Childhood Exposure to Domestic Violence Estimator
Enter a jurisdiction's total population, and its population under 18 is estimated automatically using the national average share of children — see how many may be exposed to domestic violence this year and over the course of childhood, based on published research prevalence ranges.
Why This Matters
Exposure to domestic violence is one of the most common adverse experiences of American childhood — and one of the most consequential, with effects that research links to health, school, and safety outcomes well into adulthood.
U.S. children experience some form of family violence exposure during childhood (25.6% lifetime).
Children in the U.S. live in homes where domestic violence has occurred at least once.
Children exposed to domestic violence are 15x more likely to be physically or sexually abused themselves.
Meta-analyses find children exposed to DV show emotional and behavioral harm on par with children who are directly, physically abused.
Boys exposed to DV are often cited as ~10x more likely to abuse a partner as adults; girls, ~6x more likely to be victimized as adults.
Childhood exposure to DV is linked to elevated adult risk of depression, anxiety, substance use, and chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
The "~10× / ~6×" figure is repeated across many government and advocacy resources but, unlike the other statistics here, doesn't trace to one specific controlled study — treat it as a widely-held clinical impression rather than a precise, peer-reviewed estimate.
Facts for Families
Jurisdiction
Start typing — if the county or city is one of the 100 largest counties or 346 largest cities in the U.S., pick it from the suggestions and total population fills in automatically. Otherwise, enter the total population below yourself.
Methodology: Total population auto-fills for any U.S. state (Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates), for the 100 most populous U.S. counties (Vintage 2025), for all 346 U.S. cities with populations over 100,000 (Census Bureau estimates, July 1, 2024), for all 31 incorporated cities and towns in Tarrant County, TX, and for cities with only a portion in Tarrant County — Azle, Burleson, Flower Mound, Newark, Reno, Roanoke, and Trophy Club (NCTCOG regional estimates, 2025). For a smaller county or city not yet in that list, enter the total population yourself. Population under 18 is then calculated by applying the U.S. average share of residents under 18 (22.2%, ACS 5-Year Estimates) — a national assumption. Replace either number directly if you have a more accurate local figure.
On the Census page, look for table B09001 ("Population Under 18 Years by Age") and enter the "Total" estimate above.
Prevalence assumptions
Working figures
Basis for estimates
- A widely cited conservative estimate places annual child exposure to intimate partner violence at roughly 10–20%, with as many as one-third of children exposed at some point during childhood or adolescence (summarized by the Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody, drawing on Carlson and related researchers).
- National estimates of children exposed to domestic violence in a given year range from about 3.3 million to 10 million (Carlson, 1984; Straus, 1992), and a more recent estimate from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia puts the figure above 15.5 million children annually nationwide.
- A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of global population studies found a pooled prevalence of childhood exposure to physical domestic and family violence of roughly 16–17%, describing this as affecting about one in six people by age 18 worldwide, with substantial regional variation.
- Court-based statistics indicate children are present during roughly 36% of domestic or intimate partner violence incidents, and about 60% of those present directly witness the violence (Edleson, 1999, and related reporting).