Almost one in five older Dutch teenagers and young adults were victims of a domestic violence incident in 2022, including physical and mental abuse and stalking, national statistics agency CBS said on Monday.

In total, 18% of 16 to 25-year-olds said they had been the victims of abuse, or a total of 350,000 youngsters. Most also said that while they talked about the abuse with others, they had not reported it to the police or other official bodies.

The figures come from an annual survey of 24,000 people, including 2,000 aged between 16 and 25. It found that 16 to 18-year-olds are the most likely to be affected, with 25% reporting being the victim of some form of domestic abuse. Young women were more likely than young men to have been victims.

One in 10 of those surveyed say they had been physically attacked, with 45% reporting having been hit. A very small percentage reported extremely serious physical violence, such as attempted strangulation or the use of a weapon.

One in 10 said they were the victims of coercion by a dominating member of the household and 5% said they had been stalked by an ex-partner.

Physical abuse was most often due to a brother or sister, while parents were more likely to exercise dominant behaviour, the CBS survey found.