The 1522 toll-free number: who calls, why, and what it tells us. Year 2025.
The analysis covers the whole of 2025: 1522 received 72,410 calls, of which 61,303 were valid (84.7%) and 11,107 invalid (15.3%) (Table 1). Among valid calls, 25,970 involved a caller who explicitly stated that they were a victim, and this is the basis on which the analysis that follows is built.
Requesting help as a victim of violence remains the leading reason for contacting the service, accounting for 25,912 contacts, or 42.3% of valid calls. Some way behind are “out-of-scope” calls, i.e. calls not relevant to the service’s mission (a category that, under the new data-collection system, also includes calls from or about male victims), with 15,039 cases (24.5%), and requests for information on how the service works, with 8,467 cases (13.8%). Information on local anti-violence centres is requested in 4,971 cases (8.1%), reports made by third parties number 2,126 (3.5%) and requests for help as a victim of stalking 1,912 (3.1%) (Table 1).
As for how people become aware of the service, the internet is by far the leading channel, with 7,845 reports, equal to 12.8% of valid calls, followed by institutional communication campaigns (6,380 cases, 10.4%), a sign of their effectiveness; other sources (friends and acquaintances, police forces, television, healthcare facilities, social media) all remain marginal, below 1.5% (Table 8).
Looking at when people call, victims contact 1522 mainly between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. (20.0% of the total), followed by the early and late afternoon (17% and 18%); night-time hours remain marginal (Table 3). Among the days of the week, Monday is the busiest (15.9%), followed by Tuesday and Wednesday, while the weekend records the lowest volumes (Table 4).
Considering the main form of violence reported by each victim, psychological violence is the most widespread (36.1% of women), followed by physical violence (7,280 cases), stalking-related persecutory acts (10.2%) and threats (7.6%); sexual, economic and sexual violence against minors remain more limited (4.6%, 2.3% and 1.1%) (Table 11). If all the forms of violence reported by each victim are considered, and not only the main one (a victim may suffer more than one form at the same time), over the whole year psychological violence remains the most frequent (17,032 cases), followed by physical violence (12,492), threats (7,063) and persecutory acts (4,537), for a total of 47,081 occurrences against 25,970 victims: around 2 forms reported on average per victim, confirming the multidimensional nature of gender-based violence, rarely attributable to a single episode (Table 11bis). As for frequency, in the majority of cases the violence is a phenomenon repeated over time: 36.5% of victims report repeated episodes that had been going on for years and 19.6% for months, while only 6.0% report a single episode (Table 12). As for location, the victim’s home remains by far the most common setting (11,346 cases, 43.7%), compared with all other locations (the street, the workplace, someone else’s home, a public venue, a car), each of which remains below 3% (Table 13): a finding that confirms the predominantly domestic nature of the violence suffered by victims.
This observation is confirmed by the data on the relationship with the perpetrator of the violence. From 2025, the new information-recording system makes it possible to collect information on possibly more than one perpetrator of violence; for this reason, the totals in Tables 15 and 17 exceed the number of victims, since the same victim may indicate more than one perpetrator. The picture confirms the relational and family-based pattern of violence: the spouse is the most frequently reported perpetrator (5,693 mentions, 21.9% of victims), followed by the former partner (13.1%) and the partner (10.6%); next come the father or mother (10.4%) and the cohabiting partner (2,612, 10.1%), while more distant figures, such as acquaintances or former spouses, remain marginal (Table 15).
1522 also plays a role in providing initial guidance towards the local network of services: 68.4% of victims were in fact referred to another service during the call (Table 9). On the question of reporting to the authorities, the picture remains marked by a large proportion of missing data: 45.5% of victims do not answer this specific question. Among those who do answer, a clear majority have not filed a report (11,318 victims, 43.6% of the total). Only 8.4% (2,173) state that they have filed a report, to which a further 1.2% (313 cases) can be added in which a report was filed but later withdrawn: overall, 9.6% of victims (2,486) had therefore begun a reporting process, even if not always taken to completion (Table 14).
Lastly, on the subject of children and witnessed violence, 37.3% of 2025 victims (9,686 out of 25,970) state that they have children; of these, 6,286 have minor children, equal to 24.2% of all victims. Among victims with children, the phenomenon of witnessed violence emerges clearly: 5,711 (59.0% of those with children) report that their children witness the violence they suffer, and in 1,802 cases (18.6%) the children not only witness it but also suffer violence directly themselves. Separately, 1,978 victims with children (20.4%) report that their children suffer violence directly, regardless of whether or not they witnessed the episodes directed at the parent (Table 16).
On the socio-demographic side, the tables show that calls are most concentrated among young women aged 21-25 (1,657 cases) and 18-20 (1,602); by marital status, single women (6,128) and married women (5,116) predominate; in terms of employment status, among those who respond, employed women predominate (5,039), followed by unemployed women seeking work (1,473). By citizenship, 52.2% of victims are Italian and 10.5% are foreign nationals (Table 10).
The tables also provide information on the regions from which calls originate, from both users and victims (Tables 6 and 7).
For further information
Alessandra Capobianchi
capobian@istat.it
Maria Giuseppina Muratore
muratore@istat.it
Claudia Villante
claudia.villante@istat.it