Prostitution Rates Falling

The Great Recession continues. As it rages on, many industries are taking hits in the profit department. One of these industries feeling the effects is the prostitution business. With people making less money and the prices for life’s necessities rising, getting a prostitute to satisfy one’s sexual urges is seen as  a luxury. Because of this, those practicing the “world’s oldest profession” are seeing less action in the street.

Thanks to the gradual online integration of prostitution, a study was enabled that took the online profiles of over 190,000 female sex workers for analysis. Each profile displays customer reviews, physical attributes and pricing among other things. The data covers 84 cities in 12 countries. It was found that the hourly rate for a prostitute has dropped rather significantly since 2006.

Besides the struggling economy, another factor i the price drop is the growing number of immigrant prostitutes who are used to less and demand less to compete with established flesh enterprises out there. This is generally due to migrants from poor nations relocating to richer ones.

A graph of the findings can be seen below. The full report can be read at The Economist here.