Can Prostitution Contribute £5.3bn To UK GDP?

That’s the figure the Office of National Statistics (ONS) came up with when asked by the EU to estimate how much prostitution contributes to the UK’s GDP. But it seems rather high, will it hold water?

In a pithy post in taxrelief4escorts.co.uk the figures are quickly torn apart. Here’s the bottom line…

“If 60,879 prostitutes really are generating £5,314,000,000 of income that means an average income before expenses of £87,000 each. OK they may not get all of that because some of it will go to agency owners, parlour managers, and assorted pimps. But I would be very surprised if there are as many as 1,000 turning over as much as £87,000 per year…

“Looked at from the other end, let’s suppose the average punter spends £1,000 per year. That would mean there are 5.3 million punters, or over 20% of the male adult population. Alternatively if 5% of men use prostitutes their average annual expenditure would need to be £4,000.

“Neither of those look credible to me.”

Full article here.

Why is this important? Because when figures like these from the Office of National Statistics become official HMRC can use them as facts for calculating tax lost through escorting. Bad figures quickly lead to bad policy.