But while hundreds of ACT women who fit that description reported violent incidents to police last year, victims also included men, people attacked with knives or bats and Canberrans abused by other family members.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has collected and released experimental data on victims of family and domestic violence offences from police data across most jurisdictions for the first time.

The data covered violence between partners and former partners, parents, children, other relatives and carers and included offences that had been flagged as family or domestic violence by police.

There were 615 physical assaults and 36 sexual assaults that were flagged as family or domestic violence offences reported to ACT police in 2014, the snapshot showed.

The vast majority, or 359 incidents, were perpetrated by an intimate partner or ex-partner.

Women were victims in 465 of the 615 assaults, and 222 of those attacks were at the hands of a current partner.

Another 86 were perpetrated by an ex-partner, while 132 were incidents of abuse by another family member.

Men were victims in significantly fewer reported incidents of domestic abuse, with 46 assaulted by a partner or former partner and 76 attacked by a family member.

Women also reported 15 sexual assaults by a partner or former partner, compared to four reports from male victims.

Female assault victims were most likely to be aged between 20 and 34. There were 222 assaults and 15 sexual assaults reported by women in that age category.

That was followed by age 35 to 54, with 140 assaults, and females under 19 with 83 reports.

The most common age for men to fall victims to domestic or family-related assaults was also between 20 and 34, with 50 incidents reported.

There were 35 reports of domestic or family assaults on people aged 55 years and older in the capital.

The figures also showed domestic and family assaults were most likely to take place behind closed doors, with 510 assaults reported in a residence compared with 87 incidents out in the community.

Knives or other objects were the most popular weapons used, with 18 attacks recorded. There was also a handful of assaults reported where the perpetrator used a bottle or glass or a bat, bar or club.

But the vast majority, or 529 of the physical assaults, were carried out without a weapon.

Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT executive director Mirjana Wilson said the data broadly reflected the service's experience and understanding of the clients they worked with.

But she said looking at physical and sexual assaults alone did not capture the full picture of violent relationships.

"It doesn't show the psychological abuse, the emotional abuse, financial control, ongoing harassment, stalking, isolating a person from their family and friends or using children as a bargaining tool.

"What we find is physical violence is usually one aspect of a very controlling relationship."

There was one homicide allegedly linked to domestic violence in the ACT in 2014, with Gabriela Woutersz charged over the death of her mother, Norma Cheryl Woutersz, 56, at their Dunlop home in October.

That incident was followed by four domestic violence deaths within weeks in a string of alleged killings at the start of 2015 that rocked the capital and prompted a swift call to action from residents, crisis support groups and political leaders.

Tara Costigan, 28, Neal Wilkinson, 61, Sabah Al-Mdwali, 28, and Daniela D'Addario, 35, all died allegedly due to domestic violence.

The fresh data covered states and territories except Tasmania and the bureau warned it could not be easily compared between jurisdictions because police data collection methods differed greatly across borders.

The family and domestic violence flag is among several indicators police use to determine whether an offence is family and domestic violence-related and is not applied to all incidents.