In 2023, the highest number of victims of human trafficking was found in South and Central Asia, reaching an estimated 50 million victims. The second highest number of victims was found in Europe. Reporting on human trafficking varies from year to year due to the nature of the crime.

In 2022, more than 115,000 victims of human trafficking were identified worldwide. This is 25,000 more than in the previous year, and the second highest during the period of consideration. The number of human trafficking victims has significantly increased in the past decade.

Between 2003 and 2022, women were the majority of sex trafficking victims in almost every world region. In Southern Europe, 88 percent of people forced to engage in sex against their will were women. Australia and New Zealand was the only region where men constituted a larger share of sex trafficking victims, with 91 percent.

This research project developed and fully documented a method to estimate the number of females and males trafficked for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation from eight countries (Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, and Venezuela) into the United States at the Southwest border. The model utilizes only open source data. This research represents the first phase of a two-phase project and Provides a conceptual framework for identifying potential data sources to estimate the number of victims at different stages in traffickingDevelops statistical models to estimate the number of males and females at risk of being trafficked for sexual and labor exploitation from the eight countries, and the number of males and females actually trafficked for sex and laborIncorporates into the estimation models the transit journey of trafficking victims from the eight countries to the southwest border of the United StatesDesigns the estimation models such that they are highly flexible and modular so that they can evolve as the body of data expands Utilizes open source data as inputs to the statistical model, making the model accessible to anyone interested in using itPresents preliminary estimates that illustrate the use of the statistical methodsIlluminates gaps in data sources. The data included in this collection are the open source data which were primarily used in the models to estimate the number of males and females at risk of being trafficked.

In 2022, a total of 5,600 human traffickers were convicted worldwide. This is a small increase of around 300 convictions from the year before. Still, the level of convictions is much lower than in the years before COVID-19.

In 2020, the share of victims of human trafficking who were trafficked for sexual exploitation fell from 50 to 39 percent. In most of the years between 2008 and 2018, the share was between 50 and 60 percent. Since 2011, around 40 percent of the victims were trafficked for forced labor.

In 2022, over 15,000 prosecutions related to human trafficking were reported worldwide. This is around 5,000 more prosecutions than the year before, but less than the record year of 2015, when 19,000 prosecutions were reported.

In 2020, men made up the majority of people convicted for human trafficking in every world region except two. The Most notable exception was Central Asia, where 85 percent were women. The other exception was East Asia and the Pacific, where 56 percent were women.

Since 2004, a higher share of the victims of trafficking are men and children. While around three in four of the victims in 2004 were women, the share had fallen to almost 40 percent in 2020. By comparison, the share of victims who were men had increased by 10 percentage points. Moreover, 35 percent of the trafficking victims were children, pretty evenly divided between girls and boys.

These datasets contain information on child labor and forced labor worldwide from ILAB’s three flagship reports: Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor; List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor ; and List of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor. There are 14 tables containing data from the 2015 and 2016 reporting cycle and 11 tables from the 2014 reporting cycle. This information is also available in ILAB’s new app, Sweat & Toil: Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking Around the World. For more information, see ILAB’s International Child Labor and Forced Labor Reports page: http://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/.

Sociodemographic profile of victims in the period 2010–2020 (n = 87003).

Some existing human trafficking research examines how trafficking laws and regulations deter traffickers. This research, however, pays little attention to how states’ freedom of movement policies influences human trafficking. Existing policy debates suggest two possible effects. Europe’s experiences with open borders have led to claims that freedom of movement decreases the likelihood that traffickers are detected, thus making human trafficking in and out of states more likely. By contrast, movement restrictions could create an environment where people become more vulnerable to traffickers. We utilize data from 182 countries from 2001 to 2017 to test whether freedom of movement increases or decreases human trafficking flows. We find that it is necessary, theoretically and empirically, to consider freedom of foreign movement both locally and in a state’s neighborhood because freedom of movement increases human trafficking when the local and neighborhood practices diverge from each other.

The share of children of the victims of human trafficking in the world varies greatly from region to region. In Central America and the Caribbean, more than 70 percent of the victims were children, and nearly 60 percent of all the victims were girls. Children also made up a majority of the victims in North and Sub-Saharan Africa, and in the former, the share of boys was slightly higher than the share of girls. In many regions, women made up a majority of the victims, but in Eastern Europe, nearly two thirds were men.

Background: Human trafficking occurs all over the world and its true extent is still unknown. What we know is that the actual number of trafficked persons is significantly higher than the number of registered cases in Europe or anywhere else. Human trafficking is particularly likely among refugees, as they easily fall for false promises due to language barriers, lack of knowledge on the local culture and difficult living conditions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to create a screening tool to identify survivors of human trafficking among refugees in a German state registration and reception centre. Method: In a joint project with the Ministry of Justice of Baden-Württemberg and the Regional Administrative Authority of Karlsruhe (“Regierungspräsidium”), we asked new arrivals at the initial reception centre in Heidelberg on a weekly basis from December 2021 to June 2022 about their experiences with human trafficking. We used a combination of the eight questions of the Adult Human Trafficking Screening Tool and one screening question borrowed from a publication by Mumma et al. to address all forms of exploitation. If trafficking indeed was the case, was validated by face-to-face contacts with forced migrants screened positive. Results: Overall, 13 of the 176 asylum seekers had experienced trafficking, which corresponded to a prevalence of 7.3%. The dichotomous questionnaire had a sensitivity of 76.9% and a specificity of 84.0% at a newly selected cut-off of six positive responses. In an exploratory descriptive analysis on subregions, refugees from West Africa had a substantially higher prevalence (33.3%) for trafficking in human beings within our sample and in this subgroup, mainly female refugees were affected by trafficking. In comparison, there were hardly any gender differences in the represented parts of the rest of the world in our study. Conclusion: The modified form of the AHTST distinguishes reliably those who had experienced human trafficking from other refugees. The high prevalence of trafficking in most regions, regardless of gender, suggests that more effort is needed to identify and protect trafficked persons.

Financial overview and grant giving statistics of Alight-Alliance to Lead Impact in Global Human Trafficking

This paper investigates the impact of legalized prostitution on human trafficking inflows. According to economic theory, there are two opposing effects of unknown magnitude. The scale effect of legalized prostitution leads to an expansion of the prostitution market, increasing human trafficking, while the substitution effect reduces demand for trafficked women as legal prostitutes are favored over trafficked ones. Our empirical analysis for a cross-section of up to 150 countries shows that the scale effect dominates the substitution effect. On average, countries where prostitution is legal experience larger reported human trafficking inflows.

Around 6,000 prosecution cases related to human trafficking were reported in South and Central Asia in 2023. Millions of victims of human trafficking are detected worldwide every year.

These datasets contain information on child labor and forced labor worldwide from ILAB’s three flagship reports: Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor; List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor; and List of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor. There are 14 tables containing data from the 2015-2019 reporting cycles and 11 tables from the 2014 reporting cycle. ILAB plans to update the structure of the API. This information is also available in ILAB’s app, Sweat & Toil: Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking Around the World. For more information, see ILAB’s International Child Labor and Forced Labor Reports page. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/findings https://developer.dol.gov/others/sweat-and-toil/

This manuscript presents the Human Trafficking Indicators (HTI), a new dataset on human trafficking patterns and government anti-trafficking efforts in 179 countries from 2000 to 2011. This is the first dataset to broadly capture different trafficking types and disaggregated measures of government responses. These data enable the cross-national study of seven types of trafficking including forced prostitution, labor, domestic servitude, and debt bondage. The HTI also includes measures of a government's law enforcement efforts, protective services, and prevention efforts. This paper presents an overview of the dataset, some initial trends, and implications for trafficking research.

Goal 16Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levelsTarget 16.1: Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhereIndicator 16.1.1: Number of victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population, by sex and ageVC_IHR_PSRC: Number of victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population, by sex (victims per 100,000 population)VC_IHR_PSRCN: Number of victims of intentional homicide, by sex (number)Indicator 16.1.2: Conflict-related deaths per 100,000 population, by sex, age and causeVC_DTH_TOCV: Number of conflict-related deaths (civilians) per 100,000 population (Per 100,000 population)VC_DTH_TOCVN: Number of conflict-related deaths (civilians), by sex, age and cause of death (Number)VC_DTH_TOCVR: Conflict-related death rate (civilians), by sex, age and cause of death (%)Indicator 16.1.3: Proportion of population subjected to (a) physical violence, (b) psychological violence and (c) sexual violence in the previous 12 monthsVC_VOV_PHYL: Proportion of population subjected to physical violence in the previous 12 months, by sex (%)VC_VOV_ROBB: Proportion of population subjected to robbery in the previous 12 months, by sex (%)VC_VOV_SEXL: Proportion of population subjected to sexual violence in the previous 12 months, by sex (%)Indicator 16.1.4: Proportion of population that feel safe walking alone around the area they liveVC_SNS_WALN: Proportion of population that feel safe walking alone around the area they live (%)Target 16.2: End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of childrenIndicator 16.2.1: Proportion of children aged 1–17 years who experienced any physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past monthVC_VAW_PHYPYV: Proportion of children aged 1-14 years who experienced physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in last month (% of children aged 1-14 years)Indicator 16.2.2: Number of victims of human trafficking per 100,000 population, by sex, age and form of exploitationVC_HTF_DETVFL: Detected victims of human trafficking for forced labour, servitude and slavery, by age and sex (number)VC_HTF_DETVOP: Detected victims of human trafficking for other purposes, by age and sex (number)VC_HTF_DETVOG: Detected victims of human trafficking for removal of organ, by age and sex (number)VC_HTF_DETVSX: Detected victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitaton, by age and sex (number)VC_HTF_DETV: Detected victims of human trafficking, by age and sex (number)Indicator 16.2.3: Proportion of young women and men aged 18–29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18VC_VAW_SXVLN: Proportion of population aged 18-29 years who experienced sexual violence by age 18, by sex (% of population aged 18-29)Target 16.3: Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for allIndicator 16.3.1: Proportion of victims of violence in the previous 12 months who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanismsVC_PRR_PHYV: Police reporting rate for physical assault, by sex (%)VC_PRR_SEXV: Police reporting rate for sexual assault, by sex (%)VC_PRR_ROBB: Police reporting rate for robbery, by sex (%)Indicator 16.3.2: Unsentenced detainees as a proportion of overall prison populationVC_PRS_UNSNT: Unsentenced detainees as a proportion of overall prison population (%)Indicator 16.3.3: Proportion of the population who have experienced a dispute in the past two years and who accessed a formal or informal dispute resolution mechanism, by type of mechanismTarget 16.4: By 2030, significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows, strengthen the recovery and return of stolen assets and combat all forms of organized crimeIndicator 16.4.1: Total value of inward and outward illicit financial flows (in current United States dollars)Indicator 16.4.2: Proportion of seized, found or surrendered arms whose illicit origin or context has been traced or established by a competent authority in line with international instrumentsVC_ARM_SZTRACE: Proportion of seized, found or surrendered arms whose illicit origin or context has been traced or established by a competent authority in line with international instrumentsTarget 16.5: Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their formsIndicator 16.5.1: Proportion of persons who had at least one contact with a public official and who paid a bribe to a public official, or were asked for a bribe by those public officials, during the previous 12 monthsIU_COR_BRIB: Prevalence rate of bribery, by sex (%)Indicator 16.5.2: Proportion of businesses that had at least one contact with a public official and that paid a bribe to a public official, or were asked for a bribe by those public officials during the previous 12 monthsIC_FRM_BRIB: Bribery incidence (% of firms experiencing at least one bribe payment request)Target 16.6: Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levelsIndicator 16.6.1: Primary government expenditures as a proportion of original approved budget, by sector (or by budget codes or similar)GF_XPD_GBPC: Primary government expenditures as a proportion of original approved budget (%)Indicator 16.6.2: Proportion of population satisfied with their last experience of public servicesTarget 16.7: Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levelsIndicator 16.7.1: Proportions of positions in national and local institutions, including (a) the legislatures; (b) the public service; and (c) the judiciary, compared to national distributions, by sex, age, persons with disabilities and population groupsSG_DMK_PARLCC_JC: Number of chairs of permanent committees, by age sex and focus of the committee, Joint CommitteesSG_DMK_PARLMP_LC: Ratio for female members of parliaments (Ratio of the proportion of women in parliament in the proportion of women in the national population with the age of eligibility as a lower bound boundary), Lower Chamber or UnicameralSG_DMK_PARLSP_LC: Number of speakers in parliament, by age and sex , Lower Chamber or UnicameralSG_DMK_PARLCC_LC: Number of chairs of permanent committees, by age sex and focus of the committee, Lower Chamber or UnicameralSG_DMK_PARLMP_UC: Ratio for female members of parliaments (Ratio of the proportion of women in parliament in the proportion of women in the national population with the age of eligibility as a lower bound boundary), Upper ChamberSG_DMK_PARLSP_UC: Number of speakers in parliament, by age and sex, Upper ChamberSG_DMK_PARLCC_UC: Number of chairs of permanent committees, by age sex and focus of the committee, Upper ChamberSG_DMK_PARLYR_LC: Ratio of young members in parliament (Ratio of the proportion of young members in parliament (age 45 or below) in the proportion of the national population (age 45 or below) with the age of eligibility as a lower bound boundary), Lower Chamber or UnicameralSG_DMK_PARLYP_LC: Proportion of youth in parliament (age 45 or below), Lower Chamber or Unicameral (%)SG_DMK_PARLYN_LC: Number of youth in parliament (age 45 or below), Lower Chamber or Unicameral (Number)SG_DMK_PARLYR_UC: Ratio of young members in parliament (Ratio of the proportion of young members in parliament (age 45 or below) in the proportion of the national population (age 45 or below) with the age of eligibility as a lower bound boundary), Upper ChamberSG_DMK_PARLYP_UC: Proportion of youth in parliament (age 45 or below), Upper Chamber (%)SG_DMK_PARLYN_UC: Number of youth in parliament (age 45 or below), Upper Chamber (Number)Indicator 16.7.2: Proportion of population who believe decision-making is inclusive and responsive, by sex, age, disability and population groupTarget 16.8: Broaden and strengthen the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governanceIndicator 16.8.1: Proportion of members and voting rights of developing countries in international organizationsSG_INT_MBRDEV: Proportion of members of developing countries in international organizations, by organization (%)SG_INT_VRTDEV: Proportion of voting rights of developing countries in international organizations, by organization (%)Target 16.9: By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registrationIndicator 16.9.1: Proportion of children under 5 years of age whose births have been registered with a civil authority, by ageSG_REG_BRTH: Proportion of children under 5 years of age whose births have been registered with a civil authority (% of children under 5 years of age)Target 16.10: Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreementsIndicator 16.10.1: Number of verified cases of killing, kidnapping, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and torture of journalists, associated media personnel, trade unionists and human rights advocates in the previous 12 monthsVC_VAW_MTUHRA: Number of cases of killings of human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionistsVC_VOC_ENFDIS: Number of cases of enforced disappearance of human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists (Number)Indicator 16.10.2: Number of countries that adopt and implement constitutional, statutory and/or policy guarantees for public access to informationSG_INF_ACCSS: Countries that adopt and implement constitutional, statutory and/or policy guarantees for public access to informationTarget 16.a: Strengthen relevant national institutions, including through international cooperation, for building capacity at all levels, in particular in developing countries, to prevent violence and combat terrorism and crimeIndicator 16.a.1: Existence of independent national human rights institutions in compliance with the Paris PrinciplesSG_NHR_IMPL: Proportion of