Counting Dead Women, has recorded at least 100 UK women who were killed by men, or where the primary suspect for an alleged homicide, is a man, in 2023.  

Counting Dead Women monitors the media and collates reports of women suspected to have been killed by men. The project was developed by Karen Ingala Smith, following the murder of Kirsty Treloar in Hackney on 2^nd January 2012.  The project is now run with the support of the Femicide Census which Ingala Smith and Clarrie O’Callaghan launched in 2015.

The number of women known or suspected to have been by men in 2023 will inevitably increase beyond 100, sadly even in the next few days. On average since the end of 2009, 140 women have been killed by men every year. That’s an average of two women dead at the hands of a man, every 5 days.

We only count women where men have been charged, or deemed responsible for the death of a woman by a statutory agency, for example in cases such as those where men have killed themselves after killing a woman or have been held under the Mental Health Act in relation to a killing.  The Femicide Census has found that on average in just under 12% of cases men who kill women also kill themselves. We always have a number of cases each year where the media have reported the death of a woman but the circumstances are not yet clear. There are regular reports of women being found dead that end up disappearing from the news, they might end up being non-suspicious deaths, overdoses, suicides (often following abuse), men may have been bailed pending investigation and so on. Usually more details become apparent in the course of the year, when criminal charges can be made and as cases proceed through the criminal justice system.

In addition, the Femicide Census sends Freedom of Information requests to the 42 UK police forces asking for information on women suspected to have been killed by men in the preceding year. This also reveals cases that have not featured in the media or which we might not have seen.

Each woman killed is a loss in and of itself in relation to the woman whose life has been taken. On average, in the UK 58 percent of women killed by men are killed by a current or former partner. Often in these cases, the killing of a woman follows months, years or even decades of violence, abuse and coercive control. In addition, analysis by the Femicide Census finds that around 8 percent of women killed by men, are women who were killed by their own son. Around 10 per cent are women who were killed by a stranger.

The killing of women, because they are women and reflecting unequal relationships between women and men as individuals but also collectively, is known as femicide. Femicide is a systemic issue. Whilst individual men must always be held responsible for the actions that they take, femicide is also a product of sex inequality and widely held cultural values. Regardless of her relationship with the man who killed her and the circumstances of her life, each of these women deserves to be remembered by name and as more than just another statistic. Almost every woman’s death leaves grieving family and friends. There should be no hierarchies in femicide.

Counting Dead Women and the Femicide Census are run by a small number of women: Rosie Allen, Dr Katie Elliot, Heather Harvey, Dr Karen Ingala Smith and Clarrie O’Callaghan. Whist we are happy for you to use our work in your own campaigns, research or other projects, we politely request that you reference the source of your data. The Femicide Census and Counting Dead Women are run entirely on donations and voluntary income. If you would like to donate to support our vital work, you can do so here.