How widespread is sex trafficking?

The demand for commercial sexual exploitation flourishes around the world, fueled by prostitution and pornography.

Global

• In January 2006, Interpol announced that human trafficking generates $32 billion annually.¹
• The United Nations claims that the trafficking of human beings has surpassed the drug trade to become the second largest source of money for organized crime after the illegal arms trade.²
• The U.S. State Department estimates at least 600,000 to 800,000 human beings are trafficked across international borders each year. Numbers within national borders are much higher.³
• Among all trafficking victims, 80 percent are female and 50 percent are children.⁴
• Seventy percent of trafficking victims are forced into sexual servitude.⁵
• UNICEF reports that more than 1 million children around the world enter the sex trade every year.⁶
• Approximately 30 million children have lost their childhood to sexual exploitation over the past 30 years.⁷

 United States

• An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 women and children are trafficked into the United States annually from other countries.⁸
• Congress, in the Trafficking Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, found that between 100,000 to 300,000 American teens are at risk for sex trafficking annually.⁹

Despite an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 sex slaves in the U.S., fewer than 1,000 victims have been assisted through the efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement since 2001, when services for trafficking victims were first made available.¹⁰