# Just how busy is a prostitute? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 19, 2007, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328 "2007-10-19T20:02:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/1 "2007-10-19T20:02:15Z")
According to [this article](http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/14372519/detail.html) about prostitution > [@](#): > > a typical prostitute that’s HIV-positive could potentially infect more than 18,000 people a year . Now, breaking out the old trusty calculator I find that 18000 people/365 days a year = her doing the nasty with 49.3 people per day! If she averaged 15 minutes per act she would be working over 12 hours a day. This does not include time off for her period or being sick. And let’s suppose she charge $20 a throw. She would be making $360,000 a year! Is this a realistic statistic or are the cops blowing this out of proportion? How much does an average prostitute work a day and how much does she charge? Too bad we don’t have a “Ask the former hooker” thread. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/2 "2007-10-19T20:03:45Z")
Maybe they mean that the people who are infected by her will go on to have sex with other people–who will also potentially be infected. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/3 "2007-10-19T20:04:30Z")
[QUOTE=erie774] Is this a realistic statistic or are the cops blowing this out of proportion? How much does an average prostitute work a day and how much does she charge? Too bad we don’t have a “Ask the former hooker” thread. [/QUOTE] That pussy has a street value of well over $1,000,000! Maybe they meant via secondary infections? Or for prostitutes working high volume brothels for truckers in south Asia? ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/4 "2007-10-19T20:04:46Z")
[QUOTE=Zoggie] Maybe they mean that the people who are infected by her will go on to have sex with other people–who will also potentially be infected. [/QUOTE] And **Zoggie** nails it in one. _snerk_ ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/5 "2007-10-19T20:05:15Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp] And **Zoggie** nails it in one. _snerk_ [/QUOTE] _blushes_ You said nails! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/6 "2007-10-19T20:05:42Z")
If you %&?\* two friends, and they %&?\*\* two friends, and so on, and so on … ---
**Author:** ![MTRG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71c47a/32.png) [@MTRG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTRG)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/7 "2007-10-19T20:06:43Z")
Don’t you think that 18,000 people would represent the number of people infected total. The rate of infection would not be determined by the number of Johns (linear), but by a log based infection rate. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/8 "2007-10-19T20:16:06Z")
blowing this out of proportion…log-based…heheheheh. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/9 "2007-10-19T20:16:15Z")
It’s still kind of a ridiculous claim, with a lot of assumptions, like a close to 100% infection rate. I checked the webpage of the weekly named in the original article, prices seem to be about $150+ per “visit”. I’m going to guess, at that rate, you’re looking at 2-5 clients a day. And let’s not assume they are working 365 days a year, at least not on average. 18,000 would be a hell of a high transmission rate and a lot of secondary, tertiary, quaternary infections. ---
**Author:** ![T\_SQUARE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/10 "2007-10-19T20:18:42Z")
I would be interested to know how many customers the average hooker has a day, which I realize will vary greatly between types of hookers. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/11 "2007-10-19T20:29:12Z")
[QUOTE=erie774] According to [this article](http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/14372519/detail.html) about prostitution . Now, breaking out the old trusty calculator I find that 18000 people/365 days a year = her doing the nasty with 49.3 people per day! If she averaged 15 minutes per act she would be working over 12 hours a day. This does not include time off for her period or being sick. And let’s suppose she charge $20 a throw. She would be making $360,000 a year! Is this a realistic statistic or are the cops blowing this out of proportion? How much does an average prostitute work a day and how much does she charge? Too bad we don’t have a “Ask the former hooker” thread. [/QUOTE] I suspect, if I were to hazard a guess, that they’re including secondary infections: Hooker services client, client gives it to his girlfriend. That’s 2, even though hooker never touched girlfriend. As to the amounts of money they earn – you’d be amazed at the prodigious drug habits some of these girls are feeding. When I was a PD, I estimated that many of the girls I defended (who needed a free lawyer, mind you) were earning more money per year than I was. But it’s illusory – that money stayed in their hands for only as long as it took them to get from trick to dealer. ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/12 "2007-10-19T20:32:45Z")
I can give you a rough estimate from a country with legal prostitution: According to the most common estimate there are 400 000 prostitutes in Germany and the number of clients per day is somewhere around one million. (e.g. according to the union: 400 000 prostitutes/ “up to” 1 200 000 clients) ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/13 "2007-10-19T21:35:00Z")
> [@](#): > > The transaction-level data we collected suggests that street prostitution yields average wage of $27 per hour. Given the relatively limited hours that active prostitutes work, this generates less than $20,000 annually for a women working year round in prostitution. While the wage of a prostitute is four times greater than the non-prostitution earnings these women report (approximately $7 per hour), there are tremendous risks associated with life as a prostitute. According to our estimates, a woman working as prostitute would expect an annual average of a dozen incidents of violence and 300 instances of unprotected sex. [http://economics.uchicago.edu/pdf/Prostitution%205.pdf](http://economics.uchicago.edu/pdf/Prostitution%205.pdf) > [@](#): > > Our data from the Roseland neighborhood show an average of 380 tricks per week performed by 23.75 women. In Pullman and Washington Park (excluding the 4th of July) the corresponding numbers are 226 tricks by 19 women and 232 tricks by 16 women respectively. We estimate that our sample in Roseland and Pullman captures 90 percent of all prostitution activity there. For Washington Park, our data are a less complete accounting of prostitution activity in the area; we believe the locations we cover reflect approximately 80 percent of the total street prostitution in the neighborhood. _Id._ ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/14 "2007-10-19T21:51:45Z")
That is just flat out wrong. Do you people know how low the rate of infection for HIV is? It’s (allegedly) in the vicinity of 0.1% per intercourse. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/15 "2007-10-20T01:01:19Z")
Well, there’s that, and (knowledge obtained solely from occasionally reading posts to a ‘hobbyist’ website), I have to question whether the majority of US-based hookers, or their customers, for that matter, have unprotected sex these days. Perhaps the skankiest street vendors do otherwise, but from what I’ve read, the more expensive providers generally insist on taking precautions. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-how-busy-is-a-prostitute/423328/16 "2007-10-20T01:13:16Z")
Although I’m happily married and no longer partake in such shenanigans, I have plenty of friends who do, plus I do know quite a few working girls because I hang out in the bars. In Thailand, government condom campaigns have been so successful that finding a girl who does not insist on a condom is nigh on impossible. And it’s definitely a buyers’ market here. How busy a prostitute is depends on a variety of factors, not least of which are looks and personality. Guys are spoiled for choice, and even the most desperate back home will turn a girl down without a second thought for the slightest discernible flaw, physical or otherwise.