Prostitution statistics by country


In 2012 it was estimated that there were between 40 and 42 million prostitutes in the world. The list of countries below provides an estimate for the number of people working as prostitutes in each country. China, India, and the United States are the countries with the most prostitutes in absolute numbers, as indicated in the chart below, although other countries have higher rates of prostitution.

Methodology

There are a number of difficulties involved in collecting meaningful prostitution statistics. For example, the greater visibility of some forms of prostitution, such as street prostitution, makes statistics on these forms easier to collect. However, in some countries street prostitution forms a much smaller part of the sex industry than indoor prostitution. Similarly sex workers with health, addiction and other support needs are more likely to be known to the authorities and hence easier for researchers to contact, but may not be representative of prostitution as a whole. National Ugly Mugs, a support organisation for sex workers in the United Kingdom, has identified several factors making it difficult to collect statistics for the sex industry, including low response rates, the small scale of research compared to the size of the sex industry, and the diversity of the industry. As a result published statistics are often conflicting and contested.
In countries where prostitution is illegal, the use of arrest data to create general prostitution statistics can be misleading. The majority of prostitutes are never arrested, and those who are, can often be charged with other offences instead. Class bias may be introduced into the statistics as a result of police officers being more likely to arrest street prostitutes than high-class call girls. In comparing one area with another there may be differences in the definition of a crime, the police enforcement rate, and the possibility of the inflation of arrest figures or the under-reporting of crime.
Due to the unregulated and often illegal nature of the work, only estimates are available for the number of prostitutes in a country. The numbers for a country can vary considerably dependent on the source. Some countries' numbers may suffer from poor methodology. In other cases, results may be influenced by whether the organisation producing the numbers is for or against the nature of the work. Where available, figures are taken from Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS 2016 "Sex Workers: Size Estimates."
CountryNumber of prostitutes
Source: UNAIDS 2016 - 2018
Sex Workers: Size Estimates		Number of prostitutes
Other sources and year		PopulationPrevalence
Afghanistan12,500 34,656,0324
AlbaniaNo data5,000 - 30,000 2,926,34817 - 103
AlgeriaNo data40,606,052-
Angola54,000 28,813,46319
Antigua and BarbudaNo data800 100,96379
Argentina74,900 43,847,43017
Armenia9,000 2,924,81630
Australia20,500 20,000 24,125,8488
Austria No data30,000 8,712,13734
Azerbaijan13,800 9,725,37614
Bahamas3,035 391,23278
BahrainNo data13,500 1,425,17195
Bangladesh140,000 162,951,5601
Belarus22,000 9,480,04223
BelgiumNo data26,000 11,358,37923
Benin28,800 10,872,29826
Bhutan400 - 500 797,7655 - 6
Bolivia31,000 10,887,88229
Bosnia and Herzegovina4,000 3,516,81611
Botswana4,200 2,250,26019
Brazil1,400,000 207,652,86526
Bulgaria10,000 7,131,49414
Burkina Faso31,000 18,646,43317
Burundi51,000 10,524,11749
Cambodia34,000 15,762,37022
Cameroon70,500 23,439,18947
CanadaNo data36,289,822-
Cape Verde1,400 539,56026
Central African Republic782 4,594,6212
Chad1,200 14,452,5431
ChileNo data4,980 17,909,7542 - 3
ChinaNo data2,800,000 - 4,500,000 1,403,500,36514 - 32
Colombia244,400 48,653,4192
Comoros200 795,6013
Congo9,700 5,125,821-
Costa Rica3,000 15,000 4,857,27431
CroatiaNo data21,066 4,213,26550
Cuba82,500 11,475,98278
CyprusNo data1,170,125-
Czech Republic13,000 10,610,94712
Democratic Republic of the Congo350,300 78,736,15345
DenmarkNo data6,000 5,711,87011
Djibouti2,900 942,33331
Dominican Republic97,800 10,648,79156 - 94
East Timor1,700 1,268,67113
Ecuador34,400 16,385,06821
Egypt23,000 95,688,6812
El Salvador20,000 6,344,72232
Equatorial Guinea5,800 1,221,49041
Eritrea1,600 4,954,6453
Estonia1,000 1,312,4427
Ethiopia85,000 102,403,1962
Federated States of Micronesia290 104,93729
Fiji900 898,76010
FinlandNo data4,000 5,503,1327
FranceNo data30,000 64,720,6905
Gabon368 1,979,7862
Gambia3,100 2,038,50115
Georgia6,500 3,925,40517
GermanyNo data300,000 81,914,67237
Ghana52,000 28,206,72818
GreeceNo data10,500 –15,000 11,183,7169 - 13
Guatemala83,000 16,582,46916
Guinea8,400 12,395,9247
Guinea-Bissau3,100 1,815,69817
Guyana5,300 773,30369
Haiti70,300 10,847,33465
Honduras22,800 9,112,86725
HungaryNo data20,000 - 25,000 9,753,28121 - 26
India657,800 1,324,171,3545
Indonesia226,800 261,115,4569
Iran90,000 91,500 80,277,42811
IraqNo data37,202,572-
Ireland1,000 4,726,0782
IsraelNo data12,000 8,191,82815
ItalyNo data60,000 59,429,93810
Ivory Coast10,900 23,695,9194
Jamaica18,700 2,881,35566
JapanNo data127,748,513-
JordanNo data9,455,802-
Kazakhstan19,000 17,987,73611
Kenya167,900 48,461,56735
Kiribati114 114,39510
KuwaitNo data4,052,584-
Kyrgyzstan7,100 5,955,73412
Laos13,000 6,758,35319
LatviaNo data29,558 1,970,530150
Lebanon4,300 6,006,6687
Lesotho7,500 2,203,82129
Liberia163,100 4,613,8232
LibyaNo data6,293,253-
LithuaniaNo data1,000 – 3,000 2,908,2493 - 10
LuxembourgNo data300 575,7475
Macedonia3,600 2,081,20617
Madagascar191,200 24,894,55168
Malawi9,300 18,091,5755
Malaysia21,000 31,187,2657
MaldivesNo data1,139 427,75627
Mali36,000 17,994,83720
Marshall Islands250 53,06647
Mauritania315 4,301,0181
Mauritius6,200 1,262,13249
Mexico240,000 127,540,42319
Moldova12,000 4,059,60830
Mongolia1,300 3,027,3984
Morocco72,000 36,276,78621
Mozambique27,300 28,829,4765
Myanmar66,000 52,885,22313
Nepal67,000 28,982,77123
Namibia8,100 2,479,71333
Netherlands25,000 16,987,33015
New Zealand3,500 5,932 4,660,83313
Nicaragua14,800 6,149,92829
Niger47,000 20,672,98723
Nigeria410,000 103,500 185,989,6405
North KoreaNo data25,000 25,368,62010
NorwayNo data3,000 5,254,6946
OmanNo data4,424,762-
Pakistan228,800 193,203,47612
PalestineNo data4,790,705-
Panama8,300 4,034,11913
Papua New GuineaNo data8,084,991-
Paraguay3,400 6,725,3085
Peru67,000 31,773,83921
Philippines210,000 103,320,22215
PolandNo data19,000 38,224,4105
Portugal No data28,000 10,371,62727
QatarNo data2,569,804-
RomaniaNo data158,225 19,778,08380
RussiaNo data719,822 143,964,51350
Rwanda12,000 11,917,50810
Samoa400 195,12521
São Tomé and Príncipe89 199,9105
Saudi ArabiaNo data32,275,687-
Senegal21,000 15,411,61414
Serbia3,900 8,820,0834
Seychelles586 94,22862
Sierra Leone240,000 7,396,190325
SingaporeNo data5,622,455-
Slovakia No data21,777 5,444,21840
SloveniaNo data2000-30002,077,86214
Somalia11,000 14,317,9967
South Africa24,000 56,015,4734
South KoreaNo data50,791,919-
South Sudan5,000 12,230,7304
Spain70,300 46,347,57615
Sri Lanka14,000 20,798,4927
Sudan212,500 39,578,82853
Suriname2,200 558,36839
Swaziland4,000 1,343,09830
SwedenNo data2,500 9,837,5333
Switzerland20,000 8,401,73924
Syria25,000 18,430,45314
TaiwanNo data100,000 23,556,70643
Tajikistan14,000 8,734,95116
Tanzania160,000 55,572,20129
Thailand144,000 68,863,51420
Togo10,000 7,606,37413
Tonga1,000 107,12293
Tunisia25,000 11,403,24822
TurkeyNo data100,000+ 79,512,42613+
TurkmenistanNo data5,663 5,662,54410
Tuvalu10 11,0979
Trinidad and Tobago1000 1,353,8957.3
Uganda130,000 41,487,965-
Ukraine86,600 44,438,62518
United Arab EmiratesNo data30,000 9,269,61232
United KingdomNo data72,800 65,788,57411
United States No data1,000,000-2,000,000 322,179,60531
Uruguay8,200 3,444,00624
Uzbekistan22,000 31,446,7957
Vanuatu2,000 270,40274
VenezuelaNo data473,523 31,568,179150
Vietnam86,000 94,569,0727
Yemen54,000 27,584,21320
Zambia9,300 16,591,3906
ZimbabweNo data12,383 16,150,3628