In Mexico, where an average of ten women are killed each day, thousands march every March 8 to denounce machista violence that has affected seven out of ten Mexican women aged 15 or older. On this International Women's Day, the second with Claudia Sheinbaum as president of the country, the government claims to have reduced femicides in the first months of her administration, while feminist organizations question the statistics. Five keys to understanding machista violence in Mexico: Over 70% of women have suffered violence Seven out of ten women aged 15 or older have experienced at least one episode of violence in their lifetime — more than 50 million in the country — according to the National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relationships (Endireh) 2021 by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), which also recorded a 4 percentage point increase from 2016. The most reported types of violence were psychological (51.6%), sexual (49.7%), physical (34.7%), and economic or patrimonial (27.4%). Machista violence cuts across all spheres, even reaching President Claudia Sheinbaum, who reported a sexual assault on the street last November. Average of ten women killed daily Official figures show that around ten women are killed every day in Mexico, a trend that has been constant over the last decade. In 2025, Mexico registered 2,798 murders of women, of which 725 are investigated as femicides and 2,073 as intentional homicides, according to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP). You may also be interested | Metal fences placed in the Zócalo prior to the 8M march According to organizations, between 2018 and June 2025, 26,652 women were murdered in the country, according to data presented to the UN in the CEDAW Report for the tenth evaluation of the Mexican State. This represents an average of ten women murdered per day, or one every two and a half hours. Not all deaths are investigated as femicide Femicide is the legal category that recognizes the murder of women for gender reasons, but not all violent deaths of women are investigated under this figure. According to the report presented by NGOs to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), of the 26,652 murders of women recorded between 2018 and 2025, only 6,781 were initiated as femicide, that is, less than 25% of the total. The “war of numbers” over violence Furthermore, NGOs accused the government of waging a “war of numbers” and warned of gaps in investigating crimes with a gender perspective, a criticism that also occurred during the government of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024). President Sheinbaum's administration — who took office in October 2024 — maintains that femicides have decreased by around 12% between January 2025 and January 2026, according to comparisons of the average daily cases reported by authorities. Official figures also point to a recent decrease in intentional homicides, which have fallen by more than 40% in the first 16 months of Sheinbaum's government. However, a recent México Evalúa study noted that while intentional homicides have recently decreased, lethal violence in Mexico increased by 68.2% between 2015 and 2025 if femicides, disappearances, and other crimes against life are considered. The report also detected anomalies in the classification of violent deaths, with increases in categories such as manslaughter and “other crimes against life.” Disappearances and other less visible forms of violence Experts also warn about other expressions of violence, such as disappearances, which have grown in the last decade and may reflect dynamics of hiding crimes by criminal groups. An analysis by México Evalúa indicates that disappearances increased by 213% between 2015 and 2025, suggesting that part of the lethal violence may not be decreasing, but rather becoming less visible. In Mexico, there are more than 130,000 missing persons, 25% of whom are women, according to data from the National Register of Missing Persons (RNPDNO), which has counted cases since 1950.
