6,000 prostitutes in NZ

The NZ Herald reports there are 6,000 prostitutes in NZ. That is around 0.2% of the adult population or 1 in 500 people.

That seems high but thinking about it, is probably right. Two of my friends/acquaintances (one male and one female) worked as prostitutes in the 1990s when they were studying. They are the only ones I know of, it is of course quite possible other people I know have been “on the game”.

I made the mistake of asking Bob (not his real name) once how many men he would have slept with, when he was working. His answer shocked even me, being a fairly large four digit number.

UPDATE: Frog/Frogette has done a pretty good job fisking the Chch Press article on the same issue where they claimed the law changed led to a 40% increase in numbers, yet the change in numbers took place before the law changed.