Article content

An estimated 1.8 million Albertans — nearly one of every two people in the province — have experienced sexual abuse or assault in their lives, a study released on Wednesday said.

The study, led by the Association of Alberta Sexual Assault Services (AASAS), found that an estimated 325,000 children — or 34 per cent of the province’s population under 18 — have experienced childhood sexual abuse, and 1.48 million adults — or 45 per cent of adults — are survivors of sexual assault in their lifetime.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Nearly half of Albertans experience sexual abuse, new study finds Back to video

“These statistics are really high, and I think to the average person on the street, they’re so high, they’re almost unbelievable,” said Deb Tomlinson, CEO of AASAS, at the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton (SACE) on Wednesday.

“They’re not high for us. They’re not high for our staff that work on the frontline. They’re not high for people who experienced the effects of this crime.”

About two-thirds of women and about one-third of men in the province have been sexually assaulted, the survey run by the market research firm Malatest found from a general population phone survey of 1,512 Albertans from across the province.

The study is the first of its kind since a 1984 study of Alberta and B.C., but the rates are consistent with what was found 36 years ago.

Tomlinson said the stagnation in the numbers is a rallying cry for the greater community to take action and take the onus off of survivors to come forward.

“It’s on us. We need to bring this out of the shadows and into the open, we need to talk about it with our friends and our family,” she said.