Prostitution: what the law says, country by country

This is a page of legal and social information. It lists no places or services, describes nothing and recommends nothing: it explains what the law allows, forbids and punishes in each country, and where to find help.

Three models around the world

Almost every country has a law on prostitution, and almost all punish its exploitation by a third party. The difference lies in what they do with the act itself and the two people involved. Three broad families can be distinguished.

• Prohibition: the act is illegal and both the prostituted person and the client can be punished. This is the regime of the United States (a misdemeanour in every state except a few rural counties of Nevada; a fine, a short jail term and a criminal record), China (administrative detention of up to fifteen days and a fine; the "custody and education" camps were abolished in 2019), Russia (administrative fine), South Korea (2004 law punishing both parties), the Philippines, Thailand (illegal since 1960 but widely tolerated) and most Muslim countries: in Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Emirates and Afghanistan prostitution falls under zina and is punished by prison, flogging, deportation for foreigners and sometimes death. A traveller caught with a prostituted person in these countries risks jail; embassies can do nothing.
• Regulation: prostitution is a legal activity framed by licences, registers, sometimes health checks and permitted zones. This is the Netherlands (brothels legal since 2000; Amsterdam's red-light district, De Wallen, with its windows, is the symbol, but the city has closed more than a third of them since 2007, raised the minimum age to 21 and decided to move the trade to an "erotic centre" outside the historic centre), Germany (2002 law, then the 2017 Prostitutes Protection Act requiring registration, a health consultation and condoms; about 30,000 registered for an estimated real number ten times higher), Switzerland, Austria (register and weekly health checks), Greece, Turkey (state-licensed brothels, being phased out), Senegal (the only African country to have legalised it, in 1969, with a health card), Uruguay, much of Latin America and a few counties of Nevada. New Zealand (Prostitution Reform Act 2003), New South Wales (1995), Victoria (2022–23), the Northern Territory and, since 2022, Belgium go further: full decriminalisation, prostitution treated as work like any other — Belgium even passed a law in December 2024 giving sex workers employment contracts, social security and the right to refuse a client or an act.
• Abolitionism, or the "Nordic model": the prostituted person is not punishable and is seen as a victim to be helped; the pimp is punished and, since Sweden in 1999, so is the client. Norway and Iceland followed in 2009, Canada in 2014 (Bill C-36), Northern Ireland in 2015, France in 2016, the Republic of Ireland in 2017, Israel in 2020. Great Britain, Italy, Spain and Portugal sit in between: the act is not an offence, but soliciting, brothel-keeping or profiting from someone else's prostitution are.

The United Kingdom: legal to sell, illegal around it

In England, Wales and Scotland, selling or buying sex between adults is not itself a crime. Almost everything around it is: soliciting in a street or public place (Street Offences Act 1959, now only after persistent conduct), kerb-crawling by clients (Sexual Offences Act 1985, up to £1,000), keeping or managing a brothel — which in law is any premises where more than one person sells sex, so two women working together for safety are committing an offence — (Sexual Offences Act 1956, up to seven years), controlling prostitution for gain (Sexual Offences Act 2003, up to seven years), and, since 2009, paying for sex with a person subjected to force, which is a strict-liability offence: the client is guilty even if he did not know. Paying for sex with anyone under 18 carries up to seven years (life if under 13). Northern Ireland criminalised the purchase of sex in 2015. Estimates run at 60,000 to 80,000 people in prostitution in the UK, with most contacts now made online; adult-services websites have been the subject of parliamentary inquiries, and the Online Safety Act 2023 now obliges platforms to act against trafficking adverts. Strip clubs are licensed as "sexual entertainment venues" under the Policing and Crime Act 2009, with no contact permitted; hostess bars selling company and drinks are legal but a classic tourist trap.

Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand

• Ireland. Since the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, buying sex is an offence (fine up to €500, €1,000 on repetition), selling is not, and brothel-keeping remains a crime — with the same two-person problem as Britain. Ruhama supports women leaving prostitution; the law's review (2022) recommended keeping it.
• United States. Illegal everywhere except licensed brothels in seven rural Nevada counties (not Las Vegas or Reno). Both parties are arrested — typically the seller far more often — and the client faces "john school", fines and, in some states, public naming. FOSTA-SESTA (2018) made websites liable for facilitating prostitution and closed Backpage. Trafficking is prosecuted under the TVPA (2000), with the T visa for victims who cooperate; Polaris runs the national hotline.
• Canada. The Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (2014) adopted the Nordic model: buying sex, advertising it and profiting from another person's prostitution are crimes; selling is not. The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the law in 2025.
• Australia. A state matter: fully decriminalised in New South Wales (1995), the Northern Territory (2019), Victoria (2022) and Queensland (2024); licensed brothels in the ACT; still criminalised in South Australia and Western Australia; Tasmania punishes brothels but not private work.
• New Zealand. The Prostitution Reform Act 2003 was the first full decriminalisation in the world: sex work is lawful for citizens and residents over 18, with employment rights and health obligations; it remains illegal for temporary migrants, which is the main criticism.

Pimping: what the law punishes

Whatever the model, living off, controlling, organising or profiting from another person's prostitution is a crime everywhere in the English-speaking world: up to seven years in the UK ("controlling prostitution for gain", "causing or inciting"), fourteen years in Canada for "material benefit" and life for procuring a minor, ten years or more in most US states. Whoever takes the money — a boyfriend, a "manager", a landlord who knows — is a pimp in the eyes of the law, whatever the feelings involved.

Human trafficking

Recruiting, transporting, harbouring or receiving a person in order to exploit them — by force, deception, abuse of vulnerability or payment to a third party — is human trafficking, defined by the Palermo Protocol (2000) and, in Britain, punished under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 with up to life imprisonment. The National Referral Mechanism received a record 19,000 potential victims in 2024; sexual exploitation is the main form for women and girls, with Romanian, Albanian, Nigerian, Chinese, Brazilian and Vietnamese nationals most represented, alongside British girls groomed by gangs. Victims are entitled to a reflection period, safe accommodation (the Salvation Army holds the government contract), and a defence for offences committed under compulsion. The page Slavery today sets trafficking in its history.

Health and safety

People in prostitution accumulate risks: sexually transmitted infections (testing is free at sexual health clinics; PrEP and post-exposure treatment are available to all), violence (National Ugly Mugs logs several hundred attacks a year in the UK), precarity, substance use, mental ill-health. Health outreach services — the NHS sexual health clinics, Open Doors (London), Basis (Leeds), the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective — provide care without conditions; Beyond the Streets, Ruhama and the exit programmes support leaving. The two networks, which disagree on the law, agree on one thing: no one should be left alone with what they are living. On the client's side, the pages on sexually transmitted infections and on consent recall the essentials.

And elsewhere

France: brothels banned since 1946, clients fined €1,500 since 2016. Spain: no law on the act, a bill to adopt the Nordic model before parliament. Italy: the Merlin law of 1958 closed brothels; street prostitution is not a crime, but municipal by-laws fine clients. Germany: legal and regulated. Japan: intercourse for payment banned since 1956, while a large "fūzoku" industry operates in the gaps of the law. India: the act is legal, brothels, soliciting and pimping are not. The country pages of the Countries section and the page on slavery today complete this page.