UNICEF · Women Who Think a Husband Is Justified in Hitting or Beating His Wife
Acceptance of wife-beating by country
What share of women think a husband is justified in beating his wife?
Of the 107 countries compared in the 2025 edition, Georgia had the lowest reading, 1.2%, and Afghanistan had the highest reading, 80.2%. In the middle country the figure was 24.2%. 18 readings from before 2015 are listed but not compared.
Share
Part ofGender & Equality
Acceptance of wife-beating · the 2025 edition
Context statistic
Lowest of 107Georgia
1.2%01the 2025 edition · position · derived
Who leads
The three countries at the lowest end of 107 compared, the three at the other end, and the first on each continent.
1Photo: Philipp Weigell derivative work: Inkey · CC BY 3.0, greyscale
2Photo: Martin St-Amant (S23678) · CC BY 3.0, greyscale
3Photo: Lošmi derivative work: Jjtkk · CC BY-SA 3.0, greyscale
Highest in the 2025 edition
Afghanistan80.2%
Chad77.2%
Solomon Islands76.7%
Where a country sits says how it compares with the others measured, and nothing about why.
02Every measured country
Acceptance of wife-beating on a map
Each country is shaded by its value, in five groups holding the same number of countries. Hover a country for its value, or select it to open its profile. Below the map, each continent’s middle country.
Darker is a lower value — the better end.
- 44.1–80.2%
- 31.9–43.9%
- 17.7–29.4%
- 6.1–17.6%
- 1.2–6.0%
- Hatched: a reading from before 2015, listed but not compared (18)
- No reading in the 2025 edition
- Americas
5.1%
the middle country, of 18 measured · 48 members
Peru1.3%
Haiti16.6%Lowest and highest reading in Americas.
- Europe
6.4%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 49 members
Serbia1.6%
Kosovo24.7%Lowest and highest reading in Europe.
- Asia
18.9%
the middle country, of 31 measured · 52 members
Georgia1.2%Afghanistan80.2%Lowest and highest reading in Asia.
- Africa
33.5%
the middle country, of 44 measured · 55 members
South Africa5.5%Chad77.2%Lowest and highest reading in Africa.
- Oceania
49.5%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 21 members
Fiji24.2%Solomon Islands76.7%Lowest and highest reading in Oceania.
- Every region
18 sub-regions, lowest middle country first
- South America
3.9%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 12 members
Peru1.3%
Guyana10.8%Lowest and highest reading in South America.
- Caribbean
5.2%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 24 members
Cuba1.7%Haiti16.6%Lowest and highest reading in Caribbean.
- Central America
5.2%
the middle country, of 7 measured · 8 members
Costa Rica3.4%
Panama15.7%Lowest and highest reading in Central America.
- Southern Europe
6.8%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 17 members
Serbia1.6%Kosovo24.7%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Europe.
- Western Asia
10.4%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 19 members
Georgia1.2%
Iraq36.5%Lowest and highest reading in Western Asia.
- South-eastern Asia
22.3%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 11 members
Thailand3.5%
Timor-Leste74.0%Lowest and highest reading in South-eastern Asia.
- Western Africa
31.2%
the middle country, of 16 measured · 16 members
Cabo Verde6.1%
Mali69.3%Lowest and highest reading in Western Africa.
- Central Asia
31.9%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 5 members
Kazakhstan3.5%
Tajikistan47.8%Lowest and highest reading in Central Asia.
- Southern Asia
36.3%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 9 members
Nepal18.6%Afghanistan80.2%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Asia.
- Eastern Africa
38.2%
the middle country, of 14 measured · 19 members
Malawi17.6%
Ethiopia63.0%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Africa.
- Middle Africa
41.8%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 9 members
São Tomé and Príncipe17.7%Chad77.2%Lowest and highest reading in Middle Africa.
- Eastern Asia
2 of 8 measured — too few for a middle: Mongolia, North Korea.
Mongolia3.5%
North Korea9.6%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Asia.
- Eastern Europe
1 of 10 measured — too few for a middle: Belarus.
Belarus3.7%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Europe.
- Melanesia
4 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu.
Fiji24.2%Solomon Islands76.7%Lowest and highest reading in Melanesia.
- Micronesia
1 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Kiribati.
Kiribati70.2%Lowest and highest reading in Micronesia.
- Northern Africa
3 of 6 measured — too few for a middle: Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia.
Tunisia6.7%
Algeria34.1%Lowest and highest reading in Northern Africa.
- Polynesia
3 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu.
Samoa35.1%
Tuvalu43.1%Lowest and highest reading in Polynesia.
- Southern Africa
3 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Eswatini, Lesotho, South Africa.
South Africa5.5%
Lesotho19.0%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Africa.
03The whole field at once
The spread
107 countries, one dot each, on one scale — further right is a higher value. Half the countries are above 24.2%; a quarter are above 39.2%, and a quarter below 8.7%. The bar in each row marks that continent’s middle country.
04All 125 ever measured
Every country
In order, highest value first — position 1 is the highest value, the way UNICEF’s own tables read. “=” marks a position shared with another country. UNICEF ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. This records what women will say to an interviewer, not how much violence takes place, and it moves with what can safely be said as well as with what is believed. The surveys it comes from are run mainly in low- and middle-income countries, so most wealthy countries are absent.
Showing 25 of 125 countries
Values for the 2025 edition.
05In this edition
Acceptance of wife-beating in records
The extremes of the statistic. A record reached by more than one country names none of them.
Highest reading
80.2%
Women aged 15-49 who say a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife (%)
Lowest reading
1.2%
Women aged 15-49 who say a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife (%)
06The measure
About acceptance of wife-beating
This is the share of women aged 15 to 49 who say a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife for at least one of several reasons, such as burning the food or going out without telling him. It measures how far violence against women is accepted as normal — by women themselves.
What the number is: Women aged 15-49 who say a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife (%).
07Where it fits
Connections
Its part in the Country Index, the statistics whose values line up most closely with it across countries, and others on the same subject.
In the Country Index
Context, with no vote
This statistic is published in full under Gender & Equality, but does not help decide any Country Index standing.
Moves with
Where acceptance of wife-beating is higher, these tend to be higher too.
- Average Household SizeUN DESA Population Division · 91 countries in commonρ 0.77
- Crude Birth RateUN DESA Population Division · 107 countries in commonρ 0.69
- Climate Vulnerability (ND-GAIN)KeyNotre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN), University of Notre Dame · 104 countries in commonρ 0.68
Moves against
Where acceptance of wife-beating is higher, these tend to be lower.
- Actual Individual Consumption per Capita (PPP)World Bank Group · 91 countries in commonρ −0.76
- Human Capital Wealth per CapitaWorld Bank Group · 87 countries in commonρ −0.74
- Planetary pressures-adjusted HDIUNDP Human Development Report Office · 85 countries in commonρ −0.70
Rank correlation (ρ, from −1 to 1) across countries, on each statistic’s newest edition, out of 288 statistics sharing at least 80 countries with this one. Two statistics that move together do not cause each other.
08Keep reading
Explore further
The subject
The data, edition by edition
The countries at either end
09Questions
Acceptance of wife-beating: questions and answers
Which country has the lowest acceptance of wife-beating?
Georgia, at 1.2%, among the 107 countries compared in the 2025 edition.
Which country has the highest acceptance of wife-beating?
Afghanistan, at 80.2%, among the 107 countries compared in the 2025 edition.
How many countries does the Women Who Think a Husband Is Justified in Hitting or Beating His Wife cover?
107 in the 2025 edition, and 125 at least once across all editions.
What is the world average acceptance of wife-beating?
This site does not calculate a world average, which would depend on how countries are weighted. In the middle country of the 107 compared in the 2025 edition, the figure was 24.2%.
Is this UNICEF’s own ranking?
No. UNICEF publishes the values but ranks nobody; the position on this page is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values, and equal values share a position.
How often is the Women Who Think a Husband Is Justified in Hitting or Beating His Wife published?
This site holds one edition, describing 2025.
Where does the data come from, and can I download it?
From UNICEF, under CC BY 3.0 IGO. From UNICEF's child protection databases, which combine the Demographic and Health Surveys with UNICEF's own Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, read from UNICEF's own data warehouse. Every edition is on this site’s Datasets pages as a full table, and downloads as a CSV file with every value unrounded.
10Method
Sources, method and citation
Source
Women Who Think a Husband Is Justified in Hitting or Beating His Wife — UNICEF
From UNICEF's child protection databases, which combine the Demographic and Health Surveys with UNICEF's own Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, read from UNICEF's own data warehouse.
Newest edition
Report year 2025Data year not recorded
Cite the source as: UNICEF. Child protection global databases: attitudes and social norms on violence. New York: UNICEF.
Licence: CC BY 3.0 IGO, checked 2026-10-03.
How this page reads the numbers
- UNICEF ranks nobody on this measure. The position is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values; equal values share a position.
- Which end is better follows the publisher’s own reading of the measure.
- A country is named at an end only when it holds that value alone. Where several share it, the page says how many and names none first.
- The file gives each country’s most recent reading, so the rows are from different years. Readings from before 2015 are listed but left out of every comparison on this page.
- Values are stored exactly as published and trimmed only for display. “The middle country” is the median of the countries measured, not a world average.
The file itself, column by column — where it came from, what each column holds, and every edition as a CSV — is on its dataset page.
Photographs
The countries at the top of this statistic, from their profiles: Wikimedia Commons, shown in greyscale, each used under the licence named.
- Georgia — Philipp Weigell derivative work: Inkey, CC BY 3.0
- Peru — Martin St-Amant (S23678), CC BY 3.0
- Serbia — Lošmi derivative work: Jjtkk, CC BY-SA 3.0
Cite this page
Nations Inquiry (2026). Acceptance of wife-beating by country: Women Who Think a Husband Is Justified in Hitting or Beating His Wife, data from UNICEF. https://nationsinquiry.com/statistics/wife-beating-attitudes