Sex and family / X1
Paid sex between adults
Two adults agree to have sex for money, in private, with no third party involved.
What we score
What is the legal consequence for either party? Score the worse-treated party.
Default assumptions: Unless a vignette says otherwise, the person is a 30-year-old citizen of sound mind with no criminal record, acting alone, on their own behalf and not for profit, in an ordinary residential area. Where subnational units (states, provinces, cantons, Länder) make their own law, each unit is scored and the result is weighted by population. 'The state' includes police, prosecutors, courts, regulators, tax authorities and anyone acting on their orders, including platforms obeying takedown orders.
Score anchors
Both the law score and the practice score use these anchors. Half points are used when a country sits between two of them.
| Score | What it means for this vignette |
|---|---|
| 10 | Legal for both, unregulated. |
| 8 | Legal for both with registration. |
| 6 | Legal with licensing or health-check requirements. |
| 3 | Either party fined (including Nordic-model fines on the buyer). |
| 2 | Crime for either party: fine or under 1 year. |
| 1 | Crime: 1 to 5 years. |
| 0 | Over 5 years, or corporal punishment. |
Evidence used: Prostitution and sex-purchase laws; enforcement data.
How each country scores
| Country | Law | Practice | Process | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Czechia | 10 | 10 | 0 | 10.0 | Prostitution is unregulated at statute level, so private paid sex between adults is legal for both parties. Only pimping (§ 189: 6 months to 4 years), trafficking and prostitution near children (§ 190) are crimes. Municipalities may ban solicitation in public places by ordinance, which does not reach private arrangements. |
| Denmark | 10 | 10 | 0 | 10.0 | Selling and buying sex between adults in private is legal. Straffeloven punishes only third parties: running a brothel (§ 233(1), up to 4 years), profiting from or brokering another's prostitution (§ 233(2)), and renting hotel rooms for it (§ 233(3)). Sex workers may register as self-employed and pay tax, with no licensing or health checks. |
| United Kingdom | 9.5 | 9.5 | 0 | 9.5 | In England, Wales and Scotland (about 97% of the population), private paid sex between two adults with no third party is legal for both. Offences cover street soliciting, brothel-keeping and paying for sex with someone subjected to exploitation. Northern Ireland (about 3%) criminalises buying sex (Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act (NI) 2015 s15, max 1 year), with few prosecutions. Population-weighted: 0.97×10 + 0.03×2 ≈ 9.8, rounded to 9.5. |
| New Zealand | 9 | 9.5 | 0 | 9.3 | The Prostitution Reform Act 2003 decriminalised sex work: private paid sex between two adults is legal for both parties, and small owner-operated brothels need no licence. The only condition is that both must take all reasonable steps to use a condom or barrier (s9), an offence punishable by a fine. Temporary-visa holders may not work in the industry, but this does not affect citizens. |
| Netherlands | 7 | 9 | 0 | 8.2 | Prostitution between adults is legal and not criminalised for either party. Regulation is municipal: local bylaws (APV) license sex businesses and some require licences or registration for home-based or escort work, with bylaw fines for violations. The national Wet regulering sekswerk (registration and permits) was abandoned in April 2026. A private one-off arrangement draws no state response in practice. |
| Switzerland | 8 | 8 | 0 | 8.0 | Selling and buying sex between adults is legal; the Criminal Code punishes only exploitation (Art. 195) and breaches of cantonal rules on place, time and manner (Art. 199, fine). Several cantons require registration: Geneva's LProst, for example, requires each sex worker to register in person and attend a free awareness course before starting. Zurich requires permits mainly for street work and brothels. |
| Singapore | 8 | 8 | −0.5 | 7.5 | Paid sex between two adults in private is not an offence. The Women's Charter criminalises brothels and places of assignation (s147, up to 5 years), living on earnings, and using online services 'in the course of business' to offer sexual services (s146A, up to 5 years), which can reach a sex worker advertising online. Police vice raids target brothels and foreign sex workers, not private citizen-to-citizen arrangements. |
| Germany | 6 | 6 | 0 | 6.0 | Sex work between adults is legal. Sex workers must register (§ 3 ProstSchG) and attend mandatory health counselling. Working unregistered is an administrative offence with a fine of up to €1,000, and clients face fines of up to €50,000 only for breaking the condom requirement (§ 33 ProstSchG). A 2025 government evaluation led to an expert commission. No sex-purchase ban had been enacted as of October 2026. |
| Mexico | 5 | 6 | −0.5 | 5.1 | Private adult sex work is not a federal crime; third-party profiting (lenocinio) is. Regulation is state and municipal: about 13 states regulate it through registration, health cards or tolerance zones, while some municipal police codes fine solicitation. Weighting: a private, no-third-party arrangement is mostly legal or subject to registration rules (about 6), with some municipalities fining it (3). Street sex workers report routine police extortion. |
| Ireland | 3 | 5 | −0.5 | 3.7 | Since 2017, paying for sex is a summary offence under Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 s7A (inserted by the 2017 Act), punishable by a fine only (class E, €500, first offence; class D, €1,000, after that); selling is legal, though two sellers sharing premises can be charged with brothel-keeping. This is a Nordic-model buyer fine (anchor 3). Enforcement is thin: the 2025 statutory review found 161 prosecutions directed from 2017 to mid-2024 but only 15 convictions. |
| United States | 2 | 2 | −1 | 1.0 | Paying for sex is a crime in all 50 states, typically a misdemeanour with up to 6 months to 1 year. Nevada's legal brothels are in a few rural counties and do not cover a private deal, and Maine decriminalised selling in 2023 but still penalises the buyer. Police routinely run sting operations against buyers and sellers, which leads to arrests, published names and 'john school' fees. |