Madeira has the highest incidence rate of domestic violence per thousand inhabitants, according to the document “Domestic violence – 2015 Annual Report Monitoring”, organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, published on 29 December. The rate stands at 4.09 per 1000 inhabitants with the second highest being Azorean archipelago with a incidence rate of 3.92

The incidence rate in the Algarve was 2.99 per thousand, and the average in the continent is 2.52 per thousand. As such it has the highest rate on the Mainland.  If Madeira and the Azores are included, the Algarve region “falls” to the third position in terms of incidence rates.

Lisbon (5903), Porto (4781), Setúbal (2284), Aveiro (1766) and Braga (1729) are the districts with the highest number of registered complaints, followed by Faro.

Beja had only 246 reports of domestic violence throughout the entire year in 2015. But Beja is also one of the least populous districts in the country. Of participations per 1000 inhabitants) was the one that grew the most at the national level.

The absolute numbers are also high in the Algarve region. In 2015, in the district of Faro alone, there were 1322 reports to the authorities due to domestic violence, corresponding to 4.9% of the national total.

Of these, 792 complaints were submitted to GNR and 530 to PSP. In relation to 2014, the number of participations rose 0.7% in the region.

Throughout the country, in 2005, 26815 cases of domestic violence were registered by the Security Forces, 11544 by the GNR (43.1%) and 15271 (56.9%) by the PSP, a decline from 2014 ( -1.8%, -502 participations).

According to the same report, victims of domestic violence are generally female (85%), married or partners (46%), with an average age of 41 years and without economic dependence on the perpetrator. These figures thus indicate that 15% of victims of domestic violence are men, phenomenon whose visibility has increased.

The number of detentions carried out by the security forces, “in the context of situations of domestic violence, has increased over the last six years: 750 arrests were made in 2015, a 21% increase over the previous year and more than three times the arrests made in 2009, “added the MAI document.

Full data for 2016 are not yet known, but the Ministry of Home Affairs revealed figures for the first half, indicating that the number of holdings increased by 5% in the Algarve.

Between January and June 2016, there were 672 participations in domestic violence in the Algarve, and in the same period of 2015, 640 had been made.

The 5% increase is the fourth largest at the national level, behind Beja (20.8%), Lisbon (7.5%) and Braga (6.1%).