The Real Count UK
A new anonymous UK-wide domestic abuse survey aims to capture experiences that never reach the police or official statistics.
Domestic abuse does not always appear in police reports, court records or support service data.
Fear, coercive control, concerns about children, distrust of authorities and the possible consequences of disclosure can all stop people from reporting what happened.
When those experiences are never formally recorded, they can also disappear from the statistics used to understand domestic abuse.
The Real Count UK is trying to change that. The research and data organisation is collecting anonymous lived-experience data from people aged 16 and over whose experiences of domestic abuse or coercive control were not formally reported or recorded.
The survey is open to people connected to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It does not collect names, contact details, IP addresses or other identifying information, meaning responses cannot be linked back to individual participants.
Why the data matters
The scale of under-reporting remains significant. Reporting on the launch, the Mirror cited a 2025 Domestic Abuse Commissioner report which found that fewer than one in five victims and survivors report domestic abuse to police. That creates a gap between what official systems record and what people may actually be experiencing.
Founder Angelique Brown, herself a survivor, developed The Real Count after meeting other survivors who had also never reported their abuse. Her concern was simple: if large numbers of experiences never enter official systems, how can we fully understand the scale of domestic abuse - or measure whether efforts to reduce it are working?
The organisation first piloted its work in Merseyside and Greater Manchester before expanding nationally, and is working with Manchester Metropolitan University researcher Dr Kim Heyes.
Why people may not report
There is rarely one reason. Angelique has spoken about how coercive control created fear and distrust of family members, police and social services during her own experience.
Other survivors may fear retaliation, worry about losing their children or home, feel uncertain about the criminal or family courts, or simply not feel safe enough to disclose what is happening. Not reporting abuse does not mean the abuse did not happen. And it does not mean that experience should be absent from the evidence used to shape policy, funding and support.
Anonymous by design
The Real Count is a research and data organisation rather than a crisis or support service. It does not make safeguarding referrals or report individual responses to police, social services, immigration authorities or other third parties. Because it collects no identifying information, it cannot identify participants from their responses.
The anonymised data may be used for research, statistical analysis, publications and reports, and to help inform policy, practice and public understanding of domestic abuse. Manchester Metropolitan University is the data controller for the research.
Making unseen experiences count
The longer-term aim is to build a clearer picture of domestic abuse by bringing together experiences that are often missing from official statistics.
That could help researchers, policymakers and frontline organisations better understand patterns of abuse, barriers to reporting and where systems may not reflect the reality of people’s lives.
For survivors, it may also offer something more immediate: a way to have an experience recognised within a wider picture without entering a formal reporting process. As The Real Count puts it: “Not reporting shouldn’t mean disappearing from the data.”
Take part
The Real Count UK survey is open to anyone aged 16 or over with lived experience of domestic abuse connected to the UK. Participation is voluntary and anonymous, and participants can skip questions or stop before submitting.
If you are in immediate danger, call 999.
When experiences never enter official systems, they can disappear from the evidence too. The Real Count is working to ensure unreported abuse is still counted.
