Currently, internationally comparable data on most types of violence against women do not exist. The existing data (based on administrative data in Member States) suffer from a series of problems (such as differences in the legal and operational definitions of the crimes and the methodologies used in recording their incidence), which render comparisons between countries impossible.

The increased role of social indicators in EU policy making and monitoring requires social indicators to be considered on an equal footing with macroeconomic indicators. This requires a sustainable upgrading and modernisation of European social statistics to meet the challenging new requirements.