As of December 31, 2023, a total of 3,843 people working in prostitution were registered with the authorities in Baden-Württemberg. As the State Statistical Office found after evaluating the statistics on prostitution activity, this was 12% more than in the previous year. This means that in 2023 the number of registered prostitutes continued to be 23% below the level before the corona pandemic. At the end of 2019, a total of 4,972 people were validly registered in prostitution in Baden-Württemberg. In the first corona year of 2020, the number of prostitutes fell by around 44% to 2,809 people and in 2021, after a further decline of 3%, the fewest prostitutes were registered at 2,737. It was not until 2022 that an increase of 26% (3,448 people registered in prostitution) was recorded compared to the previous year.
Three quarters of the people who engaged in prostitution were between 21 and 45 years old at the end of 2023. Around 4% were under 21 years old and around 21% were over 45 years old.
The vast majority of registered prostitutes had foreign nationality (83% or 3,197 people). Of these, 2,917 were from other European countries. This corresponds to a share of around 91%. The most common nationalities were Romania with 1,568 people, Bulgaria with 390 people and Spain with 278 people. Only one in six registered people had German nationality (646).
In 2023, 55% of all people working in prostitution in Baden-Württemberg were registered in the nine independent cities. After the state capital Stuttgart (694 registered prostitutes), the district of Böblingen was the most strongly represented with 397 registered people – the only district in the top three. In third place was the urban district of Karlsruhe (with 323 people). The districts of Ravensburg and Heidenheim had the smallest number of registered prostitutes, with 13 people each. In 17 districts, the practice of prostitution is prohibited and therefore no prostitutes are reported to the authorities.
The number of prostitution businesses remained largely unchanged in 2023 (−1%). At the end of 2023, 243 businesses had a valid permit under the Prostitute Protection Act (2022: 246). The majority of these were prostitution establishments (229), the rest were agencies (14).
