As much as 53% of British women and 20% of men have been sexually harassed at the workplace or a place of study, a BBC survey released on Wednesday said. Of those who said they had experienced sexual harassment, 63% of the women and 79% of the men said they did not report the act.

Market research consultancy ComRes conducted the survey for BBC Radio 5, with a sample size of over 2,000 respondents. As much as 45% of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 and 33% of those above 34 said they had been sexually harassed.

Some 7% of the men and 3% of the women said they had witnessed a colleague or fellow student being sexually harassed.

Of the respondents who said they had faced sexual harassment, 43% – 57% men and 38% women – said they were harassed by a colleague from the same organisational level as theirs. However, 30% of women said they had been harassed by a senior manager or boss, compared to 12% men.

However, 48% of women who revealed harassment said they were more likely to report it today than five years ago. The corresponding figure for men was 26%. Around 8% of the respondents said they had quit their job because of the harassment.