The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released some damning statistics on the levels of sexual harassment in Australia.

According to the figures, 53 per cent of women and 25 per cent of men have experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime and the prevalence of sexual harassment increased between 2012 and 2016 for both men and women.

According to the 2016 Personal Safety Survey (PSS), an estimated five million women and 2.2 million men aged 18 years and over have experienced at least one incident of sexual harassment in their lifetime.

Will Milne, ABS director of the National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics said: “The most common sexual harassment behaviour that women experienced was inappropriate comments about their body or sex life (33 per cent or 3.1 million women) followed by unwanted touching (30 per cent or 2.8 million women).

“For men, it was unwanted touching (13 per cent or 1.1 million men).”

The new analysis found women and men who had experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime were more likely to have also experienced sexual assault.

“We found 30 per cent of women and 14 per cent of men who had experienced sexual harassment had also experienced sexual assault,” Mr Milne said.

“This is compared with 2.7 per cent of women and 1 per cent of men who had not experienced sexual harassment but had experienced sexual assault.”

The data also showed that those who had difficulties meeting basic living expenses due to a lack of cash flow were over twice as likely to experience sexual harassment as those who did not experience such difficulties.

“Over a 12-month period, 31 per cent of women and 21 percent of men who had difficulties meeting basic living expenses experienced sexual harassment, compared with 14 per cent of women and 7.4 per cent of men who did not have these difficulties and experienced sexual harassment,” added Mr Milne.

Have you experienced sexual harassment over the course of your life? What is the worst example of sexual harassment that you endured?