More than 50 countries have some form of legal prostitution, but “legal” means very different things depending on where you look. Germany and the Netherlands license it, tax it, and treat it as regulated work. New Zealand removed criminal penalties entirely and lets ordinary labor law govern the industry. Sweden and a growing list of followers legalized selling sex but criminalized buying it. And across much of Latin America, Africa, and Asia, the individual act is permitted while almost everything around it, from brothels to street solicitation, remains a crime. The country-by-country map below sorts these jurisdictions by which model they actually use.
The Three Legal Models
Whether prostitution is “legal” in a given country is the wrong question. The useful question is which of three frameworks applies.
Regulation means the state licenses brothels, registers workers, requires health testing, and collects taxes. Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey, and Switzerland all take this route. It gives workers formal legal recognition in exchange for bureaucratic oversight.
Decriminalization removes criminal penalties and applies the same labor and safety laws that cover any other job. New Zealand is the clearest example. There is no special license and no registration, and the emphasis is on harm reduction.
Asymmetric criminalization, usually called the Nordic model, keeps selling sex legal but makes buying it a crime. Sweden pioneered it in 1999 and Canada, France, Ireland, Norway, Iceland, Israel, and Northern Ireland have adopted versions of it.
A fourth pattern, sometimes labeled abolitionism, technically keeps the sale and purchase legal but criminalizes brothels, solicitation, and third-party involvement. That is the status quo across much of Latin America and parts of Africa, and in practice it leaves prostitution in a legal gray zone.
Countries That Fully Regulate Prostitution
Germany
Germany’s Prostitute Protection Act (ProstSchG) has required sex workers to register with local authorities since July 2017. Registration includes an information session on legal rights, social services, and emergency resources, and a separate mandatory health counseling session must be completed before a certificate is issued. The minimum age is 18, and brothel operators need their own permit covering structural and hygiene standards. Workers pay income tax and contribute to social security.1Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. The New Prostitute Protection Act Non-EU citizens need a work permit in addition to registration. If officials suspect during the interview that the applicant is not working voluntarily, they are legally required to intervene.
The Netherlands
The Netherlands lifted its ban on brothels in 2000 and introduced a municipal licensing system. Local governments control where sex businesses can operate through zoning, which is how the recognized red-light districts came to be formally managed rather than merely tolerated. Licensed workers can access employment benefits and standard labor protections. Because municipalities set their own rules, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague each look different in practice.
Austria
Austria regulates at the state level, so the rules vary across its nine federal states. Each sets its own requirements for mandatory health checks, registration, and the zones or premises where sex work can legally take place.2European Parliamentary Research Service. Regulation of Prostitution in the European Union Street solicitation is only permitted in Vienna, and even there subject to time and location restrictions. In most states, sex workers cannot work from their own apartments.3Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs. Sexwork-Info
Switzerland
Switzerland treats prostitution as independent economic activity, taxed and regulated like any other business. Workers must carry health insurance, obtain a local permit, and affirm that they are entering the profession voluntarily. Each canton designates specific zones for street-based work with its own hours, hygiene rules, and facilities. Working outside those zones or hours can trigger fines starting around 200 Swiss francs in some cantons, and repeat violations can cost a worker the permit.
Turkey
Turkey operates state-run brothels known as genel evler. Workers hold health cards issued by the Health Ministry and undergo regular medical screenings. The system is restrictive compared to Western European models, and the number of licensed facilities has fallen significantly over the decades. The legal framework still permits regulated brothels, but municipal governments have broad authority to deny or revoke permits, and many cities have effectively shut their facilities down.
Greece
Greece has regulated prostitution since 1955 under Law 3310/55, which exempts registered sex workers from prosecution provided they are over 18 and do not work jointly with another person at the same location. The joint-work restriction leaves larger brothel operations in a legally ambiguous space, and most sex work in the country happens outside the formal registration system.
Belgium
Belgium became the first European country to fully decriminalize sex work in March 2022, when its parliament removed penalties for third-party activities like renting property to sex workers or providing them business services. A second law passed in May 2024 went further, allowing sex workers to sign formal employment contracts with labor protections, including wage guarantees, parental leave, and the absolute right to refuse any client or any act at any time without workplace consequences. Employers must equip each room with an emergency alert system connected to a designated safety contact.
Senegal
Senegal is one of the few sub-Saharan African countries with a formal registration system. Since 1966, sex workers over 21 must register with both a health center and the police, carry a health booklet documenting monthly check-ups and STI testing, and test negative to continue working. A worker arrested without a current booklet faces two to six months in prison.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh legally permits prostitution and has several formally recognized brothel areas. Enforcement and working conditions vary dramatically between urban and rural areas.
Countries Using the Nordic Model
Sweden became the first country to criminalize buying sex while decriminalizing selling it when its ban on purchasing sexual services took effect on January 1, 1999. The law sits in Chapter 6, Section 11 of Sweden’s Penal Code.4National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Evaluation of the Swedish Legislation Criminalising the Purchase of Sexual Services Several countries have followed with their own variations.
Canada. The Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act makes purchasing sexual services punishable by up to five years in prison if prosecuted by indictment, with mandatory minimum fines that increase near schools or parks. Sellers face no criminal liability. Buying sex from someone under 18 carries up to ten years and a mandatory minimum sentence.5Department of Justice Canada. Questions and Answers – Prostitution Criminal Law Reform: Bill C-36
France. A 2016 law repealed the offense of solicitation, which had criminalized sellers since 1939, and instead imposed a €1,500 fine on buyers, rising to €3,750 for repeat offenders. Buying sex from a minor or vulnerable person carries up to three years in prison and a €45,000 fine.
Norway, Iceland, and Ireland. All three criminalize the purchase of sex with fines or imprisonment while keeping selling legal.
Israel and Northern Ireland. Both jurisdictions adopted buyer-focused penalties on similar lines.
Decriminalized Countries
New Zealand
New Zealand’s Prostitution Reform Act 2003 is widely treated as the model for decriminalization. The law was designed to safeguard workers’ human rights and promote their occupational health and safety, and brothel operators are held to the same workplace safety rules as any other employer, including protective equipment and sanitary conditions.6HealthEd. Health and Safety Information for Sex Work Venues and Brothels There is no special licensing system. Workers do not register with police and do not carry a specific permit. Local councils can control where businesses operate through ordinary zoning bylaws, but the act itself is simply not a crime. Workers can operate independently or in small cooperatives under the same protections available to any independent contractor.7HealthEd. Health and Safety Information for Sex Workers
Australia
Australia’s rules vary by state and territory, and the recent trend has been strongly toward decriminalization.
New South Wales was the earliest mover, removing most criminal sanctions through the Disorderly Houses Amendment Act 1995. The state treats sex work through standard land-use planning and public health rules rather than criminal law.
The Northern Territory fully decriminalized sex work in 2020 through the Sex Industry Act 2019.
Victoria passed the Sex Work Decriminalisation Act 2022, which dismantled the previous licensing system in two stages. The first in May 2022 repealed the small owner-operator register. The second in December 2023 abolished the broader licensing system entirely by repealing the Sex Work Act 1994. Oversight shifted to WorkSafe Victoria for occupational health and safety, the Department of Health, and local governments.8Victorian Government. Decriminalising Sex Work in Victoria
Queensland followed in 2024. The Criminal Code (Decriminalising Sex Work) and Other Legislation Amendment Act passed in May and took effect on August 2, 2024, repealing the Prostitution Act 1999, abolishing the Prostitution Licensing Authority, and eliminating the brothel licensing system.9Queensland Government. Sex Work Industry Decriminalisation
Where Prostitution Is Legal in the United States
Nevada is the only U.S. state where prostitution is legal, and only in licensed brothels. Under NRS 244.345, counties with a population of 700,000 or more cannot grant brothel licenses. That threshold rules out Las Vegas (Clark County) and Reno (Washoe County). Only rural counties can choose to permit licensed establishments, and not all do. Lyon County and Storey County are among those that allow it.
Workers in licensed Nevada brothels must submit to monthly blood tests for HIV and syphilis and weekly specimen tests for gonorrhea and chlamydia.10Legal Information Institute. Nevada Administrative Code 441A.800 – Testing of Sex Workers Workers are classified as independent contractors, and the minimum age varies by county, with some requiring workers to be 21.
Maine partially decriminalized sex work in 2023 by repealing the crime of engaging in prostitution. Selling sex is no longer a criminal offense in Maine, but buying it still is, which puts Maine closer to the Nordic model than to Nevada’s regulated system. Soliciting someone under 18 was elevated from a misdemeanor to a felony carrying up to five years in prison.
Outside Nevada and Maine, prostitution remains a criminal offense across the United States.
Latin America, Africa, and Asia
A large group of Latin American countries permit prostitution but criminalize most activities around it. Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Peru all fall into this category. The exchange of sex for money between adults is not itself illegal, but operating a brothel, procuring clients for someone else, or publicly soliciting can be crimes. Colombia and Peru have gone further with formal regulatory frameworks that include designated zones and health requirements, though enforcement is uneven.
Mexico is a patchwork similar to the United States. Federal law does not prohibit prostitution, but each of Mexico’s 31 states sets its own rules. Thirteen states allow and regulate it, some cities maintain “tolerance zones” that function as red-light districts, and pimping is illegal in most of the country.
In sub-Saharan Africa, several countries permit the act of selling sex while criminalizing organized aspects. Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, and Ivory Coast are among those where selling sex is not a crime, though brothels and solicitation typically are. Senegal, covered above, is unusual in having a formal registration system.
In East and Southeast Asia, Bangladesh legally permits brothels, while Hong Kong allows individual sex work but prohibits running an establishment.
The broad legal label often hides the reality on the ground. A country where prostitution is technically legal but where police routinely arrest workers for vague “public order” offenses, or where no registration system actually functions, offers very different protections than one with an enforced regulatory framework.
What U.S. Travelers Need to Know
Legality abroad does not override U.S. federal law for Americans. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2423(c), any U.S. citizen or permanent resident who engages in “illicit sexual conduct” in a foreign country faces up to 30 years in federal prison. The statute defines illicit sexual conduct as a sexual act with someone under 18, a commercial sex act with someone under 18, or the production of child sexual abuse material.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 18 Section 2423 The law does not criminalize adults visiting legal establishments and engaging with adult workers abroad, but it gives federal prosecutors extraterritorial reach over any conduct involving minors, even in countries where local enforcement is weak.12U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Notice to US Citizens: Your Actions Abroad May Have Serious Consequences
A separate statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2421A (part of the 2018 FOSTA-SESTA legislation), makes it a federal crime to own or operate a website with the intent to promote or facilitate prostitution, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. If the site facilitates five or more people or recklessly contributes to sex trafficking, the penalty rises to 25 years. The law includes an affirmative defense when the promotion targets a jurisdiction where the activity is legal, but the burden of proof falls on the defendant.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 18 Section 2421A