Women and girls accounted for one in every four civilians killed in armed conflicts during 2025, a share that had doubled since 2021. The finding sits within more than 37,000 civilian deaths recorded during the year. At least 25 women and girls were killed each day on average.
The annual Women, Peace and Security report is not a count of every death in war. Its headline measure concerns civilians killed in armed conflict, which is an important distinction when judging the scale of the finding. Its central warning is that women and girls are increasingly exposed to the consequences of conflict in the places where they live, learn, work and seek care.
A growing share of civilian deaths
The rise in the proportion of women and girls among civilian deaths does not identify a single conflict or a single cause. It instead describes a global pattern across conflicts during 2025. The change matters because the share had been one in eight in 2021, compared with one in four four years later.
About 750 million women and girls were living within 50 kilometres of an active conflict in 2025. That was roughly 40 million more than in 2024 and the highest level recorded since 1990. Living near fighting can mean far more than direct exposure to a strike. It can affect access to food, water, healthcare, education, transport and safe shelter, while also placing greater pressure on families already managing displacement and loss.
For women giving birth in conflict-affected countries, the risk of dying from maternal causes was five times higher than for women giving birth in stable countries. Girls in crisis-affected countries were also two and a half times more likely to be out of school. These figures show how the impact of conflict reaches into daily life and can continue long after an immediate attack.
Violence that is documented, and harm that remains hidden
In 2025, 9,788 cases of conflict-related sexual violence were verified. That total was more than twice the previous year’s figure and almost four times the number recorded in 2022. The verified count is not presented as the full scale of harm. Survivors can face danger, displacement, stigma and barriers to reporting, while access for those documenting abuses can be limited during conflict.
The annual report also links the growing risks to the way warfare is changing. Drones and long-range weapons used in populated areas can threaten schools, markets and hospitals as well as homes. The issue is not confined to physical injury. Conflict can increase unpaid care responsibilities when services and infrastructure break down, leaving women and girls to absorb much of the work of keeping households going.
Limited seats at the negotiating table
The report’s concern is not limited to protection. It also records a gap between the impact of conflict on women and girls and their role in formal efforts to end it. Women made up five per cent of negotiators across 57 peace processes in 2025, down from seven per cent the year before.
None of the 13 ceasefire agreements examined explicitly prohibited conflict-related sexual violence. That does not mean women are absent from peacebuilding. Women’s organisations and local leaders often mediate disputes, support people who have been displaced and assist survivors. The gap is between that work and representation in formal negotiations, where decisions on security, recovery and political arrangements are made.
Those organisations also face financial strain. Four in ten women’s organisations in crisis-affected settings expected to close temporarily or permanently within the following year because of funding shortfalls. The expectation is a warning about capacity, not a forecast that every organisation will close. It nevertheless raises questions about who will be able to maintain local support when a crisis persists.
A report issued at a critical moment
The annual assessment was issued ahead of the Security Council’s open debate on Women, Peace and Security, an agenda established by Resolution 1325. The framework calls for the protection of women and girls in conflict and for women’s full involvement in peace processes.
The new figures do not predict what will happen in any particular war. They do, however, set out a clear measure of the current imbalance: women and girls are carrying a greater share of recorded civilian harm while remaining a small minority in formal negotiations. The test for governments and international bodies will be whether protection, participation and sustained local support change in practice, rather than remaining commitments on paper.
