Fewer women are fleeing to abuse shelters, a continuing trend, but a lack of housing is a growing reason for women staying there, a new study by Statistics Canada says.

Three per cent fewer women stayed in shelters for victims of abuse in 2003-04 compared with 2001-02, the same decrease as from 1997-98 to 2001-02.

But the study released on Wednesday also said women staying in shelters for reasons other than abuse jumped 11 per cent during 2003-04 compared with the previous survey period.

A one-day snapshot of 473 shelters across Canada found nearly a third of the women had been there at least once before.

Of those, 40 per cent had been there in the past year and nearly as many had been there two to four times within the past year.

The biennial survey from April 1, 2003, to March 31, 2004, found 95,326 admissions – 58,486 women and 36,840 children.

Women suffering abuse made up three-quarters of visitors while the remaining one-quarter were there for other reasons. Two-thirds of these said they couldn't find affordable housing. The rest arrived mostly because of addictions and mental illness.

Of the women who fled their own homes due to abuse, seven out of 10 reported physical abuse. Half of them said they had been threatened, 46 per cent reported financial abuse, 31 per cent harassment and 27 per cent sexual abuse.

About one-third of the women on the snapshot day said they had reported their most recent abusive incident to police.

Almost two-thirds of women leaving shelters on snapshot day said they did not intend to return to their spouse or partner, but about one-quarter did not report where they planned to go.

Women between the ages of 25 and 34 made up the largest proportion, a third, of those staying in shelters.

A fifth of all shelters had to refer women elsewhere because they were full, or the women were dealing with addictions or mental illness, or because they had been barred.