Einar H. Dyvik
Research expert covering Nordics and global data for society, economy, and politics
Human trafficking - Statistics & Facts
Despite increased international attention and resources from states and other non-governmental institutions, the number of people falling victim to human trafficking around the world continues to grow. Between 2008 and 2019 the number of human trafficking victims identified worldwide more than quadrupled from around 30,000 to nearly 120,000. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of trafficking victims fell as travel restrictions made human trafficking more difficult, but were back at pre-pandemic levels in 2022. However, trafficking in persons is an illegal practice that is shaded in secrecy, and it is therefore nearly impossible to measure it in its entirety.
Forms of trafficking
The two primary forms of exploitation people are trafficked for are forced labor and sexual exploitation, with regional variances on the proportion of each. Although sexual exploitation remains the primary form, the prevalence of forced labor as the criminal’s motivation has grown in the last decade. This, in part, explains the rising share of male victims in human trafficking. The vast majority of trafficking victims trafficked for this purpose are men, some 68 percent in 2020.Trafficking in women
While the majority of men are trafficked for forced labor purposes, women are primarily victims of sexual exploitation, with over 90 percent of people trafficked for this purpose in 2020 being women. Whilst forced labor and exploitation of other forms certainly are an issue, the disturbing images of women falling victim to the global sex trade remain as omnipresent as ever. In the United States, the sheer number of female victims is reflected in the dominant share of women in calls to the national hotline for victims of human trafficking. Moreover, there are also significant gender differences among the victims of forced labor; while women often are recruited for domestic work as well as illicit purposes, men are overrepresented in the construction industry.Fight against human trafficking
On the international level, South and Central Asia was the region with the highest number of trafficking victims in 2022. Despite this, the highest number of prosecutions related to human trafficking in 2021 were conducted in East Asia and the Pacific. Accordingly, these prosecutions resulted in numerous convictions. With the number of convictions worldwide more than doubling between 2009 and 2019, there is some reason to believe that improvements are being made in removing the terror of human trafficking and exploitation from many of the world’s most vulnerable people. However, as the number of cases fell with the pandemic, so did the number of convictions, and it is assumed that the number of traffickers continues to be far higher than those prosecuted and convicted.
