- In Latin America and the Caribbean, one in four women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence from their partner in their lifetime.
- Violence against women affects their physical, mental and emotional health, limits their economic participation and generates significant costs for economies and societies.
- Measuring these costs allows us to measure their economic impact and provide evidence for discussions on priorities, budgets and public policies.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, one in four women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner throughout their lives. As indicated by a study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), this type of violence affects the physical, mental, and emotional health of women and their families, and can also limit their economic participation, productivity, and career development.
When these impacts are multiplied on a societal scale, their effects reach communities, businesses, and entire economies. Violence against women constitutes a barrier to sustainable development and poverty reduction and generates significant costs for society.
However, few studies have attempted to quantify its economic cost. Their estimates vary depending on the types of violence and costs considered, the data available, and the methodologies used. Although not directly comparable, these studies show that the economic impact can represent a significant portion of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and they caution that their estimates are often conservative.
- In Latin America, the cost associated with the killings of women is estimated to be equivalent to 0.31% of regional GDP, more than double the global average (0.12%). The estimate combines the cost attributed to this type of violence (homicide of women, physical and sexual assault, and female genital mutilation), multiplied by prevalence and mortality data from United Nations sources.
- Paraguay and Ecuador: The cost of violence against women was estimated at 5.12% and 4.3% of GDP, respectively, using an approach that combined different calculation methodologies.
- Spain: The cost of violence against women was estimated at 4,933 million euros, equivalent to 0.37% of GDP. The calculation included health, labor-productive and legal-police costs, borne by the women themselves and their families, as well as by the public, private and civil society sectors.
- South Africa: Losses represent between 0.9% and 1.3% of GDP, measured according to a model that combined different study approaches.
To measure these percentages in terms of GDP, the results can be compared to public spending in Latin America and the Caribbean on research and development (0.29% of GDP in 2022), social assistance (1.76% of GDP) and education (4.4% of GDP) according to an IDB study.
A recent study in Argentina estimated that violence against women represents between 0.8% and 2.1% of GDP. How do you arrive at an estimate of this type? The study allows us to understand what costs are considered and how the calculation is constructed.
The exercise followed the bottom-up accounting method, which estimates the cost from individual cases and then calculates its aggregate impact. To do this, it multiplied the unit costs of different services and the loss of working days by the estimated number of cases, adjusted for prevalence, risk level, and effective use of services. The analysis considered three major components:
- Legal-administrative costs: public expenses associated with police action, legal advice and sponsorship, judicial processes, protection measures and imprisonment.
- Health costs: expenses associated with psychological and medical care provided by the public health system.
- Labor costs: losses associated with days of paid and unpaid work, with impacts on women, their employers, and family networks.
To understand the scope of this estimate, it is important to consider some methodological clarifications. Following Argentina's Law 26,485, the analysis focused on physical, psychological, sexual and economic-patrimonial domestic violence, as it is one of the most prevalent and has greater availability of data. The calculation considered the violence suffered during the last 12 months by women between 18 and 65 years of age, in heterosexual couples and residents of urban areas of 12 provinces.
The calculation also considered what percentage of women who suffered violence effectively accessed institutional services such as counseling, reporting or comprehensive assistance, and adjusted costs according to the level of risk, high or moderate, according to the criteria of the Office of Domestic Violence.
Based on these data, the study constructed two scenarios that explain the range of the estimate: one of minimum, based on the effective use of services, and another of maximum, which assumes full access to the services provided for by the regulations.
Like any estimate, this calculation has limitations. Due to the lack of comparable data, the study did not include femicides, violence outside the domestic sphere, or symbolic or political violence. It also did not consider violence suffered by girls and adolescents under 18 years of age, women over 65 years of age, or women in non-heterosexual relationships, due to the scope of the prevalence survey used as a source.
In addition, costs that are more difficult to quantify, such as private expenditures on legal and health services, expenditures on prevention, and long-term effects on the productivity, employability, and health of women and their children, were left out. Intangible costs, such as emotional and affective damage, were also not accounted for.
Prevalence data allow us to measure the magnitude, complexity, and persistence of violence against women. Estimates of its economic cost provide another perspective: they allow us to understand how its consequences translate into costs for individuals, families, companies, and the state.
Quantifying these impacts, even with the limitations of the available data, can provide evidence for discussions on priorities, budgets, and public policies, and reinforce the importance of investing in prevention and response.
The studies presented leave a clear message: preventing violence against women is not only critical to ensuring the right of all people to live full and safe lives. It is also key to reducing the costs that this violence imposes on individuals, families, businesses, and economies as a whole.
Learn how the IDB works to prevent and respond to violence against women from a comprehensive and coordinated approach.