How many women work in prostitution in Spain? At least 114,576

The real situation of prostitution in Spain is the subject of a study carried out by the Ministry of Equality. According to the first data revealed by Minister Ana Redondo, there are 114,576 women working in prostitution in Spain. The study suggests that the vast majority of these women are victims of human trafficking, with 92,496 classified as such (9,000 of them at very high risk). This represents 0.5% of adult women in the country.

This work is based on the analysis of 645,000 online advertisements promoting prostitution or dating services, which according to international organizations would allow the detection of at least 75% of actual prostitution. Artificial intelligence, big data and data crossing are some of the techniques used in a groundbreaking study of sexual exploitation.

Most women are under 36, although a third of advertisements do not mention their age

According to this study, the majority of women offering online sexual services are between 25 and 36 years old (32%) and between 18 and 24 years old (28%). However, it should be noted that in a third of the advertisements, neither the age nor the nationality is specified.

Those who do indicate this are mainly Latinas (51%) and Europeans (16%). Mainly Colombians (28%) and Spaniards (13%).

Most women involved in prostitution are Colombian (51%), followed by Spanish (13%)

In absolute numbers, the communities with the most women engaged in prostitution are: Catalonia with 34,754, Madrid with 20,549 and Valencia with 16,314.

The regions with the highest percentage of prostitutes per 10,000 women are the Balearic Islands (121), Catalonia (103), Valencia (73) and Cantabria (73).

The study sheds light on the prostitution business, where a few “business owners” exploit many women. It even found that 363 women shared the same phone number. “Many phone numbers are linked to more than a hundred women,” Redondo pointed out.