Where is prostitution legal? Country-by-country list

Prostitution is not legal in Las Vegas or Reno. In the United States prostitution is mainly a matter of state law, and selling and buying sex are crimes in every state except in licensed brothels in some rural Nevada counties, and except that Maine (since 2023) no longer punishes selling. Legal model: Selling and buying prohibited. Full profile and sources →

Criminal law on prostitution is devolved, so the UK has three regimes. In England and Wales selling and buying sex are legal, but almost everything around them is restricted: brothel-keeping, profiting from or controlling another person's prostitution, persistent street soliciting, kerb crawling, cards in phone boxes, and paying for sex with someone a third party has coerced (a strict-liability offence). Legal model: Legal, organisation banned. Full profile and sources →

Germany treats prostitution as a legal, regulated activity. The Prostitution Act (2002) made agreements for sexual services legally enforceable and allowed employment with social insurance. Legal model: Regulation (legal & licensed). Full profile and sources →

Prostitution between adults is legal in the Netherlands, and sex businesses have been lawful since the brothel ban was lifted on 1 October 2000. There is no national licensing law: municipalities regulate through their local bylaw (APV), deciding whether and where clubs, windows, escort agencies and home-based work are allowed and licensing operators. Legal model: Regulation (legal & licensed). Full profile and sources →

Prostitution itself is legal in France, but buying sexual relations has been an offence since April 2016: a fifth-class contravention (fine up to €1,500, €3,750 for a repeat offence; 5 years' prison where the seller is a minor or vulnerable, rising to 7 years with aggravating factors and 10 years for a child under 15). Procuring is defined broadly: it covers anyone who helps, protects or profits from another person's prostitution, including by posting ads; running or providing premises for prostitution is also a crime. Legal model: Buying criminalised (Nordic model). Full profile and sources →

Criminal law is federal, so one regime applies across Canada. After the Supreme Court struck down the bawdy-house, living-on-the-avails and public-communication offences in Bedford (2013), Parliament enacted PCEPA in 2014. Legal model: Buying criminalised (Nordic model). Full profile and sources →

Australia has eight prostitution regimes. Four jurisdictions, have decriminalised sex work: New South Wales (1995), the Northern Territory (in force 12 June 2020), Victoria (in two stages, 2022 and 2023) and Queensland (in force 2 August 2024; no repeal found as of October 2026). Legal model: Decriminalisation. Full profile and sources →

Prostitution is unlawful in Thailand under the Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act B.E. 2539 (1996). Sex workers can be fined up to 1,000 baht for soliciting in public (s. 5, now an administrative fine imposed by social-development ministry officials, not the police) and imprisoned or fined for being in a prostitution establishment (s. 6) or advertising (s. 7). Legal model: Selling and buying prohibited. Full profile and sources →

Prostitution between adults is not a crime in Spain. The Penal Code punishes coercion into prostitution and profiting from exploited prostitution, but not consensual third-party involvement without exploitation, and not renting premises. Legal model: Legal, organisation banned. Full profile and sources →

Italy follows an abolitionist model set by the Legge Merlin of 1958, which closed the licensed brothels and forbids any registration of people who sell sex. Selling and buying are legal for adults; brothels, recruitment, aiding and exploitation are crimes punished with two to six years' imprisonment. Legal model: Legal, organisation banned. Full profile and sources →

Japan's Prostitution Prevention Act (1956) prohibits selling and buying sex, where prostitution means paid intercourse with an unspecified partner, but does not punish either act. It punishes the seller's public soliciting or advertising, and procuring, arranging, providing premises and running prostitution businesses. Legal model: Legal, organisation banned. Full profile and sources →

Mexico has no federal offence of selling or buying sex between adults. Federal and state penal codes punish lenocinio: profiting from another person's prostitution, inducing someone into it, or running a brothel. Legal model: Legal, organisation banned. Full profile and sources →