Numbers, data, facts

Estimated 90-95% of registered sex service providers in Austria Migrants .

For these people, the possibility of engaging in sex work legally and independently depends primarily on the question of whether they have the right to reside and work independently in Austria. Citizens of EEA countries are generally entitled to this right, but the legal situation is considerably more difficult for third-country nationals.


The current data collection and query options only allow very rough statements to be made about the Austrian market, including with regard to the legal market.

In Vienna and Burgenland there is a personal reporting requirement for sex service providers; in other federal states, brothel operators have to report certain data to the authorities. The recording of reporting data is neither standardized and central, nor entirely electronic. Accordingly, the meaningfulness of queries depends not only on the data actually collected, but also on the willingness of the individual authorities to provide feedback.



It should also be noted that multiple counts sometimes occur - especially when sex service providers work in several federal states. And that sex service providers sometimes remain registered longer than they actually work in Austria.

It is not known how often data is cleaned by the individual authorities. The Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety GmbH (AGES) carries out the laboratory tests for the control examinations on behalf of the Ministry of Health. Based on the samples received, the number of sex service providers can be estimated at 5,000 - 6,000 people for 2017.

Brothel permits

The basic responsibility for brothel permits lies with the mayors, unless this has been transferred to the district administrative authority/state police department by ordinance of the state government or another authority has been declared responsible by state law. Brothel permits are also not recorded centrally across the country. However, counting them once a year as part of the preparation of the safety report is more reliable than the estimate of reported sex service providers that is also carried out (see above).

There are no nationwide surveys on more extensive key data, such as the type and size of the companies.


By tightening the protection zone regulations in Carinthia At the end of 2012, the number of approved companies regionally - especially in the Villach area - decreased significantly, especially the number of smaller companies. The police attribute a significant increase in illegal residential prostitution to this, among other things. Feedback from sex service providers also gives the impression that the remaining large companies in particular can more easily dictate disadvantageous conditions to sex service providers due to fewer alternatives.

The increase in brothel operations in Vienna between 2007 and 2010 correlates with an increased influx of sex service providers from the new EU member states. However, with the introduction of an approval process in 2011 and its gradual implementation, there was a significant reduction.
After the Vienna Prostitution Act was passed in 2011 and the introduction of a licensing procedure for brothel businesses, on the one hand controls were massively increased and illegal prostitution bars (street bars) were practically all closed. On the other hand, numerous previously legally existing businesses were no longer able to meet the increased requirements and had to close. This explains the significant decline between 2010 and 2013.
Until November 2011, there was neither a notification nor a permit requirement for brothels in Vienna. Given the size of Vienna and the associated lower transparency compared to smaller cities or even rural areas, it is correspondingly more difficult for the executive to get a broad insight into the market.
Between 2013 and 2017 there were finally numerous new permits. Even with a view to the data regarding sex service providers, the size of the market probably hardly changed significantly between 2010 and 2017. The changes are primarily due to a greater shift from the illegal to the legal area.
Nevertheless, there is also a practically relevant proportion of illegal businesses in Vienna - mainly illegal residential brothels.

Vorarlberg

occupies a special position because there is not a single licensed brothel there, but also

Tyrol

consistently only has around eight to ten approved companies. What both federal states have in common is that they have a high number of go-go bars compared to the eastern federal states, especially Tyrol.

The trend in recent years towards opening or converting existing classic brothels with bar operations into whorehouses and sauna clubs without bar operations continues. Furthermore, regionally, as in Carinthia, there is a tendency towards large companies with financially strong investors in the background. However, in Vienna, where a more precise analysis has been possible since the introduction of the approval process, around 80% of the companies have a maximum of 5 rooms.

There is no Austria-wide information available on the origin of the brothel operators and therefore not on the question of whether the proportion of Austrian brothel owners has changed significantly overall. It is also noteworthy in this context that around 60% of business owners in Vienna are women. However, in some brothel businesses there is a suspicion that the sex service providers appearing as operators were simply appointed by the “true beneficial owners” as responsible persons, for example in order to avoid administrative penalties for the “true beneficial owners”.

Legal street prostitution of a significant size currently only exists in Vienna. Until it was locally restricted by the Vienna Prostitution Act in November 2011, the street prostitution in Vienna - including the illegal portion - was approximately 150 to 250 sex service providers in size. According to the police and advice centers, the size has reduced significantly since 2011.

There are illegal street prostitutes in some cities, such as Vienna, Innsbruck and Salzburg.

The security reports from 2013 to 2017 show a relatively constant nationwide total of around 7,000 registered sex service providers. This relatively constant overall number, the noticeable drop in prices and increased competitive pressure among sex service providers indicate that demand is not increasing and that an upper limit appears to have been reached.

Data on the number of compulsory examinations carried out, which can be evaluated since 2017, gives a lower figure of approximately 5000-6000 individuals who underwent compulsory examinations in 2017. This does not indicate a decline in the absolute numbers, but rather represents them more realistically, since the data on examinations carried out do not contain any “file corpses”. Furthermore, there are hardly any Austrian sex service providers working in all federal states - the proportion is estimated to be slightly higher in the illegal sector than in the legal sector. Approximately 95% of sex service providers in the legal sector are migrants, the majority of whom come from the new EU countries, especially Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

State-specific numbers

The data broken down into federal states in 2013 is based on a query of state-specific figures from the AG Prostitution, and those for 2017 are based on data from the Federal Criminal Police Office.


The following additional explanations are possible for the federal state-specific figures:


The noticeable changes are partly due to inaccurate data collection. However, some fluctuations can be explained by specific changes or the data source used (Vienna).


Since there is no approved brothel in Vorarlberg and working legally as a sex worker is not possible, there are no registered sex service providers in Vorarlberg. The increase in Carinthia between 2007 and 2013 is primarily due to an increase in large brothels near the Italian border that specifically target Italian customers. There has now been a slight decline again.


The particularly significant increase in Vienna between 2007 and 2013 must first be put into perspective by the fact that this graphic for Vienna only uses police registrations and not the more meaningful figures for compulsory examinations - which were still weekly at the time. At the beginning of 2015, an average of around 1,500 mandatory examinations were carried out weekly in Vienna, but there were more than twice as many police reports. It should be borne in mind that a significant number of sex service providers who undergo the mandatory examination in Vienna actually work in Burgenland or Lower Austria.

There was a significant increase in the number of sex service providers in Vienna, which was actually noticed by the police authorities, especially in the years after the opening of the East. Further increases to date are likely to be primarily due to improved residence and work rights for citizens from the new EU states, which (also) made it easier for sex service providers to work legally and consequently led to more reports. There is unlikely to be an actual further increase. This is also supported by the fact that the number of brothels has not increased over the same period, but on the contrary has decreased - as has the number of street prostitutes.

The illegal market

One can only speculate about the size of the illegal market. It should be noted at this point that “illegal” can mean several things. The illegal market includes all brothels without the appropriate permit as well as all sex service providers who work in an illegal brothel, on an illegal street prostitution or without the necessary mandatory examination. Illegal sex work does not automatically mean forced prostitution.

The Austrian market

The ratio between the population and sex service providers registered in this federal state could be a relevant reference value for how much “space” the illegal market could take up. However, this comes with many restrictions.

There are no surveys as to whether the active demand within the population is the same on average or whether there are regional differences. Austria is also not a self-contained market. Especially in border regions - especially with the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland - Austrian customers also visit brothels or street prostitution across the border. The same applies vice versa - for example, the large brothels in the Carinthian border region are predominantly visited by Italian customers.

Escort services and residential brothels make up the largest share of the illegal market. This is a particularly difficult area to understand, as recruitment takes place primarily via the Internet and practice regularly takes place in private homes or hotels. Home visits are just as difficult to understand, as are the case in some federal states

are prohibited. Go-go bars, massage parlors and so-called “ethnic coffee houses” are also often covert brothel operations.

Illegal street prostitution currently exists mainly in Vienna, Innsbruck and Salzburg, but only to a very small extent.

A serious estimate of the illegal market (including street prostitution) is not possible. However, the police and advice centers agree that it is larger in the city than in the country and in any case significantly smaller than the legal market.

(Source: 3rd report of the AG Prostitution: Regulation of prostitution in Austria, May 2018)