Perfect numbers, like perfect men, are very rare. – Rene Descartes
Yesterday’s “Frequently Told Lies” inspired me to look back at “Handy Figures“, a compilation of numbers and figures which previously appeared in other columns; I had originally intended to keep updating it, but it somehow seemed wrong to make major alterations to an old column so I lapsed. Since then, I came up with the idea of duplicating these retrospective-type columns into static pages, and that’s worked out so well I figured it was time to do the same with this useful reference tool. Much of it is the same as the old column, but there are additional figures and better links, and I’ve rounded my estimates off in response to the justified criticism that very specific numbers don’t look like estimates, but rather exact counts.
$32 billion: Current claim of the total annual income of the “sex trafficking” industry; this was actually the ILO’s 2005 estimate of the value of all forced labor, not forced prostitution.
42 million: Fondation Scelles’ estimate of the total world whore population; it’s not really bad, but see 19 below.
27 million: According to a December 2010 “estimate” by “Free the Slaves”, the total number of people “trapped in modern-day slavery” (see also 2.4 million and 800,000 below).
$22.6 million: Total estimated annual amount the State of Texas spends on imprisoning prostitutes.
2.4 million: UNODC estimate of the number of “trafficking” victims worldwide (see also 27 million above; 800,000 and 40,000 below).
800,000: According to the U.S. State Department’s “Trafficking in Persons” report for 2004, the total number of “human trafficking victims” worldwide (see also 27 million and 2.4 million above; 80,000, 14,500 and >10% below).
450,000: Estimated number of active, professional prostitutes in the US.
$300,000: Prohibitionist claim of a typical hooker’s annual income.
100,000-300,000: According to trafficking fanatics, the number of “trafficked child prostitutes” in the US (see also 16,000, 14,500 and 2500 below).
100,000: According to one “estimate”, the number of “trafficked” Vietnamese manicurist/whores hidden in nail salons in the UK.
80,000: The number of Filipino women who lost good jobs in Japan due to U.S. State Department meddling (see also 800,000 above and >10% below).
70,000: Estimated number of street prostitutes in the US (see also 450,000 above).
30,000-45,000: Total number of whores supposedly “trafficked” into Israel from 1991-2006, who magically vanished after a law was passed.
40,000: The number of “trafficking victims” for which UNODC claims to have actual evidence (see also 2.4 million above and 1362 below).
10,000-40,000: Typical “estimates” of the number of whores claimed to flock to mega sport events such as the Super Bowl or Olympics (see also 1 below).
14,500-17,500: 2008 federal estimate of all “trafficked persons” of all ages and employment types (sex, agriculture, etc) in the US.
16,000: Estimated number of all American prostitutes under 18.
2500: Estimated number of coerced prostitutes under 18 in the US.
1362: The total number of “human trafficking victims” (all types, not just sex) identified as such in the US from 2000-2007 (see also 14,500 above).
600: Estimated number of “pimped” underage prostitutes in the entire US who advertise online.
160x: High-end estimate of the factor by which the rate of sexually transmitted infections in the promiscuous segment of the general public exceeds that in the escort population (see also 3-5%, 2x and 0.4% below).
133: The total number of arrests made in the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area during the 2.5 weeks before the 2011 Super Bowl, which is now represented by “trafficking” fetishists as the number of “trafficking” arrests (see also 1 below).
97%: Percentage of escorts who report an increase in self-esteem after they entered the trade (see also 72% and 60% below).
97%: Fraction of Turkish harlots who prefer to work illegally rather than be registered and subjugated in brothels.
95%: Fraction of underage New York City street prostitutes who say they sell sex because it is the most dependable way to support themselves.
90%: Fraction of sex workers in Queensland who prefer to work illegally (see also 97% above).
85%: Fraction of sexually-active Bahamian teens who are involved in some kind of transactional sex.
84%: Fraction of underage prostitutes in New York City who have never even met a pimp.
81%: Fraction of Swedes who report being “angry” about client criminalization (contrast with the Swedish government claim that 76% support the law).
80%: According to the UNDOC, the fraction of “human trafficking” cases involving forced prostitution (see also 20% below).
78%: Fraction of Dutch citizens who feel prostitution is a job like any other.
77%: Fraction of escorts who feel their clients respect them.
77%: Fraction of Canadians who support decriminalization.
75%: Fraction of escorts who feel the job improved their lives.
72%: Fraction of all prostitutes who report that their work has increased their self-esteem (see also 97% above).
70%: Fraction of Australian whores who said they would choose the same trade if they had their lives to live over again.
70%: Fraction of Dutch sex workers who aren’t Dutch by birth.
69%: According to Kinsey (1948), the fraction of men who have paid for sex at least once in their lives; it is probably somewhat lower now due to the increased availability of “free” sex.
60%: Fraction of American prostitutes who are escorts (either independent or agency).
54%: Fraction of escorts who consider the transaction as equal.
>50%: Of streetwalkers with pimps (see below), the fraction who control their pimps rather than vice-versa.
<50%: Fraction of streetwalkers who work with pimps at least part of the time.
50: As of June 2012, the high-water mark in ridiculous claims of the number of clients per night hookers supposedly see.
48%: The amount by which sexual coercion has decreased in Germany since prostitution laws were liberalized in 2002.
45%: Fraction of underage New York City street prostitutes who are male.
34: Though often presented as the average life expectancy of sex workers, this is actually the average age of murdered streetwalkers from one study.
33%: Sweden’s official estimate of the fraction of all Swedish prostitutes who are streetwalkers; note that it is more than twice as high as the standard estimate for Western countries (see 15% below).
28%: The factor by which the number of prostitutes rose in Norway after client criminalization.
26%: Fraction of escorts who feel they have power over their clients.
25%: Estimated decrease in the American rape rate if prostitution were legal.
25%: Fraction of Queensland prostitutes with a university degree.
25: The average age at which American prostitutes enter the trade.
20%: Fraction of men who see prostitutes at least occasionally.
20%: More realistic estimate (heard at Albany Law Symposium) of fraction of all “human trafficking” which is for sexual purposes (see also 80% above).
19: Prohibitionist group Fondation Scelles’ claim of the average age of all whores worldwide (see 25 above).
16: The average age at which underage prostitutes enter the trade (see also 13-14 below).
15%: Estimated fraction of all Western prostitutes who worked on the street prior to the advent of the internet.
13: According to prohibitionist propaganda, the average age at which prostitutes enter the trade; this is derived from a purposeful distortion by Melissa Farley of the age at which underage streetwalkers in one study reported they had their first noncommercial sexual contact of any kind.
12.5%: According to a 2005 “estimate” by Atlanta police, the fraction of the city’s Asian population who are “sex slaves” (see also 3% below).
11%: In a 1910 study, the fraction of New York prostitutes who reported that they were coerced into the trade (from Renegade History of the United States; see also 8% below).
11: The number of US states which allow prostitutes to be sentenced to prison.
10.5%: Fraction of Chicagoans charged with buying sex who are actually transgender prostitutes.
>10%: According to the U.S. State Department’s TIP report for 2004, the fraction of all “human trafficking victims” in the entire world who were “enslaved” in Japanese hostess clubs (see also 800,000 and 80,000 above).
10%: Fraction of Dutch prostitutes who are genetically male; half are male prostitutes (many of them cross-dressers) and the other half transgender.
10%: Fraction of Swedish girls who admit to having accepted money for sex.
10%: Estimated fraction of streetwalkers in Western countries who are controlled or dominated by pimps (see also 1.5% below). It is also the fraction of underage streetwalkers who have pimps at all.
<10%: Fraction of all women accused of being underage hookers who are actually under 18.
5-10%: Historically, the fraction of women who prostituted themselves at least part-time, varying by time and place (from Whores in History).
8%: High-end estimate for the fraction of female inhabitants of 1840s London who worked as prostitutes (from Whores in History).
8%: Fraction of underage New York prostitutes who say they were forced into prostitution.
7%: Approximate fraction of sex workers arrested in FBI “Innocence Lost” operations who are actually under 18.
6%: Fraction of men who see prostitutes frequently.
5.5%: Typical fraction of women in a 19th-century European or American city employed as prostitutes at any given time (from Whores in History).
3-5%: Fraction of STD cases in the United States which are either suffered or transmitted by prostitutes; 93% of these are associated with streetwalkers (see also 160x above and 2x and 0.4% below).
4%: Approximate fraction of school-age girls in the US who would now be “sex slaves” if the “estimates” of hysterics were true.
4%: Approximate conviction rate for “trafficking” arrests made in the FBI’s “Operation Innocence Lost”.
3.5%: Estimated fraction of Western prostitutes who are under 18.
3%: According to “trafficking” hysterics, the fraction of all underage hookers in the entire US who work in Atlanta (see also 12.5% and 16,000 above).
2.3%: Fraction of women in the general population who report their husbands or boyfriends are “extremely controlling”.
2 hours: Typical average cost of the least expensive hookers’ services in comparison with the average working man’s pay in most cultures.
2x: Factor by which the rate of sexually transmitted infections in the promiscuous segment of the general public exceeds that in streetwalkers (see also 160x and 3-5% above, and 0.4% below).
<2%: Fraction of Cambodian prostitutes who say they were coerced into the trade (see also 1.5% below).
1.5%: Overall estimated fraction of adult prostitutes in Western nations who are controlled by abusive pimps.
1.2%: Fraction of women in the general population who report their husbands or boyfriends are “extremely violent”.
1%: Fraction of modern American women who admit to having worked as whores at some point in their lives (from Sex Work).
<1%: The fraction of “brothel” raids in which UK police found someone they could accuse of being “trafficked”; also the fraction of “trafficked” Greek whores.
1: The number of arrests for “human trafficking” during Super Bowl week in both Miami (2010) and Dallas (2011) (see also 40,000 and 133 above).
0.4%: The estimated fraction of all STD cases in the United States which are either suffered or transmitted by escorts or brothel workers (see also 160x, 3-5% and 2x above).
0.3%: Fraction of women in modern Western cultures who work as prostitutes at any given time.
0.014%: Fraction of missing “children” (most of whom are actually adolescents) who are abducted by strangers for any reason.
0 Number of traffickers who forced people into prostitution found in police Operation Pentameter 2 in the UK in 2009
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/oct/20/government-trafficking-enquiry-fails
(btw, I’m not sure that a percentage can be described as a ‘fraction’.)
A percentage is a fraction with denominator 100, I think.
Correct. 15% is the same as 15/100.
Thank you Maggie for quantifying this information.
Off topic: a song I encountered lately (it was recorded in 1972, but I didn’t listen to country music then): Sammi Smith’s recording of Girl in New Orleans
(Troy Seals – Don Goodman)
Left a family back in Kansas followed him to New Orleans
But it wasn’t long till the thrill was gone then one mornin’ so was he
What’s a girl to do in New Orleans see her hungry child
With the darkness to hide the things that I did I took care of me and the kid.
I’ve been lived on and loved on since the day I turned sixteen
And I can’t count the ways Lord I’ve been used
I saw all the uptown ladies and don’t they look so fine
But they’re just like me but the men they see pay a lot more for their time.
Here comes the night again downtown lights are comin’ on
And I know it won’t be long till I’ll be there
Lord, I know it won’t be long till I’ll be there…
Yes, a percentage is indeed a fraction whose denominator is 100.
0.3% of all women in all Western cultures working at prostitution at any particular time seems pretty high to me, but that’s just sub-intuitive guessing on my part. On the other hand, if 6% of the men are seeing prostitutes “frequently,” and only 0.3% of the women are working at prostitution, that’s 20 frequent customers for each businesswoman, which doesn’t seem unreasonable. So maybe that makes sense after all. Depends on what “frequently” means, I suppose.
Difficult to have reliable statistics on activity that Our Glorious Supervisors have made criminal. Thanks, supervisors.
You can follow the link to see how it was derived. 🙂
I followed it, without seeing the 0.3%; on revisiting it just now, I do see that figure, slightly disguised as 0.285%. I shouldn’t have missed it the first time. The New Zealand data should be completely reliable, and extrapolating that to the rest of the western world seems pretty safe also. Thanks!
I decided to round off my estimates from that column and others; I’ve received the criticism that when an estimate isn’t a “round” number it looks like a count rather than an estimate, and I think that’s a valid criticism. So 443,323 became 450,000, 0.285 became 0.3, 2511 became 2500, etc.
Yes, one or maybe two significant figures of precision is plenty, even though the New Zealand data from which your fraction is calculated contain more significant figures of precision. Because really, what these numbers are good for is setting a scale: approximately how many people, or what fraction of the people, are doing sex work in this way or that. The collection of numbers that you’ve pulled together here constitutes a valuable resource, in a day in which innumeracy combines with an aggressive, agenda-driven disregard for truth and accuracy in what passes for journalism. Ya done good!
Kind of on topic here – but not too much …
Maggie, how come so many of your fellow hookers actually buy in to the trafficking bullshit? This always comes up with 18 year old providers who advertise online. Now – I won’t see a teenaged provider – because there is no way I can verify her age and an 18 year old is only one “clock second” displaced from a felony conviction. Not enough margin for error with me. Besides that – I like older women anyway (late 30’s / 40’s).
But too many hookers believe these girls are actually trafficked by pimps. Now I suppose there is an argument that SOMEONE has to help them – they’re too young to get a hotel room by themselves. But ask most hookers down here and they’ll tell you the girls are drug addicts and trafficked.
The women I know in this business who are Moms go to great lengths to shelter their kids from what they do – that’s fine – they should do that I think. BUT – I get the feeling that, for a lot of them, if their daughters chose to enter the profession at some point they’d consider themselves a failure as a parent. WTF?
Have you ever read “Rhinoceros“? It has your answer.
Yeah I remember reading that – but …
I think it’s a huge problem, and it’s depressing.
Hmmm.
Another thing to consider. These woman are just part of overall society so they tend to buy into the same things. It is really only people who do some research who find out the trafficking is mostly a myth.
I know a couple of escorts who buy into a lot of the trafficking myths as well. But remember, not all of my and Maggie’s colleagues are actively political. Like Ted said, these ladies are otherwise just part of mainstream society and just as susceptible to believing the myths until they look closer.
Hi! I love lists and number and quantifying things, so I like this list. I do have a question, however.
“60% Fraction of American prostitutes who are escorts (either independent or agency).”
What is the difference here between an escort and a prostitute? Is this a distinction between an indoor prostitute and a street-based worker? Or escorts as opposed to the whole sex worker community? Please advise.
Thank you,
Miss Margo
“Prostitute” is a much larger term, encompassing street workers, brothel workers, call girls, etc. To me, the term “escort” implies either a mobile hooker, or an independent incall provider (vs. one who works in a brothel). It could also be viewed as a girl who works from an ad (hers or another’s) vs. one who has to make face-to-face contact to advertise (on the street or in a brothel). My estimates for US trade are 15% street, 25% brothel/massage parlor, 60% escort.
Hey Maggie–
I shared this column on my Facebook homepage with the comment, “As usual, Maggie McNeill gives the real numbers, not the hyped up estimates of moral crusaders, left and right, who do not believe that women can make their own decisions, especially if they disagree with the Christian Right’s and Neo-Feminist Left’s view of the world.”
We can only hope this gets a small percentage of people reconsidering their limited worldview.
Unless i’m mistaken ,here’s another stat : Page 10 opening paragraph of Kuosmanen report : 86% of swedes think levels of prostitution are as high/higher than pre Swedish Model legislation a decade earlier.
http://myweb.dal.ca/mgoodyea/Documents/Sweden/Attitudes%20and%20perceptions%20about%20legislation%20prohibiting%20the%20purchase%20of%20sexual%20services%20in%20Sweden%20Kuosmanen%202011%20Eur%20J%20Soc%20Work.pdf
If they’d asked us, we could have told them. For a lot less money.
Awesome and informative Blog. Made a permanent link from my Website which also advocates for whores. So glad you are posting these numbers and keeping track of the persecution. I specifically posted the link to Harlots in the Bible. I wanted to ask to be listed but the right column emails don’t work for me. I may be a curve ball for you, but I advocate getting girls under 18 out of the sex business because they don’t have the cognitive ability to link the costs of reproduction to the price of sex. For adults, being free for love doesn’t keep one from being a whore, it just keeps the boyfriend from becoming a man.
My sites are testimony that Jesus himself is the harlot’s best advocate and savior. Since you quote the Bible from time to time, I believe you’ll enjoy my interpretation. There will never be peace between “free for lovers” and whores/providers, one side or the other will prevail. I won’t explain further, but think about it.
Cordially and Thank you so much.
Eli, you might want to check out my March 2012 OpEdNews article “Making Sex a Crime,” for more statistics etc. Maggie was kind enough to give it a quick read through before submission. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Making-Sex-a-Crime-by-Richard-Girard-120324-103.html
Dear freegirard,
Yes your article helps to restore the dignity of harlots. Thanks. My angle is that depriving women of sexual value creates reproductive slavery. In this sense, the premier child sex slave procurers in the world are the US public schools. Then this “free for love” girl can’t figure out who pays the costs of reproduction; as she’s giving sex away her hand is out to the taxpayer. It’s intolerable but no one is telling this girl the truth about our expectations. We expect women to replicate the results of whores without allowing her to be one. Male selfishness gone wild. My site: GodSaveWhores.com
This world is big enough for women who sell sex, and for women who give it away. Both are needed, as not all men have much in the way of money.
This is a fantastic resource. One thing it would be nice to have added: Most of these link back to prior columns of yours. Could you link them to the original studies as well? It would be helpful for people who want to go down the list and verify sources.
The columns they link to contain full explanations, including links to original sources.
You have done a remarkable thing here Maggie. It shouldn’t be; doing a little math or consulting with someone who can, thinking through implications (if the prohibitionists are right, then one out of every one thousand Americans IS a trafficked underage sex slave) and looking stuff up should be basic stuff anyone calling himself a journalist does, but so many don’t. So thank you for doing something remarkable.
[…] 5.5 per cent of women were working as prostitutes at any given time. Today’s estimate is 0.3 per cent of all women. It therefore seems logical to conclude that the best way to “end demand” for paid sex […]