Prostitution Laws: prostitution law by country (dataset, 2026-10-30)

How 196 countries and territories regulate prostitution, as a tabular dataset: the legal model of each country (decriminalisation, regulation, abolitionism, the Nordic model of criminalising the purchase, or prohibition), the legal status and type of penalty for selling and buying sexual services, brothels, third-party procuring and advertising, the key statutes with links to their official texts, regional differences, and every cited source with the date it was accessed. 15 countries have full profiles answering eleven questions (including online platforms, street-based work, registration, tax and migrant sex workers); the other 181 answer the five core questions. Every statement is tied to a source: national legislation portals first, then court databases, government and parliamentary records, official statistics and intergovernmental bodies; academic, NGO and news sources are used for context and pending legislation. Each answer carries the date it was last checked and a confidence level. The classification describes the law as written for adult, consensual situations; offences involving minors, coercion or trafficking are covered by separate laws. It is a description of the law, not legal advice. The dataset is an export of the country data behind Prostitution Laws (prostitutionlaws.org), an interactive world map with a profile page per country. The methodology explains the models, statuses and sourcing rules. The site and this dataset are researched and maintained by the Prostitution Laws editorial team, which takes no position for or against any legal model. Files: countries.csv (one row per country), topics.csv (one row per country and question, with summaries, provisions, confidence and sources), subnational.csv (regional and state-level differences), sources.csv (every cited source with publisher, URL and access date). README.md is the data card with the field dictionary. Corrections: [e-mail].