Almost half of Portugal’s population has suffered at least one situation of violence.

More than two-fifths of Portugal’s population (44.8%) have experienced at least one violent situation in their lifetime, with Madeira being the region with the highest proportion, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) said on Tuesday.

The results of the Study on Safety in Public and Private Premises (ISEPP) show that the Alentejo region recorded a lower proportion (37.8%) compared to 48.1% in Madeira, 46.9% in the Azores and 46.8% in the capital Lisbon. Region.

According to the same source, the prevalence of violence is higher among the more educated population (49.4%).

More than 1.4 million people aged 18 to 74 suffered from violence in childhood (18.6%), before the age of 15: more than 1.3 million people (17.6%) suffered from some kind of psychological or physical abuse by parents and more than 176,000 (2.3%) were victims of childhood sexual abuse.

“When looking only at violence against women, Portugal belongs to a group of European Union countries that tend to have lower levels of violence,” according to INE.

Victims of non-partner violence were those who reported violence the most (66.8%), and victims of childhood sexual abuse were those who most silenced them (29.4%). About half of the victims told someone or some entity about what happened in an intimate context.

Psychological and physical consequences of violence were most often mentioned by victims of violence in intimate contexts.

“More than three quarters of the population (75.8%) consider violence against women by partners to be very common. More than two-fifths (42.0%) hold similar views about violence against men by female partners,” the analysis said. data collected through this survey.

Knowledge of different services or victim support structures was found to be lower among people who had already suffered some type of violence.