Catalonia leads in number of sex workers across Spain

Catalonia is the Spanish territory with the highest number of sex workers, as an equality ministry report unveiled on Tuesday shows.

Overall, there are 114,576 sex workers across Spain, and 34,759 are based in Catalonia, the same report points out.

The study has analyzed over 650,000 sex workers' ads online, as prostitution is not considered a job, there is a lot of hidden population, and data is difficult to access. Officials have used artificial intelligence and Big Data to study the different figures.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) states that 75% of human trafficking victims and prostitution are advertised online.

The overall number accounts for 0.56% of all Spanish women over 18 years old.

Behind Catalonia, Madrid has 20,549 sex workers, Valencia has 16,314, and Andalusia has 9,026 women.

The Balearic Islands have a rate of 121 women over the age of 18 years per 10,000 working as a sex worker, Catalonia: 103, and Valencia and Cantabria: 73. On average, in Spain, there are 56 female sex workers per 10,000 women aged over 18 years old.

Tuesday's preliminary figures, as the full report will be published in October, are part of the first statistical analysis on sex workers, the equality ministry announced.

"What is not spoken about does not exist," Minister Ana Redondo said during the cabinet's weekly press conference.

"It was required to have an approximate figure of a hidden group of people with difficult access, such as women and children victims of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, and prostitution, to know the problem, and therefore, be able to tackle it with public policies," she added.

Out of the 114,576 women, 92,496 could be at risk of human trafficking, and 9,000 at a very high risk. The risk is assessed based on different criteria, such as the number of photos on the ad, whether they are new publications, availability, personality, and the services offered.

Over half of the listed sex workers are aged 36 or younger, with those aged between 25 and 36 accounting for 32% of the overall number of sex workers across Spain and those between 18 and 24 representing 28%. The Spanish ministry also states that those aged 46 to 55 years account for 7%, and those 56 and over are 1.6% of the whole number. A third of the different ads, 31%, do not give any information regarding the woman's age.

Regarding nationally, 51% come from South America and 16% from Europe. Colombia, with 28% of the women, leads the list, ahead of Spain with 13%, and Brazil and Venezuela with 5%. Meanwhile, authorities do not have enough data to confirm the origin of 29% of the women listed.

Redondo pointed out that several organizations are abusing women and that the study sheds light on the magnitude of the situation.

"Up to 363 different women were advertised using the same phone number," she said.