Map of the day: The prostitution economy
A sex worker poses in a room at the upmarket Xclusive brothel in Sydney’s Bondi Junction on July 1, 2008.
Yes, prostitution is the "world's oldest profession."
But it's also a booming and decidedly global business, according to a new report from Fondation Scelles (via Le Figaro and our friends at Business Insider).
Between 40 and 42 million people around the world are prostitutes, with 80 percent of them female and about 75 percent of them between the ages of 13 and 25.
Here's a map of where they live, which Fondation Scelles reportedly produced in 2010.
It shows national concentration by number of prostitutes per 1,000 people.
Fondation Scelle had no data for the countries labeled green:
GlobalPost hasn't been shy about covering the global prostitution industry, of course.
Patrick Winn has written about Amsterdam-style prostitution in Taiwan, while in Paris, Millie Cherfils investigated attempts to open brothels to protect sex workers.
And here's Ioan Grillo and John Dickie's compelling video on how Mexico City is trying to regulate its booming prostitution trade:
For more from Thomas Mucha on Twitter: Follow @thomaswmucha
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