Background: Globally, at least one in three women have experienced any form of sexual violence. Women who are the victim of sexual violence are suffering from psychological, social, economical and health related problems at all stages of life. However, evidences on the contributing factors of this violence at the community and individual level are limited. Hence, this study aimed to identify individual and community level factors of sexual violence against women in Ethiopia.

Methods: The data source for this study was from Ethiopia demography and health survey 2016 dataset. The survey used a  two-stage stratified cluster sampling design; selecting first a random sample of enumeration areas, followed by a random sample of households. A total of 5860 women age 15-49 were interviewed about domestic violence module. Data extraction, coding, and analysis were done using Stata 14 software. Sampling weight was applied to account for the difference in probabilities of sample selection. Multilevel logistic regression model were fitted to identify individual and community level factors affecting sexual violence.

Results: From a total of 5860 women, 10.06%(95% CI: 8.80,11.47) of them experienced sexual violence in their life time by their husbands or partners or other persons. Sexual violence was associated with women’s age group above 30 years, protestant religion (AOR=1.58; 95%CI: 1.01, 2.48), households with a middle wealth index (AOR=1.54; 95 % CI:1.03,2.30), and husbands who consumed alcohol (AOR=2.72; 95% CI 2.01, 3.70). And also, the odds of sexual violence against women was higher in Metropolis(Addis Ababa and Drie Dawa), Oromia and Tigray regions.

Conclusions: Sexual violence against women in Ethiopia was a significant public health problem. Women older than 30 years, women with middle wealth index, women who had Protestant religion and women whose husbands consumed alcohol were predominantly victim for sexual violence. Hence, giving health education as part of existing maternal health program and women’s economic empowerment is needed to reduce the risk of violence.