One in every 14 adults in England and Wales was sexually abused as a child, according to the first research of its kind.
According to a report in the London-based newspaper, The Nation, some 11 per cent of women and three per cent of men—an average of seven per cent—said they were sexually assaulted during their childhood.
Quoting from an annual study done by the Crime Survey for England and Wales, The Nation said that the findings of the annual survey also suggested that 567,000 adult women aged between 16 and 59, and 102,000 men in the same age bracket, suffered "sexual assault by rape or penetration" as minors.
The findings came after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) introduced new questions about childhood abuse in the survey for 2016, which was released on Thursday.
John Flatley, from the ONS's crime statistics and analysis department, said: "Police forces in England and Wales have been dealing with a growing number of reports of child abuse in recent years.
"Many of these have been historical cases reported by adults many years after the event. These new ONS estimates, based on asking adults to recall abuse experienced during their childhood, provide a more comprehensive picture than has previously been available."
Apart from sexual abuse, 9 per cent of adults who took part in the survey said they had suffered psychological abuse and 7 per cent physical abuse. Some 8 per cent said they had witnesses domestic violence or abuse at home.
Apart from physical abuse, women were "significantly" more likely to report that they had been an abuse victim than men, the ONS report found. While it found that 42 per cent of victims suffered two or more forms of abuse, more than half of sex attack victims suffered no other form of abuse.
