The rate leapt 33 per cent - to 240 victims per 100,000 persons - from 2015 to 2016.

Women were three times more likely to suffer violence at the hands of an intimate partner than men in the ACT.

The territory still has a lower family and domestic violence victimisation rate compared to other jurisdictions.

Support services said the jump could be attributed to increased awareness in the community about family and domestic violence.

The snapshot, published in the Australian Bureau of Statistics report of national crime statistics relating to victims on Thursday, also revealed the ACT hit a five-year high for the number of assault victims - up 20 per cent from 1919 victims in 2015 to 2305 in 2016.

Almost a quarter of assault victims were aged between 25 and 34 years, while men accounted for 52 per cent of all victims.

Eighty-one per cent of female victims knew their attacker, with about 49 per cent of the offenders being family members.

The number of victims of sexual assault also increased by 15 per cent.

Despite the increase, the ACT recorded the second lowest victimisation rate for sexual assault in 2016, behind Tasmania.

Women were far more likely to be the victim of sexual assault, with 212 female victims and 40 men.

The report said the majority of sexual assaults occurred at a residential location (62 per cent), while 22 per cent were in public.

Despite increases in other areas of crime, the ACT recorded a drop in the number of victims of property crime offence types.

ACT Family Safety coordinator-general Jo Wood said increased awareness of family and domestic violence resulted in higher numbers of reports to authorities.

"We know there's a large amount of under reporting ... a lot of women have never reported or told anyone before," Ms Wood said.

"People used to think this was a private issue, but now its really clear that its a crime."

The ACT government last year announced a multi-million dollar package to tackle the issue in the territory, including greater resources for frontline staff and the creation of a dedicated Family Safety Hub.

Ms Wood said the efforts aimed to reduce the incidence of family and domestic violence, but the first step was to raise awareness and give people the confidence to report.

"If we don't see an increase in reporting, then maybe people don't have the confidence to report."

While the ACT still has a lower family and domestic violence rate compared to other jurisdictions, ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner John Hinchey said the reported spike reinforced the urgency to continue to develop new and effective ways of supporting victims and protecting their safety, while also holding people who use violence to account.

"These figures are telling us that this remains one of the top priorities for government, not only in the ACT but across all states and territories," Mr Hinchey said.

"I believe the work the coordinator general for family safety in designing a family safety hub for the ACT will be critical to an improved response in this territory to domestic and family violence."

Mr Hinchey also said improving current data sources, adding new data sources, and linking data would help work on a national plan to reduce violence against women and their children.

"The true extent of domestic and family violence may never be known due to under-reporting, hidden reporting to authorities other than police, and various reporting rules that apply to data collection.

"The ACT government last year tasked the domestic violence prevention council to develop a data collection framework for the ACT and that report has been submitted to the government.

"I'm confident work will commence in response to that report."

An ACT Policing spokesperson said the increase of assault and sexual assault offences reported to ACT Policing could be attributed to the establishment of ACT Policing's Family Violence Coordination, as well as to the combined work of police, the ACT government, and support agencies who respond to domestic and family violence incidents.

"Victims of such offences are now more willing to report the matter to police knowing that mechanisms are in place to support them," the spokesperson said.