Human trafficking is the practice of exploiting adults and children for use as commodities, or objects, in conditions of sexual and labor servitude. Also referred to as modern slavery, human trafficking is where people illegally trade human beings through recruitment or abduction.
Traffickers use tactics such as…
Luring people in with false promises of economic opportunity
Withholding identification, work authorization, or travel documents
Demanding repayment with alleged or real debts
Using violence
Threatening to use violence
Monitoring and surveillance of the target
Paying someone very little for the victim’s work
Not paying at all for the victim’s work
As you can see, it’s a horrible criminal enterprise where people profit off of the free will of others. Traffickers impose misery and forced servitude on their victims.
To make matters worse, human trafficking is extremely profitable. Traffickers will target anyone to make an illegal buck. Men, women, and children of any race, any age, and in any condition can become victims.
Let’s take a deeper dive into a basic overview of human trafficking on a global scale, who’s most at risk, the types of trafficking across the world, and how traffickers move victims for more exploitation.
Here is our list of over 70 worldwide statistics on human trafficking.
Table of Contents
General Worldwide Human Trafficking Statistics
Human trafficking on a global level is worse than we could ever imagine.
Each year, the world discovers more cases than the year prior. Part of the reason we know of more cases is that law enforcement across the globe improves over time, which is a good thing.
Another reason is that it’s getting increasingly harder to hide people, isolate victims, and keep individuals off of the map.
However, the main reason why there are more identified human trafficking cases is that it’s becoming a more “popular” crime syndicate. The “industry” of human trafficking grows each year, creating more profits as more victims become trapped in the world of modern slavery.
We can only estimate how many people are victims of human trafficking on a global level.
Experts estimate that we only know about less than 1% of victims. Local law enforcement cannot intervene in unknown situations. Therefore, many victims continue to remain enslaved and traffickers still prowl the streets.
Below are some general global human trafficking statistics to help you understand the prevalence of modern-day slavery across the world and where it mostly occurs.
The ONDC detected about 49,000 victims worldwide in 2018. This is up from less than 20,000 identified victims in 2003.
Since 2014, the number of identified victims rose by 60%.
The law ends up prosecuting less than 5% of traffickers.
As of 2018, the counties with the largest number of people in modern slavery include…
India: 7.99 Million
China: 3.86 Million
Pakistan: 3.29 Million
North Korea: 2.64 Million
Nigeria: 3.39 Million
The top five countries with the highest prevalence of modern slavery as of 2018 are.
North Korea: 104.6 per 1000 population
Eritrea: 93 per 1000 population
Burundi: 40 per 1000 population
Central African Republic: 22.3 per 1000 population
Afghanistan: 22.2 per 1000 population
Worldwide Human Trafficking Demographics
Human trafficking makes a great deal of profit. That’s why it’s such a predominant form of illegal activity. But to generate so much money, traffickers need to carefully select their victims.
Various types of trafficking in a variety of regions in the world require different types of demographics. Sometimes adult women in their 30s are the predominant type of victim in the sex trafficking sector. Some types of labor trafficking prefer adult make migrants while others prefer small children.
The victim demographics for the different forms of trafficking can vary between neighboring countries. Below are some global human trafficking statistics to help explain who is likely to become a victim of the industry.
65% of victims are female.
46% of victims are adult women.
19% of victims are adolescent girls.
35% of victims are male.
20% of victims are adult men.
15% of victims are adolescent boys.
Nearly 60% of detected labor trafficking victims are male.
The majority of sex trafficking victims are female.
In Europe, the gender breakdown for sex trafficking is closer to 50/50.
Almost 20% of victims worldwide are adolescents.
Africa and Southern Asia are the two regions with the most child sex trafficking cases.
Around 50% of the cases in the region involve adolescents.
In some parts of Africa, children constitute nearly 100% of victims.
30 to 38-year-olds are more likely to become a victim of sex trafficking worldwide.
Types of Worldwide Trafficking
There are two primary types of human trafficking: forced labor and sex trafficking. There’s a third category labeled as “other”.
Other types of trafficking include…
Forced marriage
Organ removal
Forced military services
Due to how infrequently these other types of trafficking occur, we didn’t include them in the statistics below.
Each subset of the trafficking industry has unique features that we need to address. Here are some global human trafficking statistics based on the type of trafficking.
Sex Trafficking
The vast majority of human trafficking happens in the sex trafficking category.
Many traffickers cater to this sector because a single victim generates roughly $100,000. On top of that, sex trafficking generates a huge return on investment.
So, who is most at risk of becoming a sex trafficking victim? People end up in sex trafficking for a multitude of reasons, including…
Recent migration or relocation
Mental health issues
Unstable housing
Homeless/runaway youth
Drug abuse
These are people who may be easily coerced or manipulated into trusting a stranger with their safety. Most trafficking doesn’t involve abduction or chains on the bedpost like in movies. Deceit is a much more practical approach when trying to get someone to comply with their sex trafficking situation.
Below are over 20 human trafficking statistics specific to sex trafficking on a worldwide scale.
79% of human trafficking is sex trafficking
77% of sex trafficking victims are female
Another 17% are male
The rest are under the label of "unknown"
There are approximately 35 million victims of sex trafficking on any given day
Sex trafficking can yield a return on investment between 100% to 1,000%
The sex trafficking industry alone has a market value of $99 billion
This means that the sex trafficking industry is larger than the global cocaine market and the global PC market.
Using a random sample of victims, the most common venues for sex trafficking include…
1,116 incidents in escort services
939 incidents in pornography
626 incidents in illicit massage, health, and beauty
465 incidents in residential-based commercial sex
295 incidents in personal sexual servitude
210 incidents in outdoor solicitation
202 incidents in domestic work
126 incidents in bars, strip clubs, and cantinas
122 incidents in illicit activities
Intimate partners recruited 38% of sex trafficking victims
Family recruited 27.1%
“Other” recruited 21.3%
A friend recruited 14.6%
Over 50% of the world’s sex trafficking occurs in the U.S.
The average profit for a female sex trafficking victim is $100,000
The average for both genders is $21,800
Labor Trafficking
Labor trafficking usually requires victims to perform physical, intensive tasks. This type of trafficking can happen in households, within government positions, or in legal corporations.
The majority of people end up in the private economy. After all, it’s easier to hide labor trafficking victims from the world in the private world. Traffickers can more easily prevent the victims from interacting with the public and escaping.
It’s also important to mention that certain parts of the world are more prone to labor trafficking than others. The majority of labor trafficking occurs on the Asian continent, partly because of the sheer volume of people residing there. However, labor trafficking happens on every continent and in every country.
Below are 15 global human trafficking statistics concerning international labor trafficking…
Forced labor constitutes 28.7% of human trafficking.
Approximately 5.4 people in every 1000 current inhabitants of the earth are victims of labor trafficking.
67% of victims in labor trafficking are male.
Another 14% are female
The the rest are under the label of "unknown"
The main sectors for labor trafficking include…
30% domestic work
16% construction
10% agriculture
9% manufacturing
8% hospitality
The labor trafficking industry generates $43.2 billion
Domestic servitude generates $8 billion
16.55 million victims are in forced labor in Asia and the Pacific
3.42 million are labor trafficked through Africa
3.25 million are labor trafficked through Europe and the Central Asia Region
1.28 million are labor trafficked through the Americas.
Moving Trafficking Victims
Some types of trafficking require the traffickers to move victims across international borders.
Although the victims have access to the public and can speak out to law enforcement personnel, in most cases they’re afraid to seek help. The traffickers instill fear through a web of lies and coercion so that their victims keep quiet when in an airport, hotel, or traffic stop.
Traffickers are willing to take the risk of exposing their victims to the public because of how much money they make off of the exploitation. They carefully plan the trip and calculate the risk to make sure that the victims stay under their control the entire time.
Below are some global human trafficking statistics about moving and traveling…
12% of victims were subject to trafficking within the same subregion
8% of trafficking occurred within the same region
15% of trafficking occurred interregional
65% of detected victims were within their borders
12% were in the same subregion
8% were within the same subregion
15% were from other regions
89.5% of victim journeys trafficked internationally occurred at an official border control point
Examples include airports and highway border control points
21.5% of international victims crossed a border through non-official means
Only 44% of trafficked children went through an official border control point when trafficked internationally
Two-thirds of victims trafficked internationally endure exploitation during the journey, regardless of how the transportation occurs
Conclusion
The worldwide human trafficking situation is grim. Millions of people across the world experience all kinds of abuse and horrors. A victim can find themselves in the trafficking world for several years, if not the rest of their lives.
The best way to protect yourself and your community is through education. With knowledge on your side, you can take preventative measures so you don’t fall into the trafficking trap.
Many countries have laws in place to try and identify, detain, and convict traffickers. Some even have laws to convict buyers. Some countries do a better job than others, but the world as a whole is slowly trying to free victims and prosecute traffickers.
