DS Gender based violence > Methodology EN REVAMP

Preparation of the EU survey on gender-based violence 

Initiation phase

In 2016, the development of the survey on gender-based violence within the European Statistical System (ESS) started. Eurostat's aim was to develop a survey questionnaire and methodology to measure gender-based violence as defined by the Istanbul Convention, and also to expand this scope by covering types of violence and perpetrators. The survey title reflects the expanded definition, as it includes other forms of inter-personal violence in addition to gender-based violence against women. 

EU members and experts from a range of relevant organisations and disciplines supported the development of the survey methodology.

Testing phase

Between 2017 and 2019, the pre-testing of the questionnaire was done in eight EU countries and the pilot survey was conducted in 14 EU countries.

Implementation phase

In 2020, after testing the methodology, the main survey implementation started on the basis of several methodological documents produced by Eurostat. These are combined in the available methodological manual below.

Common methodology

To ensure the production of high quality and comparable data, the EU survey on gender-based violence against women and other forms of inter-personal violence (EU-GBV) is implemented based on a common questionnaire and methodology.