live in the poorest countries. However, true figures are surely far higher due to under-reporting of sexual abuse, which is a heavily-stigmatized crime.

In many regions worldwide, more than half of women face violence at some point, said the report author Claudia Garcia-Moreno to Reuters. These regions include Oceania, sub-Saharan Africa, and southern Asia.

Notably, according to the WHO data, countries with the highest prevalence of violence against women include Kiribati, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the lowest rates of violence is recorded in Europe, up to 23 percent, over a lifetime.

Additionally, the WHO stated that the violence usually starts at an “alarmingly young” age.

Garcia-Moreno indicated that one in four adolescent girls between the ages of 15 and 19 who have had relationships have been exposed to violence.

She added, “This is a very important and formative time in life. And we know that the impacts of this violence can be long-lasting and can affect physical and mental health and lead to unwanted pregnancies and other complications.”