This paper exploits unique quantitative data from Ghana to investigate gendered experiences of
inter-personal domestic and non-domestic violence in urban and rural areas. Urban areas are characterised
by lower levels of domestic violence against women but higher levels of non-domestic violence
against men than rural areas. We conduct Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition analyses to identify the
sources of these differences. Urban areas reduce violence through higher welfare, education and employment
outcomes, and lower alcohol consumption and polygamy prevalence than in rural areas.
But more people living alone and wider insecurity in urban environments have the opposite effect on
domestic and non-domestic violence.